Queens City Councilwoman Vickie Paladino (R-Whitestone) has been booted from the chamber’s mental health committee as punishment for her strident opposition to Drag Queen Story Hour.
“I was targeted. This was a retaliation,” the conservative firebrand told The Post — laying the blame squarely at the feet of Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, who she said gave in to pressure from progressives.
“As an individual she is a lovely lady but I really think she is being bullied … She is afraid of the progressive left,” Paladino said.
The freshman lawmaker was formally removed from the Committee on Mental Health, Disabilities and Addiction by a full vote of the Council on March 2.
Paladino, 68, has called the city-funded programs that bring fully-bedecked drag queens into public schools and libraries to read to and socialize with kids — often without the consent or knowledge of parents — “cultural indoctrination” and “child grooming.”
Speaker Adams, 62, blasted Paladino in the Gay City News, saying her comments on Drag Queen Story Hour were “repugnant and unacceptable,” and that Paladino lacked “a commitment to inclusivity.”
Paladino insisted she had no issue with drag queens personally and had attended drag shows in the past.
She noted proudly that her old family jewelry store, C’est Magnifique in Greenwich village, had even made pieces for drag performers.
The shop closed in 2014 after 55 years in business.
“This has become an issue of national importance, with jurisdictions around the country
waking up to the harms of sexual content and gender confusion being taught in our schools to children as young as kindergarten,” she said.
“Parents are now realizing the harmful content in their classrooms and are working every day to take their power back from the radicals who believe they have a right to indoctrinate children.
“Our kids are lagging in school,” she continued. “They are two and four years behind in basic education, math, reading, science, they need to get back to basics. … and to concentrate our efforts on drag queens seems like a terrible waste of time and energy.”
Minority Leader Joe Borelli (R-Staten Island) defended his party colleague: “The Ethics Committee investigated, found absolutely no wrongdoing, and yet there is some sort of punishment for her. It undermines the council’s own rules.”
Paladino remains a member of the chamber’s Committee on Veterans and Committee on Technology.
She warned her colleagues that she still plans to attend Mental Health committee meetings.
“It’s a political move against Vickie. But Vickie will survive this the way Vickie survives everything else. Because Vickie serves the people,” said Paladino.