I received a forwarded email at the library I work at today. It was forwarded by my Library Director to all staff. Her single comment at the top of the email: Yay!
Here is the Subject Line: Subject: FW: Homer’s Library Advisory Board upholds decision to keep LGBTQ books in children’s section!
As if this is something to celebrate.
Here is the text of the email:
Congratulations to Director David Berry, the HPL staff and thanks to the Library Board for their diligent support of intellectual freedom and the right to read.
The seven-member board went on to uphold Berry’s decision to keep all 55 titles in the library. In a statement at the meeting, Berry said parents who would prefer to read books with heterosexual couples can pick from thousands of titles.
“There are 12,500 titles in the children’s and young adult collections combined,” Berry said. “The 55 titles on this list represent 0.4% of that collection.”
Alternatively, those titles can provide representation to people in marginalized groups who might not see themselves represented in mainstream culture, Berry said.
“If you are the kind of parent who would like to be able to sit down with your child in a kid’s room, open up a book and say, ‘Look, there’s your mom. And there’s your other mom. And isn’t it nice that there’s a book about us here to read?’” he said. “Well, we have a responsibility to stock those titles as well.”
Audience members praised both Berry’s initial decision and the board’s dedication to reading each title on the list.
Just look at this signature line from the original poster of the email:I am thankful to live and work on Lingít aaní.
I was born & raised on the ancestral lands of the Peoria, Kiikaapoi (Kickapoo), Anishinabewaki, Bodéwadmiakiwen (Potawatomi), Myaamia and Mississauga. --Learn more about the land you live on at Native Land
Jonas Lamb (he/him)
Associate Professor
Public Services Librarian, Egan Library
University of Alaska Southeast
Egan Lib 202 | 11066 Auke Lake Way | Juneau, AK 99801
P: 907-796-6440 | j.lamb@alaska.edu
Let's just focus on the following sentence and break it down. "Alternatively, those titles can provide representation to people in marginalized groups who might not see themselves represented in mainstream culture, Berry said." Presenting the "marginalized", or fringe and perverted elements of society to otherwise perfectly normal children is indoctrination and normalization. This leads to the fringe and perverted elements of society being viewed as the new mainstream, and impressionable minds will "conform or be cast out".
Thanks to Neil Peart for that bit of 80's lyrical magic.