Today in preemptive victim blaming:

One dipshit xerox'ed some bullshit so now
a non-profit has to cough up $8,500. Cool. 

Boooooo. Just booooo. What am I booing? Why the comments made by the Town Supervisor of Pittsford, NY (where I went to high school) and his demand of $8,500 in extra security fees from Pittsford CommUNITY. It's a non-profit organization that promotes diversity and inclusion and is holding a Drag Story Hour next week. Or maybe not, because some rando with a broken caps lock hung up flyers reading "LEAVE OUR KIDS ALONE!" and the inflammatory and patently false accusation: "DRAG QUEENS ARE PEDOS." 

Even calling that inflammatory and patently false feels like I'm giving it the dignity of a response. And I also want to point out that no one is pointing a gun at anyone demanding they bring their kids to this, but the kind of person who gets so upset about it that they feel they need to staple flyers to telephone poles about it is exactly why drag story time exists. 

I don't want to make this a left/right thing, but between a grass roots community group promoting
inclusion and diversity and a nutter with flyers and a stapler, which is more likely to own a gun?

That's weird, because the rest of us have
been getting calls saying that Bill is dumb and
 bad at his job and should resign immediately. 

Defending his decision to acquiesce immediately to the wild demands of loons, Town Supervisor Bill Smith also said he'd received "a great many calls and emails" related to "what I believe is called a drag queen story time" (which, I mean, look it up, Bill), emphasized that it is not endorsed by the town, and also claimed that the organizers falsified the nature of the event on the application (although he didn't say in what way). He then went on to preemptively finger waggle at both Pittsford CommUNITY and the asshats who are complaining about it::

Evidently the Pittsford Community Center
is the place to be at 2pm on a Saturday.

"As a position in a--uh--as a person in a position of responsibility in our community I want to ask everyone, please, no disruptive activities...to the organizers of the event, please remember that the community center is a public building, there will be other programs going on, please respect the people participating in those programs."

-Bill Smith, a person in a position 

of responsibility, making us seriously

question why that is the case

It's as if God himself set out to make the
most generic old white guy and then named
him Bill Smith just to drive home the point.

Which, I mean, ok, but does he take time out of every town meeting to remind everyone about the many other programs happening at the hub of activity that is this town's community center? But hang on:

"And to those who are critical of this event, I don't think I need to tell you, but just remember that disruption would do nothing more than grant victim status to a group of people who are desperate to seek it and are trying to get it through this event."

Ok, so Bill Smith is warning Pittsford CommUNITY not to make a scene, which is just rude given that he has no reason whatsoever to assume that they would. Next, he's telling anyone who might want to disrupt their event not to. Not because harassing people is both wrong, illegal, and in this case risks the safety of children who are just there for drag story hour, but because that's what the organizers want: to be victims. 

To be clear, Smith is saying that the LBGTQIA+ community enjoys being the victims
of right-wing hate groups and are equally to blame for the attacks and harassment.

Well, I've got another old saying:
Young people vote, so clean out your desk.

Holy shit. Two members of the board called him out for it but were, I suspect, so stunned that the town supervisor just blamed the victims for any harassment they might receive before accusing them of seeking victim status. Board member Cathy Koshykar suggested that maybe this was a little unfair, but Smith just condescendingly replied: "Welp, there's an old saying: the truth shall set you free." What? I mean, what? 

Look, I think we can all agree that Town Supervisor Bill Smith needs to fuck right off with this both sides nonsense. Providing security is the County Sheriff's Department's job, like its actual job. Pittsford CommUNITY shouldn't need to pay extra because Bill Smith doesn't like or understand what Drag Story is and is aggressively disinterested in educating himself. 

It's someone in drag reading to kids Bill, no one's going to catch the gay.