Southern Utah library workers told to remove buttons, displays featuring LGBTQ-themed materials

David DeMille | St. George Spectrum & Daily News

Library workers in Southern Utah were told last June to remove Pride Month-themed displays featuring LGBTQ books and materials because a county official believed they were too controversial. This year, they were asked to stop wearing buttons that said, "Ask me about LGBTQ reads."

Both the displays and the buttons at the Hurricane library drew complaints from upset patrons, according to Joel Tucker, the Washington County director in charge of eight library branches.

However, the employees who placed the displays and wore the buttons said they never received any complaints. They said their county higher-ups are being discriminatory and point to similar library displays built around news topics, popular culture and holidays. They have included Saint Patrick's Day, polygamy and Black History Month. Pioneer-themed displays were up this week for the state's July 24 holiday.

The Pride Month displays were built on the same idea, spotlighting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer/questioning materials as a way to promote the library as a safe space to learn more about the topic, said Ammon Treasure, the library employee who first contacted The Spectrum & Daily News about the issue last week.

“There persists an idea that acknowledgement of LGBTQ people equates to promoting a specific agenda or advocating for deviant behavior,” he said. “I want to go on record in stating that this is not true. We only desire your respect and equal treatment in regards to the services the library provides.”

Some of his co-workers spoke up to support him, arguing that censoring the displays only serves to make LGBTQ people feel unwelcome.

“To have that taken away, to me, isn’t it kind of sending the wrong message?” said Natalie Daniel, another employee.

Avoiding controversial topics

Treasure said he wanted to complain last year when the county library director asked the library to change its initial table display, but at the time he thought he could do little about it as a part-time clerk.

This year, he took his concerns to a supervisor and a human resources director before approaching the media. He said he thinks the issue is misunderstood within the larger southwestern Utah community.

"My hope is that by coming forward we can start an important conversation about inclusion and work toward eliminating the stigma that still surrounds this topic," he said.

Tucker, the county library director, said he stepped in with both the displays and the buttons after receiving “multiple” complaints from library-goers.

“I take it from the perspective of the patron,” he said. “What they see is we’re advocating for that point of view, and that we want them to read that. That’s not our intent, to drive people to support one ideal over the other or advocate for one position over another.”

Staffers replaced the LGBTQ displays this year with “diversity”-themed displays with “libraries are for everyone” written over a selection of books.

Tucker said he felt the new displays were more appropriate, arguing that LGBTQ-focused displays would “give rise to or would be likely to give rise to disagreement.”

“We have some strong (President Donald Trump) supporters and some strong Trump haters, so it’s not like we would have a Trump display,” Tucker said. “Generally, as a library we try to avoid those kinds of things.”

Tucker said the button issue was addressed separately. The county library board voted last month to set new dress standards for employees that don't allow for buttons.

None of the other libraries in the county system have featured Pride Month displays that referenced LGBTQ.

Tucker said he couldn’t say how many complaints he had received over the Hurricane LGBTQ displays either this year or last year, or say who complained.

“How many complaints is too many?” he said. “If one person is upset that’s kind of highlighting there may be a problem.”

Libraries as social battleground

Libraries have become a little-noticed point of contention nationally in the LGBTQ debate. Library associations and educators have encouraged local branches to build promotions and programs around Pride Month and welcome those interested to learn more in general about gay and lesbian literature and gender issues.

At the same time, librarians have faced opposition from patrons and supervisors. The American Library Association, the world’s largest library association, reports that complaints over LGBTQ-themed books and displays have increased sharply in recent years.

About half of the most-challenged books on the ALA’s 2016 list of books most requested for removal from libraries featured LGBTQ issues or included LGBTQ characters.

There have also been a growing number of challenges to LGBTQ displays, said James LaRue, director of the ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom in Chicago.

Most libraries have policies that follow the Library Bill of Rights and urge the broadest possible access to information, he said.

“Seeking to shut down a display or to stop the promotion of exhibits through library-related buttons would, generally speaking, violate those policies,” he said. “It is censorship. Attempts to do just that happen around the U.S. fairly frequently, too.”

MORE: Drive to ban library books with LGBTQ content erupts in Iowa

Sarah Hall, another employee at the Hurricane library, said she doesn’t think libraries should be trying to avoid controversy. In fact, it should be just the opposite, she said.

“It’s called self-censorship. A preventative censorship to avoid possible conflict,” she said, arguing that libraries are supposed to be a place where patrons come to think and to learn, not to feel comfortable.

Hall said as a married woman who doesn't identify as LGBTQ, she shouldn’t expect everything at the library to cater to her particular life choices.

“Libraries have to be able to cater to not just one demographic,” she said, noting that the Hurricane library has had displays on controversial topics in the past, such as a polygamy-themed display when the FLDS leader Warren Jeffs was on trial.

A Valentine's-themed display in February featured romance novels with covers “that left very little to the imagination,” Hall said.

“If it offends you, wait until the display is over,” she said.

Follow David DeMille on Twtter, @SpectrumDeMille.

What is Pride Month?

Pride Month is an international campaign to reflect on LGBTQ (an acronym for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer or questioning) history and to encourage new laws and policies to protect people of different sexual preferences and gender identities.

June was picked to commemorate the Stonewall riots of June 1969, a series of protests sparked in response to a police raid at the Stonewall Inn in New York City that called for an end to police harassment and political persecution of LGBTQ Americans.

The General Assembly of the National Education Association voted to designate an LGBT History Month in 1995, and President Bill Clinton issued the first proclamation declaring a national Gay and Lesbian Pride Month in 1999.

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