Leander Public Library halts facility rentals after drag queen controversy

LEANDER, Texas - Amid controversy from protesters and supporters of "Drag Queen Story Hour," the Leander Public Library is temporarily holding off on letting any organizations rent their facility. 

Last month, the event was slated at the Leander Public Library when the drag queen could not make it, it became a family pride story time event. Either way the event still ended up having some controversy. 

Pastor Rob Lederman would regularly rent the conference room for Wednesday bible study and Sunday services for his small congregation but now he says the church will not be able to afford the location he was forced to move to. "In June I went in to find out about it for July, and they said I'm sorry, but we're not renting the room out at this time. I'm like what's going on.. well we decided not to rent it out right now, we are reevaluating the policy," he said they told him.

Lederman said the room at the library was within the church's budget. "It's like $50 a day I believe, the large conference room. Which worked really good for our budget," said Lederman.

"It's unfortunate that the drag queen event in Leander at the public library that happened a few weeks ago has caused controversy, brought negative attention to the community and has impacted the constitutional rights of another group," said Jonathan Saenz, president of Texas Values.

The city is expected to discuss a possible solution with city council later this summer.