Retired police officer and army veteran Jim Thomas drove to downtown Helena, Montana, the state’s capital, to provide what he considered a community service. On a Saturday in mid-July, he joined a vocal crowd outside a local LGBTQ-owned independent bookstore and began scanning his surroundings.
Standing 6ft 4in and about 200lbs, with a camouflage baseball hat and scraggly eyebrows, Thomas arrived with a mission: make sure Drag Story Hour, the family-friendly reading event where sparkling drag performers read children’s books to kids and families, went off without a hitch.
