My Michigan Neighbors Shutter “Pornographic” Public Library
Their definition is peculiar: LGBTQ = Porno
You know book banning is out of control when people fight to close public libraries
Think that doesn’t happen in the United States, that it’s only the stuff of dystopian fiction? Think again! Hear about that Iowa library that closed early this summer because three head librarians quit, one after the other? They and the rest of the staff got tired (and frightened) of being called groomers and pedophiles by loud homophobes and racists who don’t want ANYBODY in their community reading books about LGBTQ people or about the U.S. history of slavery and segregation.
Some community members celebrated when the library shut its doors. Mission accomplished!
They were not fighting for space to express their own opinions. They were demanding their neighbors be barred from reading differing opinions. They were willing to make the lives of professional librarians hell — including a gay librarian who became a target of particular harassment, from the way he dressed to the way he spoke.
This NBC News long read is instructive and frightening:
