Pride and prejudice in a small Adirondack town

How Lake Luzerne’s drag queen controversy sparked change, as the community works to heal divides from 2 years ago

By David Escobar

When Lake Luzerne’s Rockwell Falls Public Library reopened its doors in March 2024, it had to reconcile with a series of events that shook this small Adirondack community to its core.

Almost a year prior, a proposed drag queen story hour event at the rural library sparked protests, a violent incident at a board meeting and a bomb threat.

The event was ultimately canceled, and multiple board member and staff resignations forced the library to close. Neighbors criticized each other online and in person, and the question remained: How could this community, and its library, pick up the pieces?

Turning a debate into art

Playwright Neal Herr from Glens Falls wants to draw attention to a missing piece of the story. At the time, he read a news article that cited “disagreements between the community and the board” as the primary reason for the closure. Herr felt the article overlooked the hateful and homophobic rhetoric directed at the drag performer and supporters and LGBTQ+ community members.

“When something like that becomes public and you take sides in a small town, it is really a battle in the culture wars and identity of the small town,” Herr said.

Herr, who is straight but describes himself a queer ally, channeled his frustration into the script for “Drag Queen Story Hour: The Musical.” The play is set to premiere at the Charles R. Wood Theater in Glens Falls in June. While the Rockwell Falls Public Library event inspired him, the musical also tackles a broader issue: how LGBTQ+ book bans and drag performances have polarized small towns across the United States.

RELATED READING: Controversial library closure inspires new musical in upstate New York

National debate hits small town

The Rockwell Falls Public Library protest was not an isolated incident. According to a study by GLAAD and the Anti-Defamation League, at least 160 anti-LGBTQ protests and threats targeting drag performances have occurred since 2022 across the United States. Concurrently, data from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project shows incidents of anti-LGBTQ demonstrations, propaganda dissemination and violence have been on the rise since 2021.

The Rockwell Falls Public Library, perched atop a hill overlooking a waterfall on the Hudson River, became an unlikely flashpoint in this growing cultural battle. The space serves a wide collection of towns—consisting of Lake Luzerne, its sister town Hadley and other rural communities along the Great Sacandaga Lake. With fewer than 7,000 people, locals say the region is a tight-knit place that rarely gains or loses residents.

The turmoil began when the library contracted with Jake Evans, a former graduate student at the University of Albany, to lead a drag story hour for children ages 3–7. Performing under the name Scarlet Sagamore, Evans planned to read three books while dressed as a woman.

The library promoted the event on its Facebook page a week before its scheduled date in early April 2023, triggering an outpouring of support and opposition.

A community divided

During a board meeting days before the event, vocal protesters, including local pastor Josh Jacquard, condemned the program.

Jacquard asked the board of trustees why it was allowing what he called “transvestite story hour,” a term many in the LGBTQ community find offensive.

He was partially concerned over a book titled “Red: A Crayon’s Story,” which is about a blue crayon that suffers an identity crisis when it is mistakenly labeled “red.” Its author says the picture book is an allegory for his personal journey overcoming dyslexia, but some groups have pushed to ban the book, claiming it inappropriately discusses themes of gender identity.

Jacquard, who was elected to the library’s board shortly after protesting the drag queen story hour, said he was one of many community members who were upset about the proposed event.

Two years later, Jacquard’s views about the planned event remain steadfast. In a statement, he wrote he was upset the library was using taxpayer money to fund an event that pushed a “specific message” rather than providing resources and programs that serve everyone. He said the library’s drag story hour event was divisive and ultimately not age-appropriate for children like his young daughter.

“Kids are impressionable, and introducing them to topics like gender identity at a young age can be confusing and even harmful,” said Jacquard, adding that his homeschooled children frequent the library.

The debate escalates

Some community members stood by the library’s programming choices. Longtime Lake Luzerne resident Jade Eddy, who has since moved to the Glens Falls area, sat alongside protestors during multiple board meetings and played a mediator role. She contacted Evans, who was getting online death threats, to offer her support and learn about his plans for the drag story hour performance.

When Eddy relayed Evans’ idea for the performance to protestors at the meeting, likening the story hour to a theatrical event, her attempts to diffuse the situation did not go well. She left the initial board meeting in tears after hearing homophobic and bigoted things uttered by her neighbors.

“It was like pitchforks and torches,” she said. “To see that ugliness come out of the town, it just shattered my reality.”

Evans has relocated to Texas and did not respond to multiple interview requests. Eddy said the fallout of the canceled drag queen story hour event was traumatic for Evans and for members of the LGBTQ community around Lake Luzerne, who felt unsafe and unwanted.

“To know that there are community members who don’t feel welcome and part of the community like everybody else, just because they love who they love. It baffles my mind,” Eddy said.

Chaos continued to engulf the library after the initial protest. In July 2023, the library’s director reported drag protestors were harassing staff members. Two months later, the director and another staff member resigned, and board members failed to agree on new hires. The library closed in September.

By November, three trustees had resigned, meaning the board no longer had enough members for a quorum. A physical altercation broke out at the end of a board meeting, bringing the police.

Without enough board members, the State Board of Regents stepped in and appointed three new board members in December 2023, including Hadley resident Maggie Hartley.

“The closing of the library was the last straw for me,” she said. “We don’t have a coffee shop, we don’t have a community center, we don’t have a lot of stuff. But the library is really important for the kids, for grown-ups, for teens. It’s the heart of the community.”

State data shows economically disadvantaged students make up the majority of students in the Hadley-Luzerne Central School District. The town’s internet access is subpar. Other residents struggle with food insecurity. Hartley said the library’s computers and “Farm-2-Library” food program are a lifeline for many in the community.

Rebuilding a community

After the drag queen story hour was first postponed and then never rescheduled, several locals formed the Upper Hudson Queer Alliance (UHQA) to organize the town’s first Pride event. The two-day picnic in June 2023, called “Pride is Alive,” featured a drag queen story hour around the corner from the library.

Hadley resident and UHQA board member Cal Fjell attended the celebration, which for them felt like a powerful gesture for queer youth in Hadley and Lake Luzerne. As in many small rural communities, young people who dress differently or whose interests fall outside gender norms are ostracized, Fjell said.

“They do get bullied by their peers, just for that, regardless of their identity,” Fjell said. “So actual queer youth see that, and they’re less likely to feel comfortable being out and open.”

Curtis Jones, the co-founder of UHQA, said the organization has uplifted the town’s queer community members by hosting regular social events, including some at the library. Jones believes that moment two years ago doesn’t define the town.

“The library didn’t close because most people in the town hate gay people,” Jones said. “The library closed because a small minority of people chose to make threats against people based on support of trans rights and gay rights.”

Since reopening its doors in March 2024, both the morale and the walls of the Rockwell Falls Public Library have become more lively.

Longtime Hadley resident Marion Allan, the library’s new director, spearheaded a project to add a teen room, which opened in January. Rows of colorful young adult novels, including books with LGBTQ themes, line the shelves of the newly renovated space. Residents lounge in cozy nooks and on couches sprawled across the library, with crowds of children rushing to the library’s desktop computers after the school day.

“Right now, the library is more of a vibrant place than I have ever seen it,” Hartley said.

The library today

Policies have changed at the library, too. Before its closure in September 2023, library board members passed a resolution against book bans, something board president Ted Mirczak said he hopes will prevent future drama at the library.

“We’re in a position to say, ‘Hey, you don’t like a book that’s on the shelves? Don’t read it. Don’t take it out,’” Mirczak said.

Allan said the library’s new board has supported staff in its effort to increase programming and continue capital improvements. One of the biggest undertakings, she said, is rebuilding rapport with the community, a task she believes she is well-equipped for as a lifelong local.

“I really want people to know that they’re welcome,” Allan said. “I think people just have to see it over time.”

Jacquard said the library’s trustees and staff are working hard to move forward and build a new culture at the library, which he said will continue to serve patrons of all political and social backgrounds.

RELATED READING: Libraries adapt to changing needs

As for “Drag Queen Story Hour: The Musical,” Hartley expects some community members to hold negative sentiments toward the musical, feeling it recalls a bad time for the town that landed its library in the national spotlight. But, much like the books on the library’s shelves, she sees the musical as a form of storytelling rather than a strict historical record.

“It’s something that happened,” she said. “It was kind of an outrageous thing that happened, and anybody has the right to write something about it or fictionalize it.”

Photo at top: Drag artist Jake Evans performs at Waterworks Pub in Albany in 2023. Evans was set to read to children for a drag queen story hour at Rockwell Falls Public Library before trustee members and members of the public spoke out against it. Photo by Cindy Schultz

David Escobar is a Report For America Corps Member. He reports on diversity issues in the Adirondacks through a partnership between North Country Public Radio and Adirondack Explorer.