WATERVILLE — The owner of a children’s bookstore on Main Street said Monday she is surprised and disappointed at backlash she’s received over a “Drag Queen Story Hour” event that will feature a man dressed as a woman for a children’s story hour at the store.

The event is being organized as part of the 2019 Central Maine Pride Festival and is intended as a way of promoting diversity and educating people on the LGBTQ community, said Ellen Richmond, owner of the Children’s Book Cellar.

“I’m not inviting pedophiles in to pet little children,” Richmond said. “I have one man coming in dressed as a woman to read stories to children, and then we’re going to make wands and crowns.”

Richmond said controversy blew up on social media over the weekend, including a Facebook post by Waterville Mayor Nick Isgro on his personal page and a thread about the event on the page Maine Conservative Grassroots.