Drag queen story hours have been cropping up in community libraries in recent years like this one in 2017 in Brooklyn, N.Y. Now a major health insurer has featured a drag queen event with kids in a TV commercial. (AP Photo)

An Air Force base in Germany canceled a "Drag Queen Story Time" event that was scheduled for next month after Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) strongly urged against placing "children in a sexualized environment."

The storytime was scheduled for June 2 in a library at Ramstein Air Force Base and was offered to the young children of service members as a way to celebrate Pride Month.

Rubio sent a letter to Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall on Thursday saying, "The last thing parents serving their nation overseas should be worried about, particularly in a theater with heightened geopolitical tensions, is whether their children are being exposed to sexually charged content simply because they visited their local library," the senator wrote.

He said the library at Ramstein AFB has hosted similar events in the past, then asked Kendall to explain, "how many instances of events involving drag queens spending time around children have occurred" in government-sponsored events on military bases both inside and outside the U.S.?

According to Rubio's letter, a flyer for a similar event held last year, "highlighted the apparent inclusion" of a controversial book, The Hips on the Drag Queen Go Swish, Swish, Swish.

The senator mentioned that the author wrote that book so children could "experience the magic of drag and to get a little practice shaking their hips or shimmying their shoulders to know how [they] can feel fabulous inside of [their] own bodies."

Additionally, Rubio's letter asked how much U.S. taxpayer funding was being used to cover salaries, materials, and other costs associated with these events.

"As I hope you can agree, decisions over children and their bodies should be left to moms and dads serving our nation, not mediated through publicly funded propaganda on U.S. Air Force bases," Sen. Rubio stated.

Source