Drive to ban library books with LGBTQ content erupts in Orange City

More than 300 people have signed a petition to either ban or label and group materials related to homosexual and transgender content in the Orange City Public Library.

Rev. Sacha Walicord of Grace Reformed Presbyterian Church rose before an overflow crowd of more than 100 at the Orange City Public Library Board of Trustees meeting Tuesday and said that LBGTQ books and other library content are “pushing an agenda” that is counter to those in the faith community.

“We won’t roll over,” he said. “We will stand up and we will fight.”

Others defended the selections, saying that a library is a place of diverse ideas and that library patrons are free to choose what to view or ignore.

“No one is putting a gun to anyone’s head,” said Sue Kroesche, former director of Orange City Public Library.

The controversy erupted in one of Iowa’s most conservative Republican counties in northwest Iowa after somebody filed a statement of concern to the library about a book on its shelves that featured LGBTQ content. Library director Amanda Vazquez said the complaint was rescinded after the person discovered it had kindled a firestorm.

But a flier was distributed door to door throughout Orange City last weekend that denounced such materials along with a petition document and call to attend Tuesday’s board meeting. The flier said that the library was distributing “homosexual/transgender promoting materials … some aimed at pre-K kids, using your tax dollars!”

It quoted denunciations of homosexuality in the Bible as well as allegations of detrimental health and social effects tied to LGBTQ communities. It said that library materials were counter to the Christian faith and values of a majority of the community, and it asked proposed that the materials be labeled and separated from other content and to halt acquisitions of the material until “a public discussion can be held about the acquisition so valuable feedback can be given by important stakeholders such as parents, teachers, and faith communities.”

Sioux County Conservatives, a Sioux Center-based political group formed 18 months ago to mobilize conservatives, took the lead on the petition drive, which yielded more than 50 signed petitions and 283 online.

“(The materials) are targeting pre-K children to promote a behavior that is harmful to human beings,” said Jacob Hall, the group’s spokesman, in an interview. “It is clear there is an agenda there.”

Vazquez denied any agenda and said it’s important to let library users make the choice of materials they want to view.

“As a public library, we try to serve the needs of a diverse community,” she said.

The meeting Tuesday was held to gather public comment and no action was taken. The library board will consider public input and review its collection development policies, said board president Jared Weber. The board can decide to weed out books in the collection, which is picked by the library director and her staff.

There are 168 books that feature LBGTQ content in the library out of a collection of 64,000 materials.

Three books, which all received mostly positive reviews by critics, were featured on the petition flier: "Two Boys Kissing," a young adult novel about Harry and Craig, two 17-year-olds who are about to take part in a 32-hour marathon of kissing to set a new Guinness World Record; "Morris Micklewhite and the Tangerine Dress," a children’s book about a boy who likes to wear a tangerine dress, though other children don’t understand; and "This Day In June," a children’s book about a LBGTQ pride parade.

The uprising in Orange City “made the biggest waves” of any Dan Chibnall remembers seeing recently in Iowa. The vice president of the Iowa Library Association and Drake University STEM librarian attributes the outcry to its location in a community with a strong Christian heritage, increased use of social media to gather support, and a widespread increase in challenges to library materials as a backlash “because LBGTQ people have more rights than ever before.”

Numerous comments flooded the Orange City Public Library’s Facebook page, some defending a right to choose materials from diverse viewpoints, while others said the collection was all part of an activist plot.

Some parents who spoke Tuesday said the library shouldn’t take over the role of educating their children on such matters and asked that the board, at a minimum, provide a labeled and separate location for books with LGBTQ content.

Chibnall said such separations “erect barriers to everyone with new or conflicting ideas,” and librarians should not be “guardians or gatekeepers” of materials.

He said parents can read easily accessible reviews online and monitor their children’s reading.

Some who spoke at the meeting said they were offended by many things in a public library, but it wasn’t their place to tell other people not to read them.

A man who identified himself as gay said that he knows of gay or transgender children in the community and that seeing their lives mirrored in the materials is important to them. Others stood to read sections of the Bible which they say spoke to behaviors represented in the books that are immoral.

Other citizens questioned the idea of total intellectual freedom, saying there are limits such as pornography.

“We will not have illegal information in the library,” Vazquez said in an interview.

It isn’t the first formal challenge to a book at the library, she said. Several years ago, a citizen wanted a book on health and human sexuality removed, but the request was denied. Vazquez said another book was challenged Monday, “Morris Micklewhite,” and will be considered at the March meeting.

Library policies on its collections are clearly stated, she said. They read, in part: “The library recognizes that any given item may offend any one person, but because the library follows accepted principles of intellectual freedom, it will not remove specific titles solely because individuals or groups may find them objectionable.”