Dupage Policy Journal

Downers Grove resident Brian Sewell shared his disappointment with the Downers Grove Village Board regarding the recently cancelled “Drag Queen Bingo” event at Downers Grove Public Library (DGPL). 

Sewell said the town has been corrupted by extremists.

“I think we can scrape the Americans' top 10 friendliest village stickers off the windows of the community business,” Sewell said in a speech written for the meeting. “The culture wars have come to the village with radicals who preach diversity but foam at the mouth when people do not support their views leading the charge. The vitriol on social media about the drag queen bingo is astounding. The rabble has been activated.” 

Sewell said the Downers Grove Library and the American system of publicly funded libraries has been corrupted.

“(It) sees its core mission as promoting any and all of the most radical progressive ideologies,” Sewell said. “Our director, who has never heard a progressive cause she won’t use the library to promote – BLM, defunding the police, racial animus, DEI – lacks the required good judgment to effectively execute her duties. Drag Queen Bingo, scheduled for October is coming to our library and will include a drag show for kids. Under the guises of DEI, we are inviting a man who dresses as a woman to perform a drag show for our children. Drag’s essence is in gender confusion and sex. It is not possible to reformat it for children. You must redefine the meaning of the word 'sexual' to claim a drag show is not sexual. I shudder to think what idea will be proposed next. If we don’t do this 'important work,' we are told we are contributing to an exclusionary environment that drives record suicide rates in children. Poppycock! These are the same arguments used by 'medical experts' who violate their Hippocratic oath and butcher and chemically castrate gender confused kids. These polices have failed and are being curtailed elsewhere in the world but in the U.S. the gender and equity industrial complex pedals quack science.”

He said children deserve love and understanding when they are struggling.

“Drag Queen Bingo will not reduce suicide any more than not having it will result in suicide,” Sewell said. “We need leadership that can look at an event like this and say 'No, a 300-pound man clad in a latex tele tubby suit pretending to be a woman is grooming and not appropriate for children.' I don’t care what the activists, experts and even the cheering sexually confused kids say.”

Sewell also said not to accept that the council has no responsibility for this event.

“The library board is appointed by the village council,” he said. “There are consequences to your appointments. The library board is not balanced nor diverse. It is only effective only if the goal is to push the worst of the progressive agenda down our kids throats. If you can stomach it, watch a DGPL board meeting or two. The votes are unanimously unanimous. Board imbalance drives poor policies. Sadly, it is radical and progressive and this should be corrected when you fill the vacant library board seat. Stop listening to the radical minority that threaten you on social media if you do not immediately cowtow to their demands. They are cowards who seek to threaten and coerce their way to a progressive Utopia via obnoxious social media chatter on the mayor's Facebook page. If any of you keyboard warriors engaged in harassing the mayor and other community members this weekend are listening: The library has a social worker that can put you in touch with the mental health services you clearly require. I call upon the board to appoint based on merit and diversity of opinion to provide a Bulwark to some of civilization's worst ideas. The current library board does not reflect the views of the community any more than the keyboard warriors who flood your social media feeds do.”  

Sewell is just one of those who spoke over a two-hour period at a Downers Grove Village Council meeting.

A disagreement over the library's sponsorship of a late-night drag show performer, who is slated to entertain children, sparked the criticism.

A drag presentation that will be a part of a "Drag Queen Bingo" night at the Downers Grove Public Library is open to students in grades seven through 12.

A game of Drag Queen Bingo will be hosted and performed by drag queen Aurora Divine, who is most known for her late-night presentations with an adult theme.

It was scheduled to happen from 7 to 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 11 but was canceled after uproar and alleged threats from both sides of the aisle, the DuPage Policy Journal reported.

In response "to the community’s feedback at large, clarify questions around the event and identify misconceptions that are being spread throughout various outlets," DGPL said in a statement issued to the neighborhood last week, which defended the event.