Community Members Speak Up in Support of Library Children’s Wing Pride Display

A week after two county commissioners asked a local Pennsylvania library to remove a Pride Month display of children’s books from its children’s wing, community members showed overwhelming support of the display at a county meeting.

Several dozen people rallied outside during the weekly Commissioners Meeting in Lycoming County, Pennsylvania, on June 15, a week after Commissioners Scott Metzger and Tony Mussare asked the James V. Brown Library to remove the display. At the meeting itself, more than two dozen spoke in support of the display, while only a few people spoke against it.

In Support of the Display

Among the many speaking in support of the display was Mary Sieminski, a former college library director, who said she has “50 years of experience in public and academic libraries” and was an advisor to the LGBT group at one college, asserted that “reading a book about being gay or transgender will not make a person gay or transgender,” just as an 11-year-old once told her that “Reading a book about cats does not make you a cat.” For LGBTQ youth, however, “Sometimes finding their own experience reflected in a book might have saved their sanity.”

Mary Wright, the mother of an LGBTQ child, said, “I wish these books had been on display for me and for her when we were young, so that we could have a better understanding and a lot less fear. I’m thrilled that they exist and are readily found on display at the James V. Brown, because books, like people’s identities and their love relationships should never have to be hidden. If one child gets to feel normal or has more compassion to accept others, this display has done its work.”

Fifteen-year-old high school student Fay Moore, who is part of the LGBTQ community, said, “I should be home on my phone doing stupid teenager stuff and not up here telling you how to be responsible,” noting, “I know that there are children in their rooms right now who saw the things you said, and they felt small, and they felt lesser.”

Kenna Peters, who grew up going to the James V. Brown library almost every day, told the commissioners, “I would have loved to see books like that on display more often, and I would have loved to read books like that, just so that I could understand, so that when I got to a certain age, I could understand how I was feeling as a person. And to see something like that [Metzger’s Facebook post calling for the display’s removal] on social media, it hurts.”

Isabella Bartholomew explained, “God made me a woman trapped in a man’s body,” and said, “I would rather a five-year-old have the knowledge and ability to learn about this so they can find themselves, who they were born as.”

McKenna Long spoke of having talks with her two biracial children, one of whom is bisexual, about how to try to stay safe from harassment. She said the books “were not about sex” but were sexualized by those who wanted to remove the display. “They are about being comfortable with oneself, feeling that who you are isn’t wrong, and you’re not alone, period,” she said. She referenced Metzger’s statement from his Facebook post that “Kids need to be kids,” but drew a different conclusion, saying, “Let kids be kids by having access to these books and let them be on display during Pride Month so that children and parents who might have been afraid to ask in an area like this can see there are books out there, and they can check the book out, take it home, with no judgment.”

Several others spoke of personal journeys discovering that they were LGBTQ, and the importance of having access to affirming information and resources like books.

Against the Display

A few people asked for removal of the display. They included Brad Young, who said that he has hired gay people and “What you do in the bedroom, I don’ t have a problem with what you’re doing,” but “I am angry that this is being pushed on our children constantly.” He said other homophobic and transphobic things that I won’t repeat here, though you can hear them on the YouTube video of the meeting if you wish. (Content warning on the video for homophobia, transphobia, misgendering, and mentions of suicide attempts.)

Another community member, Richard Houser said, “I have a lot of gay friends,” but claimed that some books geared towards kids are “designed to proselytize youth to have a certain feeling about a certain lifestyle.” Everyone has questions about growing up, he said, “but it should be discovered on a personal basis and not dictated through books or drag queen reading or any of those sorts of things…. Those things are not appropriate for youth.”

The Commissioners Weigh In

The three commissioners also spoke at the meeting. Commissioner Mussare accused the media of biased headlines when covering the incident. He then claimed that many people are afraid to speak against the LGBTQ community, saying, “People that are like-minded as me are unwilling to voice their opinions in fear of retaliation and false accusations that will inevitably made against them.” He asked, “Do you believe we should be locked in a closet where the LGBTQ community was for way too long?” He said that after people criticized his call for the display’s removal, he did go to the library and look at the books [which he apparently hadn’t done beforehand] and changed his opinion on some, but not all of them. He also mentioned the gay son of a friend, and noted the power of the library as a resource—but then went on to spout transphobic nonsense about how books on trans people could have made the boy think he was trans. [See above on cats.]

Commissioner Metzger said constituents had reached out to him about examining the books on display, but no formal complaint was made to the library. The children’s section, he said, was designed for children to browse without supervision, but the books in the Pride display “exposed a view on sexual identity that is best explored and discussed in a supervised family setting.” These books with “sexual content” should not be given a “special priority in a children’s section.” [Once more for the people in the back: There is no sexual content in any of the books displayed.] Metzger insisted, though, “There’s no one up here expressing intolerance.” [Yeah, right.]

Commissioner Mirabito, however, who had opposed his colleagues and supported the display, spoke of the murder of Matthew Shepard and said the best way to prevent a similar incident is: “We don’t dehumanize people, we don’t ask people to put books in the back, on a shelf away, and we just try in our own way to raise our children, to love them all. He also spoke of the power of conversations in small communities like theirs to create change.

Metzger did note at the end of the meeting that while he felt it was their duty as commissioners to bring the constituents’ complaints to the library, “We’re fine with the decision” the library made to keep the display up. “We’re not going to threaten them with cutting of funds.” He called for an “open dialogue” in the community and asked that people “respect each other and love each other with God’s love.”

Barbara McGary, executive director of the library, told the Williamsport Sun-Gazette that people are sending in donations to ensure the LGBTQ collection remains, and the outpouring of support for the library was “very much appreciated.”