Chicago City Wire

Conservative activists with Chicago Flips Red and Trump MAGA Republicans of Illinois are planning a protest outside the Edgewater Public Library on Monday, June 9, in response to a Drag Story Time event hosted as part of the library system’s Pride Month programming.

South Side activist David Dewar, a former Democratic primary candidate and founder of Trump MAGA Republicans of Illinois, will lead the protest at the Edgewater branch.

“This is just another drag queen story hour to the kids,” Dewar told Chicago City Wire. 

Dewar, a vocal critic of Pride programming for children, confirmed plans to protest outside the library beginning at 10 a.m.

The story hour is set to take place from 11 a.m. to noon at the Edgewater branch, located at 6000 N. Broadway. 

“Join us for a special story time where we share songs, rhymes, finger plays, books, movement and music with a guest drag performer!” the event listing on Chicago Public Library’s website reads. 

The event will feature a drag queen interacting with children aged 0 to 5. 

“From zero to five—that’s appalling,” Dewar said. “They're not even at a developmental stage to make decisions, and now they're coming after the kids.”

The event is part of the library’s ongoing Pride Month programming. 

As “Pride Month” events continue across Chicago’s public library branches, conservatives like Chicago Flips Red, a conservative Black activist group, and Dewar have noted their intent to continue protesting such events. 

“There's going to be quite a few throughout the city this month,” Dewar said. 

Dewar praised Chicago Flips Red, calling the group “a big deal.”

“They're very prominent in the—for probably a year and a half—Chicago Flips Red,” he said. “They're African-American women, and one of them was invited out to Washington, D.C. a couple of years ago, or a couple of months ago. So they're being followed nationally through Fox News and other social—or other media outlets—nationally, so they're a big deal.”

Dewar was a leading figure at the protest against a similar Drag Story Hour held June 3 at the Beverly branch. 

He and others, including activists from Chicago Flips Red and the Trump Illinois MAGA Official Facebook page, demonstrated outside the 95th Street location, calling the programming a misuse of taxpayer money.

Critics of the Drag Story Time event, like Dewar and activist Zoe Leigh, argue the programming promotes ideology rather than literacy. 

Now the activists are turning their focus to Edgewater.

For Dewar, the concern goes beyond one library event. He sees it as part of a broader cultural and political agenda.

“With the policies out there, there's no parental notification, meaning that anyone 18 or younger in Illinois can get a sex change or an abortion without the parents' knowledge and now what they're doing is they're going all the way from newborns to five years old,” Dewar previously told Chicago City Wire.