The DFL passed out free coloring books promoting the transgender movement at the Wadena County Fair over the weekend, leading parents to accuse the party of using “sneaky” tactics to target kids and advance an agenda.
Daniel Fisher, a Wadena County resident and father of a two-year-old boy, said the coloring book called “Dressing Up Can Be Fun” looks like an innocent kids’ coloring book but promotes transgender ideology and suggests St. Joan of Arc was transgender.
Fisher said a volunteer manning the DFL booth at the Wadena County Fair approached his wife and son as they walked by and offered them a coloring book and pencils.
The book cover, which features pictures of animals, and the first page seem “innocent.” However, the third page features a mermaid holding a book with male bodies on the cover along with a caption that reads: “Your body belongs to you. You choose what you want to do with it.”
Another page introduces children to the concept of being “asexual.”
He said most parents will think the free coloring book gesture is “awesome” and will allow their kids to color in it without question.
“It’s ‘awesome’ until you see what’s in it,” Fisher said.
The Todd/Wadena County DFL hands out coloring books at the fair every year, according to Acting Vice Chair John Peters.
“I knew we were handing out coloring books,” he said. “I thought it was going to be the Farmers Union book, but it wasn’t.”
The person who handed out the book was a DFL volunteer, he confirmed. Peters would not condemn the action but agreed parents should have been warned about what was in the book. He said the volunteer most likely put the book together and handed it out to promote his “own issues.”
“In [the volunteer’s] mind, his gender is undetermined,” Peters said, noting that he was speaking for himself and not the party. “He goes by ‘they them’ and is probably bisexual. And I do believe by the time a kid is two-years-old, their brain already says what their sex is.”
Another parent criticized the “hidden messages” in the coloring book.
“The coloring book had nothing to do with what they say they’re there for. They were talking to me about agriculture but have these coloring books for kids,” said Katarina Carlson, a Wadena County parent. “The sneaky part is the first couple pages are innocent. Parents wouldn’t think anything of it but there are hidden messages.”
Carlson called the tactics “sneaky” because she said the booth attendant did not approach her husband and her older kids as they walked by a few feet ahead of her but stopped her and her four-year-old son and offered them the book and pencils.
“This is America; it’s a free country. You can believe what you want and do what you want. But handing this to kids is wrong. They don’t have a clue and shouldn’t have to worry about anything but having fun, being kids, enjoying the fair, going on rides, and eating lots of junk food,” Fisher said.
One page in the book depicts a person asking an adult man with a beard who is dressed as a woman for a hug. The words on the page read: “If you want to give a hug to a friend, you need to ask if they want one first. They have the right to say no. That’s called consent.”
Another page shows a picture of Joan of Arc with a caption that says she “feels much more comfortable in clothes usually worn by men. She also has a traditionally masculine haircut. That makes a lot of people angry but she doesn’t care.”
Fisher said he’s received a lot of criticism for posting pictures of the coloring book on Facebook. He said people are accusing him of trying to “start trouble.”
“People are saying your son is two-years-old. He’s not going to understand the picture. That’s not the point. The point is the kids that will understand and can read will see it. This does not need to be put in front of our children. And I don’t care whose booth it is,” he said.
He wants to alert other parents since county fairs are held all over the state in the summer.
“I have several nieces and nephews and lots of friends with kids. I want people who will care about this to know. ‘Hey, watch out for this.’ If you don’t want your kids seeing this stuff, stay away from that booth,” he said.
Other parents are thankful to Fisher for calling it out.
“People are thanking me for bringing this to light, saying they had no idea,” he said.
Local DFLers said they were “blindsided” by the coloring book. One DFL member who asked to remain anonymous said the book is inappropriate for children and had been removed from the booth when she went to obtain a copy. Fair officials had the book removed.
“I have friends and family who are Democrats,” she said. “When I showed them the posts on Facebook about the coloring books, they were appalled, too. They think it should be the parents’ choice to introduce that kind of stuff to their children and not have it shoved down their throats at a fair in a coloring book.”
State Rep. Mike Wiener, R-Long Prairie, said local residents view the transgender movement as a “metro problem.”
“Now it’s right here,” he said. “If the DFL doesn’t come out and condemn this, that lets everyone around here know, that’s your party.”
Alpha News reached out to the state DFL and Wadena County Fair officials for comment but did not receive a response by the time of publication.
Sheila Qualls
Sheila Qualls is an award-winning journalist and former civilian editor of an Army newspaper. Prior to joining Alpha News, she was a Christian Marriage and Family columnist at Patheos.com and a personal coach. Her work has been published in The Upper Room, the MOPS blog, Grown and Flown, and The Christian Post. She speaks nationally on issues involving faith and family.
