Community members moved discourse about a recently postponed drag story hour event from cyberspace to city hall Wednesday night, where the Soldotna City Council convened for its regular meeting.
The meeting came a little over a week after Soldotna Pride announced that it would be postponing a drag story hour event that was scheduled to be held Jan. 6 at the Soldotna Public Library. After a flyer advertising the event — which also included a drag trivia night and drag karaoke — was picked up by conservative news outlets, it was met with swift backlash by community members.
Soldotna Pride on Jan. 2 announced that it was postponing the library event due to safety concerns and has not yet rescheduled.
Community members attended Wednesday’s city council meeting to continue the discussion. Of the seven people who testified Wednesday about the drag story hour event, four people opposed it in some way, while three supported it.
Jason Floyd, who owns and operates Ammo-Can Coffee Social Club in Soldotna, said he thinks that allowing a performer with a sexually explicit name to appear at the Soldotna Public Library is in violation of the section of Soldotna Municipal Code that addresses adult businesses.
“In Chapter 10 of the statute, it says no adult business shall be operated in any manner that permits the observation of any persons or material depicting, … describing — which the performer’s name described — or relating to specified sexual activities or specified anatomical areas,” Floyd said. “This was going to happen in our taxpayer-funded facility.”
Michele Vasquez, who told council members she was speaking as a member of the Soldotna Pride Council, said Ivanna Kischacok was never slated to participate in the drag story hour, although she said that was not made clear from the event flyers distributed. Soldotna Pride, she said, followed the library’s rules for the space, including submitting an application alongside a list of book titles that would be read.
“We also have the First Amendment right to freely assemble and express ourselves,” Vazquez said. “If you don’t want to bring your children or grandchildren, don’t, but you cannot stop us from existing in this world.”
Multiple council members addressed the library event during their closing comments.
Council member Dave Carey floated the idea of starting a working group to review “community standards” and what is appropriate to present to children on city property. City leaders have a responsibility to respond to community concerns, he said, but it is not productive to disparage the entire city.
“I do not find it helpful to build civility or to promote discussion of issues in which there is disagreement by simply castigating one entire community,” Carey said. “I was offended.”
Council member Chera Wackler cautioned council members against working to restrict speech and said city spaces should be inclusive and available to all.
“I truly believe that the freedoms afforded to us are what make living in a community colorful and beautiful,” Wackler said. “I just want to be really careful when we’re talking about taking away speech and books and organizations and who’s allowed and who’s not allowed to be in public spaces.”
Noble Cassidy, a student at Soldotna High School who serves as the student representative to the council, said it is important for people to talk through differences because he doesn’t think contention “gets people anywhere.”
“Kids seeing adults fight over things and be contentious with one another is only going to make things worse for my generation,” Cassidy said. “The kids I see in school fighting over things, swearing at each other, arguing over these useless things that might even only exist in high school — that’s not the world we want to live in. I’m really glad that people from both sides of this discussion about the Jan. 6 event came in and talked about it.”
Wednesday’s Soldotna City Council meeting is available to stream on the city’s YouTube channel.
Reach reporter Ashlyn O’Hara at ashlyn.ohara@peninsulaclarion.com.
