Jessica Wakeman , The Assembly; Pride Cometh Before The Fall
"Anti-gay activists had launched the Hide the Pride campaign a few years earlier. It’s a national effort encouraging people to disappear LGBTQ materials in public libraries during Pride Month so others cannot borrow them. In Burnsville, participants carried the crusade well beyond June. Edwards said they were still finding LGBTQ books hidden throughout the library for the next year...
Librarians also noticed that five people who weren’t regular patrons had borrowed an unusually large number of books on LGBTQ subjects—another Hide the Pride tactic. “It really made me sad,” said Edwards, who has worked at the branch for seven years. “Mostly because they were trying to hide things from people who might need them, and doing it out of some misguided sense of morality.” ...
Each branch strives to provide materials that meet the needs of its patrons. And for nearly a decade, all four AMY branches assembled Pride Month displays. While there have been complaints in other counties in the past, AMY Director Amber Westall Briggs said she was able to alleviate concerns after speaking with local leaders. Additionally, branch’s obscenity guidelines are posted on its website.
Briggs said librarians use a concept called “mirrors and windows,” which is the idea that children should “have a mirror in which the book reflects themselves, so that they see themselves and their family and their community, and then also a window so they can see a completely different cultural experience.”
“Our collections represent the community that we are a part of, but they also have to be diversified to represent a larger world,” Briggs explained. “That’s what a library is.”"
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