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(LifeSiteNews) — A woman who once identified as a transgender man recently read a children’s book based on the Biblical teaching of gender to a crowd of 500, greatly outnumbering a small group of LGBT activists seeking to ruin the event.
Laura Perry Smalts, who took cross-sex hormones and underwent a double mastectomy during an eight-year struggle with her identity, returned to her Christian faith and began sharing her story in 2016. Last week, she was joined by 500 parents and children in Fayetteville, Arkansas for her reading of a book titled “Elephants Are Not Birds.”
Smalts was invited to participate in the event alongside Christian actor and author Kirk Cameron, who was reading from his book “As You Grow.”
The children’s story, published by Brave Books and written by Ashley St. Clair, follows a young elephant who is told that he can become a bird, equating feelings with truth. However, the elephant’s friend eventually helps him embrace the reality and gift of how he was created. The book gained considerable attention after its publication in 2021 for its blatant rejection of transgender ideology and embrace of truth.
Smalts shared with Friday’s audience that her Christian faith was the key to rejecting cultural lies about sex and gender, leading her to understand and embrace her identity as a daughter of God.
“I want kids and parents to hear the truth about transgender identities from someone who has gone through it,” Smalts said after the story hour. “I want to warn parents that it is dangerous to allow children to ‘transition.’ Most parents are uninformed about the realities of medical transition and the dangerous path their child is being enticed to go down.”
However, not all in attendance were supporting conservative Christian values. According to a report from the Post Millennial, a group of LGBT activists also showed up to the Fayetteville Public Library dressed in drag resembling the attire of nuns. The activists stood outside the venue and walked through the crowd with signs reading “Is cashing in on ‘Christian’ hate a fruit of the spirit?” and “Is it ‘brave’ to make trans kids afraid?”
Brave Books posted a video clip on Twitter that shows five protesters, at least two of whom are dressed in heavy makeup and drag costumes.
“A black drag queen nun in whiteface brags about stepping on ‘poor tiny blonde white girl,’” the caption reads. “He is a part of ‘The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence of the Arkansas Chapter of Hillbilly Harlots.’ This hateful group, dressed to disturb children, were angry when Kirk Cameron brought up God and faith with the children and parents during our BRAVE Story hour.”
A black drag queen nun in whiteface brags about stepping on “poor tiny blonde white girl.”
He is a part of “The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence of the Arkansas Chapter of Hillbilly Harlots”.
This hateful group, dressed to disturb children, were angry when Kirk Cameron brought… https://t.co/CDk2ev45SZ pic.twitter.com/NB1jv8Xouw
— BRAVE BOOKS (@BraveBooksUS) March 18, 2023
“For the group that’s all about inclusion and tolerance, they sure are hellbent on excluding families,” Cameron told The Daily Wire. “They were accusing us of scaring children with our books, but they just looked scary. It was really weird and creeping everyone out.”
The devout Christian said that this event required organizers to “increase security because of the threats that were communicated and we want to make sure that kids are not a part of any sort of dangerous protest.”
Pro-family read-aloud events are becoming a popular counter measure to the trend of taking children to drag queen story hours to be exposed to gender ideology. Public venues across the country have taken to hosting and promoting such events and advertising them for young children.
In October, the North Carolina Museum of Art canceled a taxpayer-funded drag queen story hour after public backlash. The event was inviting children as young as two years old to witness a cross-dressing man read a woke picture book. A similar event in Oregon drew groups of protesters and supporters over plans to feature an 11-year-old performer. The child did not end up performing after a national outcry of disapproval.
Meanwhile, Cameron has been rejected from offering faith-based story hours in public libraries over 50 times. In January, LifeSiteNews reported that his book readings, which were permitted in libraries, had attracted over 2,500 Americans in the months after the release of his latest children’s book “As You Grow.”
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