Last month, the Burlington County, New Jersey, public library director Gail Sweet — acting in violation of library guidelines – censored the book Revolutionary Voices: A Multicultural Queer Youth Anthology
Today, a few weeks later, the Cookeville Herald Citizen in Tennessee reported that the Alliance Defense Fund and local evangelical author Ilene Vick are suing the Putnam County Library for prohibiting the use of a public room by her evangelical book club.
The newspaper cites the library’s policies for room use:
* Library activities have priority over any outside pre-arranged or regularly scheduled groups or events.
* Bookings for meeting rooms are to be arranged through the reference librarian no less than 24 hours before the meeting.
* Meeting rooms are available for public gatherings of a civic, cultural or educational character. Rooms are not available for meetings of social, political, partisan or religious purposes; for the benefit of private individuals or commercial concerns; for the presentation of one side of controversial matters; or when in the judgment of the Library Board, disorder may be likely to occur.
* The rooms may be used by joint committees or associations from more than one church for business, educational, and cultural transactions when no religious services are involved.
Christian Right media outfit OneNewsNow joined the ADF in asserting that Christian Rightists enjoy a special right to bypass any usage restrictions and to evangelize wherever they please.
Should an atheist, Buddhist feminist, Jewish environmentalist, or gay conservative author seek to use the Putnam County library’s meeting room, I’m betting that ADF, OneNewsNow, and all of their friends will threaten the author — not the library. Censorship is great — until you’re not the one being denied access to the public.
She also violated ALA (American Library Association) guidelines. This is infuriating, not only because it’s censorship, but every time you give in to these bullies, you embolden them.
Also very telling is the fact that we never hear of progressives and liberals trying to censor their propaganda and b******t, it’s always wingnuts and bible beaters who want to censor.
A number of years ago, the library where I work had a complaint about Daddy’s Roommate and Heather Has Two Mommies. There was a raucous meeting over it (the wingnuts even bussed in other fundo wingnuts who don’t live in our borrowing area). The final outcome was that the books were moved to the adult section even though they’re children’s books. I’m still pissed about that.
It galls me that the RRRW whackos are the first to screech about the “Nanny State” when they’re doing all they can to impose it.
I just moved in next door to her. I’ve met her and her husband. I am Jewish, and have openly gay relatives that DO visit, so time will tell. My initial impression of her was not as a right winger, but as an out going, friendly neighbor.
I, for one, am keeping an open mind about this case. While I do agree with the library’s stance in this instance, I feel there must be something else going on. If the library does allow the meeting room to be used for anything political or religious, they should allow her to hold a meeting to discuss her book. Maybe she could hold a discussion on the opposing view points at the same time… I’m sure Ms. LeVay would be more than happy to send her a copy of her father’s most famous tome.