I really cannot imagine what nefarious activities Republicans believe happen at libraries. I understand the rhetoric, and readers here at Daily Kos will immediately recognize it as anti-queer and anti-trans, too, with accusations of books by and about LGBTQ+ people being “pornographic,” “obscene,” or “inappropriate.” The conspiracy theory vision is that librarians (and public school teachers) are just waiting to “indoctrinate” kids into being queer—or using litter boxes like cats, apparently.
But there’s something about the ongoing effort to challenge, ban, and even burn books that continues to feel right out of a dystopian movie. Conservatives are so worried about certain age-appropriate, inclusive books being available for kids and teenagers (or even available at all, including for adults) that they’re willing to flood school board meetings with out-of-context passages and summaries and try to turn the tide of public opinion against books by and about a marginalized community. They’re books! Adults should, frankly, be happy any young people want to sit down and read a book given they’re still surviving a global pandemic and worrying about gun violence every time they walk into school.
But I digress. Conservatives are attacking books, and libraries are suffering because of it. A recent example of a hard-fought victory on behalf of book access comes to us out of South Carolina, where the Greenville County Council recently voted 3-9 to keep LGBTQ+ books available to kids in the library, as reported by The State. Republican City Councilor Joe Dill introduced a resolution to get rid of all the LGBTQ+ books from the children’s sections of all 12 libraries in the system, and he had a scary amount of support.
Yeah, this is getting really, really bad.
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Here’s what went down: Back in June, libraries in the system displayed LGBTQ+ books to celebrate Pride Month, as many libraries and bookstores do. There are plenty of LGBTQ+ books for young readers, ranging from picture books to graphic novels to chapter books. Librarians are responsible for vetting books and making they’re age appropriate when they stock them. No one is just ordering and stocking books off the cuff without understanding what’s in them … especially not in today’s political climate.
But Republicans want to label everything that isn’t cisgender and heterosexual as somehow inappropriate or predatory, so queer books have got to go.
Dill introduced the resolution under the guise of protecting the “innocence” of children. He wanted to have all libraries in the system get rid of books that “promote” sexuality if they were cataloged in children’s sections. Dill also wanted libraries to give reports to the county council explaining why the books were available and what they were doing to ensure no similar books would be available in the future. The resolution passed in September with Jeff Davis, who serves as the Greenville County GOP chair, saying kids shouldn’t be allowed to access “these books” without parental consent. He compared it to being able to buy beer.
“Kids can’t buy a beer until they are 21,” he said, then added that it should be “reasonable” to stop kids from getting these books without parental permission.
Yikes!
Thankfully during the recent county council debate, kids and families in the community ultimately won because the board voted in favor of keeping the books on the shelves. During the debate, council members did not reference any specific book titles they wanted to see banned or pulled, but for constituents who have already been spoon-fed the anti-queer rhetoric of the right, it was all too easy to have folks come and decry “inappropriate” or sexual books.
But allies and advocates showed up. “All of us worry about children,” said Susan Ward, who has an openly gay son. “I worry because my child has been subjected to hate and discrimination.” Ward went on to note that it’s valuable for her child to be able to see himself represented in books.
All students lose when books are banned. LGBTQ+ students lose the chance to see themselves and their experiences on the page. Questioning students lose the chance to explore. Straight and cisgender students lose the chance to learn about others—or even to connect to other parts of the story that don’t actually focus on sexual orientation or gender identity. Learning about people unlike ourselves is literally one of the most important parts of a well-rounded education.
But then again, Republicans would prefer their constituents to be uneducated because it's easier to manipulate and confuse them.
