Newly obtained audio shows Huntsville drag queen teacher James Miller detailing how he "strategically" and "covertly" placed LGBTQ+ material in his classroom.
In mid-October, Libs of TikTok revealed that Miller, a Mountain Gap Middle School teacher, has long been moonlighting as a drag queen.
Dressed in his persona of Madge D. Vine (Majesty Divine), Miller was shown on video reading a children's book at a dog rescue where children were present, making quips that some found inappropriate.
In the videos posted to the Madge D Vine Facebook page, Miller can be heard commenting that "everybody likes a big bone," also saying all men "have meat on their mind."
Miller was back in the classroom after two weeks.
In a podcast appearance on the "Look Who's Tucking" podcast with Sharon Cocx, which aired in February before the public outrage ensued, Miller told the host that he began working with kids when he moved away from the Birmingham area and working in an unspecified middle school.
"The gay parents who have kids needed an outlet," he advised. "So, when they would go to one of the local gay-friendly churches, I would do a story hour. That turned into a few kids to a bunch of kids, and then it turned into something else."
Miller said he began reading certain books to children because they need books that "reflect who they are."
After leaving Birmingham, Miller claims he moved to a rural, "redneck" school that he described as very intolerant.
"When I moved from Birmingham, I moved to a very rural school that was 40% Hispanic, about 5% African-American, and the rest were white," Miller said. "And like very rural, I'm just going to say redneck, just a very redneck school. The first child, family that had two moms: oh my god, you would have thought there was porn plastered across the school building because everybody was talking about it."
Miller detailed "covertly" supplying students' books with LGBTQ+ themes and other pride material.
"[T]hose kids were in my classroom, and I didn't know how to say, 'I don't care,'" Miller continued. "Like that's your family. I'm going to treat you with respect. I'm going to treat them with respect. So I didn't have a way I could say that and not get in trouble with my boss. So, I went and got 'Heather Has Two Mommies, 'Tango Makes Three,' I got all these kids' books, and I strategically placed them in my room, to where, when the kids who were LGBT were over by my bookshelf, they would see them. And then I didn't have to come out and say, 'OK, it's safe to be gay here.'"
"Heather has Two Mommies" is a self-explanatory title, and "And Tango Makes Three" is a children's book centered around two male penguins who are given an egg that they hatch together.
Miller detailed putting a Human Rights Campaign (HRC) equal sign in his classroom since he was a math teacher. The HRC equal sign is one of the most familiar emblems for same-sex marriage and transgender rights advocacy.
"All the dumbasses thought it was a math sticker," Miller joked. "The gay kids knew exactly what it was, and then rainbows started showing up in my room. So, I was still very covertly doing what I do, teaching, which was, you know, being a safe space for kids. But then I got my counseling degree.
After teaching middle school math, Miller says he began working as an elementary school counselor, where he claims to have worked with children who were transgender.
"I had trans kids; I had second-graders who knew in second grade that they were non-binary, and they were able to articulate it," Miller continued. "That is when I really started working with kids, is when I started that elementary because the easiest way to get through to them is to read them a story. And so, while they're thinking about the story, one little girl said, 'that's just like me.' I was reading 'I am Jazz.'"
"I am Jazz" is a book about a young boy who struggled with having "a girl brain but a boy body" since age two.
To connect with the author of this story, or to comment, email craig.monger@1819news.com.
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