During the Halloween season, kids and parents from the Wichita community are invited to attend the annual HalloQueen Story Time event at the Wichita Advanced Learning Library to listen to drag queens and kings read children’s stories.

This year, the event showcased Krystal Williams and 2019 Wichita Pride Your Highness Pretty Boi Demornay, a drag queen and king, that hosted the event on Monday.

“I think entertaining children is a special thing,” Williams said. “I think literacy in our community is very important and it’s important to showcase a diverse community and exposing children to this is a really positive thing.”

Over recent years, the event stirred up controversy among Wichitans.

“I think it’s raising a lot of awareness and I also think it’s stirring up a lot of emotions,” Williams said. “It’s educating people that drag queens aren’t fakers, that we’re literally just people in costumes. There are a lot of people that think that the LGBT+ community is completely wrong, and I think that this is a good way to show that we are normal and we are still human.”

Not only does this event teach kids valuable lessons through stories, it opens up a safe place for the younger generation to learn more about the LGBT+ community.

“At least in my life with my kids, having this be more of an open conversation makes it a little bit easier on the younger generation,” Demornay said. “They don’t have to wait ’til they’re 26 to find someone to talk to about it like I did. It gives them and their parents an avenue where they can ask questions if they don’t understand.” 

“I think that exposure is good because it shows that we’re human too. This is important for the youth of our community to have a safe space that they can feel like they can be themselves. That’s the impact and that’s what we’re going for,” Williams said.

Both Williams and Demornay believe that exposing the younger generation to the diversity of the Wichita community through drag has positive benefits.

“Having people like me and other drag queens and kings coming out and showing that there is absolutely nothing weird about it is really beneficial to the younger generation,” Demornay said. “It’s completely normal and sometimes, it’s a lifestyle for us.”

Through allowing drag queens and kings to read stories to the younger generation, they hope kids and adults learn about the importance of inclusiveness that can help them understand the world in a new perspective.

“I want the youth to understand, as well as young adults, to know that everyone takes their own time and there is always someone that they can talk to about it,” Demornay said. “You just need to look and reach out. We are everywhere.”