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Cumberland City Councillor Steve Christou has doubled down on his motion to reject drag queen story time events after Local Government NSW encouraged councils to host more LGBT events.
Mr Christou appeared on Sky News Australia on Friday evening after his local council in western Sydney on Wednesday discussed the potential of future drag queen story time events for children.
When asked if it was off the table to even begin a debate whether a drag queen reading to children was appropriate, Mr Christou described how he was met with disrespect and was refused to be heard.
“Apparently, according to these bunch of delinquents that rolled up and couldn’t even stand up for the national anthem, showing such disrespect, we’re not allowed to have an opinion,” Mr Christou said.
“They kept interrupting our council’s debate. They were calling myself and another councillor ‘misogynist’ and ‘bigots’ – you name it – just being very disrespectful because we have a view and we represent our community.”
As reported by the Daily Telegraph on Thursday, the Cumberland Council was the most recent chamber in Sydney to debate barring the drag queen story time for children, although there were no immediate plans for such events.
Despite this, Cumberland Mayor Lisa Lake has expressed her support for such events.
Mr Christou emphasised the local council already had programs in place for children with a council staff member reading to kids once a week at every council library.
“Why do we have to muddy the waters? We don’t pay anyone to do it. They (the drag queens) are demanding to be paid,” he said.
“In a cost of living crisis where people are struggling to pay the bills and put food on the table to feed their children, one would think … councillors and councils would have better things to debate and address other than hearing gender neutral toilets, paying council staff extra six weeks paid leave if they want to have a sex change and now drag queen story time.
“And people wonder why certain sections of the community want to get rid of local government.”
The Daily Telegraph also reported Labor councillors Diane Coleman and Ola Hamed labelled the motion as “time wasting” to “incite hate and division”.
Mr Christou refuted the Labor councillors’ claims and pointed to the video which showed the disruption coming from the other side.
“Everybody’s seen the video. There was constant disruptions, name calling. We don’t have to ty to hard to prove what was going on. It got so hard and so intense for them that the debate and meeting got called off, he said.
The councillors were more or less split down the middle with councillors Joseph Rahme, Greg Cummings, Eddy Sarkis, Michael Zaiter, Helen Hughes and Paul Garrard, along with Mr Christou, supporting the motion to reject drag queens reading to children.
Opposing the motion were Labor councillors Sabrin Farooqui, Mohamad Hussein, Diane Coleman and Suman Saha, along with Mayor Lake and councillor Hamed.
Mr Christou said he represented a family-oriented community who didn’t want to kowtow to ideological and political pressures.
“We have a very diverse background, a very religious background. These people love their family, they love their children, and they don’t approve with drag queen story-time reading. To be told we’re not allowed to represent them, and be shamed, is not on,” he said.
“We won’t have this kind of ideology forced down our throats. Just let kids be kids. Don’t expose them to any form of sexual activity or any form of exposure.
“Doesn’t matter whether it’s heterosexual or gay, don’t expose them. Just let kids be kids. Let them enjoy being kids.”
The Cumberland City Council will hold another meeting on Wednesday next week.
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