Houston Library Allows Drag Queen Sex Offender to Read to Children
Sonny Joy Nelson
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A public library in Texas is suffering major backlash after news broke that one of the readers from “Drag Queen Storytime” is a convicted child sexual offender.
The Heights Public Library, part of the Houston Public Library system, was all smiles at the announcement of “Drag Queen Storytime” that began in July 2018, but those smiles quickly turned upside down. After management failed to stop a man who was convicted of sexually assaulting a young boy a few years ago from participating in the reading, the library system isn’t singing the praises of men in dresses reading to little kids anymore.
“Tatiana Mala Nina”, whose real name is Alberto Garza, is 32-years-old and was convicted of sexually assaulting an eight-year-old boy in 2008, according to Breitbart. He “somehow” found his way into a reading gig for the public library, where he read to numerous little boys and girls. The library is stating the Garza never had a background check completed before starting to volunteer at the public library. He was last seen reading to children at the Montrose Library in September 2018, according to ABC 13.
Let’s keep in mind that many moms who took their kids to these “Drag Queen Storytime” events were all about it. They really wanted their kids under 10-years-old to learn about people with confused sexualities. Excited to “expose them to things they don’t get to see every day, I want it to become more normal and more accepted,” one mom said of the storytimes.
Alexandra Drake, the Heights Library Assistant Manager told KHOU11, “It is amazingly unique and that is something we strive for, for sure. At this particular branch but also at Houston Public Library we always want to promote diversity, understanding, inclusion, and fun.” So, Houston Public Library is big on inclusion for sexual predators?
Simply apologizing for a ‘slip’ in the system isn’t cutting it. Do your job, city government, and maybe things like this won’t happen. This library allowed a child predator to have interaction with young kids all because they tried so hard to be overly inclusive. How’s that working out, HLP?
Houston Public Library released statement on Friday about the incident.
We were made aware today that one participant for Drag Queen storytime who read at the September 29, 2018, Drag Queen Storytime has a criminal background that should have prevented him from participating in the program.
We assure you that this participant will not be involved in any future HPL programs.
In our review of our process and of this participant, we discovered that we failed to complete a background check as required by our own guidelines. We deeply regret this oversight and the concern this may cause our customers. We realize this is a serious matter.
Every program sponsored by HPL is supervised by HPL staff, and all children are accompanied by a parent and/or guardian. No participant is ever alone with children, and we have not received any complaints about any inappropriate behavior by participants at storytimes.
We are taking the appropriate action to ensure that the status of every participant in every program throughout our system is verified. We will continue to review our process to ensure that this cannot happen again.
Once again, we apologize for our failure to adhere to our own process in this matter and to the hundreds of parents and caregivers who have enjoyed this program with their children.
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