Major book publisher partners with Drag Story Hour to promote surgical mutilation to kids: 'YOU define your body!'

A major book publishing company recently donated books promoting so-called sex-change surgery to kids as part of an Indigenous Drag Story Hour hosted by drag queens.

Last month, Drag Story Hour — a nonprofit dedicated to "Queer world-making! Yassifying story times and threatening ignorance since 2015," according to its Instagram account — hosted an Indigenous Drag Story Hour event which featured children as young as infants. According to the Drag Story Hour Instagram account, as part of the event, men adorned in lavish costumes and make-up to create caricatures of women shared books donated by Penguin Random House, one of the largest book publishing companies in the world.

"Penguin Random House gave us books for our Indigenous Drag Story Hour," said a caption in the Drag Story Hour Instagram video of the event. "So many great titles!"

In the video, parents and children can be seen waving at the camera and proudly displaying the books. "Thank you!" the group says in unison, ostensibly to PRH, which had been tagged in the post.

Among the "great titles" shared at the event was "Bodies Are Cool," written and illustrated by Tyler Feder. The PRH website calls it a "book for preschoolers" and lists it under the categories "children's nonfiction," "children's wellness & social topics," and "children's picture books."

According to a post from an X user known as the Based Librarian, "Bodies Are Cool" features cartoon images of women with noticeable double-mastectomy scars from so-called "top surgery." In the drawings, these women present themselves as men, walking around shirtless and sporting male haircuts.

"This body, that body, his and her and their body. However YOU define your body! Bodies are cool!" the text accompanying the picture reads.

Feder did not immediately respond to Blaze News' request for comment.

Penguin Random House has a partnership with Drag Queen Story Hour that goes back at least four years. In 2019, PRH proudly lent its name to a Library After Hours: Pride event sponsored by the New York Public Library. A PRH write-up about the event bragged that attendees, many of whom were likely minors, could enjoy "performances" from several drag queens, including one named Cétait BonTemps, a French phrase which roughly translates to "It Was a Good Time"; "explore the NYC Trans Oral History Project"; and engage in other forms of "learning and entertainment."

Last June, which some call Pride Month, PRH launched a website dedicated exclusively to "LGBTQ+" books as part of its "evergreen" devotion to Pride. "While we’re launching this site to coincide with Pride 2023," Adam Royce, vice president of creative strategy, said at the time, "our vision is for this to be an always evolving and ever-growing destination that celebrates queer voices every day of the year—reinforcing our commitment to publishing (and amplifying!) books for everyone."

Blaze News sent email requests for comment to three different PRH divisions but did not receive a statement from any of them. One division responded to say that the email had possibly been misdirected. The other divisions did not reply.

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