Churchill: Drag queen at a cat cafe? What's the problem? - Times Union

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Rachel Anne in her under-construction cat café, the Pretty Paw Lounge, on Friday, March 3, 2023, in Rotterdam. It recently canceled a drag queen story hour after objections from at least one politician.

Jim Franco/Times Union

ROTTERDAM — At least one elected official in Rotterdam should acquaint himself with the Constitution, the First Amendment in particular. 

That official is Rotterdam Town Board member Joe Mastroianni, who took it upon himself to meddle with a drag queen story hour that was set to happen at the Pretty Paw Lounge Cat Cafe, a Mariaville Road business that is equal parts coffee shop, gift store and feline adoption clinic.

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Yes, it's an unusual place. 

Here's the deal: After Pretty Paw announced the event, Mastroianni asked a town zoning official to look into it. The zoning officer, Joanne Schillaci, subsequently paid a visit to the cafe, and the owner of the business, a model who goes by the name Rachel Anne, later suggested that pressure from the town led her to cancel the story hour. 

"Any further information on the event cancellation can be directed to the town, who stopped by this afternoon to discuss cancellation with us," the cafe's Facebook page said, adding that a town official had advised that the event be scrapped. "We are deeply saddened to be in the middle of such circumstances and we are doing all we can to remain compliant with our town and their demands."

The word demands is noteworthy. It suggests the decision was anything but voluntary. 

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Now, Mastroianni in a statement says he asked Schillaci to look into the event because "this type of entertainment is for adults and adult entertainment is not permitted in Rotterdam."

That's dubious, if not downright dumb. For one thing, a man wearing women's clothing is not automatically adult entertainment, as anyone who grew up watching "Bosom Buddies" reruns can attest. (My hand is raised.) "Mrs. Doubtfire" was a PG-13 rated film. 

Meanwhile, to the extent that drag queen story hours are controversial, it is precisely because they are intended as children's entertainment. It beggars belief that Mastroianni, a former state Assembly candidate who has used Facebook to share Sept. 11 conspiracy theories, wouldn't know what the event was about or be aware of the raging culture war. 

That debate, of course, is largely centered on whether drag queens reading to children is appropriate content for public libraries. Since those spaces are funded by taxpayers, elected officials and everyday residents are free to wrangle over their programming, if they so choose.

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But the Pretty Paw Lounge Cat Cafe is a private business, which means the content of its programming is none of Mastroianni's business. Under town zoning, a cafe is allowed to have readings and gatherings. And as noted by Andrew Waite of the Daily Gazette, nobody in Rotterdam has seemed to care about other events at the cafe, including ones during which families and pets can pose with Santa. 

A drag queen event wouldn't really be my cup of tea and it may or not be yours. But nobody was going to force either of us to attend the Pretty Paw reading. The people who would have attended would have done so voluntarily, had apparent pressure from the town not robbed them of the opportunity. 

If you're OK with that, then you should also be agreeable to a world in which meddlesome town officials interfere with Bible readings, political discussions and any other event that somebody, somewhere might find objectionable. You're essentially agreeing to scrap the First Amendment and this democracy thing we've got going. Freedom, after all, means allowing other people's freedom. 

I should mention that, as my colleague Paul Nelson reported, Schillaci was fired after her visit to Pretty Paw, a dismissal she is struggling to understand. 

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“I was doing my job, and that’s what the town of Rotterdam appointed me for," said Schillaci, who contends that Pretty Paw had canceled the drag queen event before she arrived to chat about it. She says a Rotterdam police officer spoke with Rachel Anne before she did. 

That's even more alarming, suggesting that the business really was pressured. 

And while it isn't clear that Schillaci's dismissal was related to the Pretty Paw controversy, there should be little doubt that her visit on a board member's behalf was entirely inappropriate. Zoning officers should stick with zoning and leave their noses out of content — a distinction that seems lost on Mastroianni, who applauded the squelching of speech. 

"I appreciate your swift handling of this yesterday," he wrote in an email thanking Schillaci for her visit. "She publicly canceled the event, and (it will) no longer create controversy or require resources to manage. Great job."

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Somebody, please, show this guy the Constitution. 

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Churchill: Drag queen at a cat cafe? What's the problem? - Times Union
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