With conservative propaganda against queer books on the rise in schools and libraries over the past two years, it’s no surprise that pride displays took an especially hard hit in June. But at one library in Illinois, the battle began even before Pride Month began, and how librarians deal with these challenges, especially when accusations contain lies or misinformation. provides informative case studies about
The county in Illinois where Joan* works began receiving complaints about the Pride display even before it went live. A conservative group called Awake Illinois had begun organizing to hopefully oppose it, based on the library’s Pride exhibit the previous year. This indicates that the complaint is not based on the specific book being “offensive” or “pornographic,” but rather on the concept of exhibiting LGBTQ books.
By May, the library had received over 100 responses defending the exhibit. Patrons wrote in how much they liked the library’s pride display. the only problem?There were no displays to challenge yet Also protect.
In any case, the library had its usual Pride exhibit in June. It was on its way to the children’s section and included a shelf of LGBTQ books for younger kids and a shelf for older kids. there was an element. Dozens of children wrote their answers on the rainbow and posted them around the display. Some said they were proud of their achievements, others said they were proud of their two mothers or her two fathers.
As expected, the finished display earned both support and challenge from patrons. When Joan received complaints about the exhibit, she explained why they put it up: The library is inclusive, the materials meet the collection guidelines, and they exhibit whatever is worth putting in the collection. She also asked patrons if they could find the materials they needed in the library, because collections should reflect the community as a whole. All patrons who complained agreed that they were able to find the materials they wanted.
One patron who requested the display be removed claimed that other libraries in the area did not have pride displays. Joan was surprised by that, so he decided to find out for himself. She called 18 of her nearest libraries and asked, and 14 of them responded. (Joanne speculated that she’s worried about the other four of her motivations for asking about the display.) Eight said the youth section also has a pride display. Some of the rest said they only have a pride exhibit in the general section of the library, while others said they maintain comprehensive exhibits all year round.
It’s a small act that represents an important strategy for meeting the challenges of the book. Often conservative groups organizing these challenges use misinformation and outright lies. It is imperative that these claims be questioned and the truth revealed. Especially when fact-checking is easy. Joan’s library wasn’t the only library where Pride appeared, including the Youth section.
Another allegation made in complaints about the display was that “no one in the community wants this.” They also claimed that immigrants would be offended by the exhibit, even though they were not immigrants themselves. Proved. In fact, Joan is against the idea that the exhibit is controversial.
It is a common tactic for book-banning groups to claim to represent every parent, every family, and the entire community. In practice, they are usually in the minority. For example, when a parent in Florida was given the option to opt their children out of being able to borrow books from the school library, less than 1% of them did.
Joan’s story shows how librarians can counter these lies. She recommends that librarians track how these books are used in the library.Are they checked out? Please record your positive and negative feedback on these books and expect more challenges to come in the future. The interactive element of the Pride Display meant we could match them up and show that the community was responding positively to it.
She also recommends that libraries regularly review their collection policy plans, challenge forms, and harassment procedures. Curators and administrators need to put policies in place when library staff are being harassed by patrons and build a culture of zero tolerance. If Joan faces this herself, she’ll tell her patrons, ‘You have the option to change the way you’re talking to me.
The director and administrator have to think of the worst, such as when the white supremacist group, the Proud Boys, stormed the library during drag queen story hour. librarians should say, “I think this conversation could be better handled by the person in charge,” and the person in charge should be able to handle such situations. Librarians also need the opportunity to leave their desks when they are too busy and need a break.
Joanne says the incident has caused her to think differently about her community, even though there are more people complaining than supporting the library and exhibits. She feels that she doesn’t know her neighbors as well as she thought.
Joanne has received multiple emails accusing her of being a “groomer.” The library has her FOIA over her Pride content and she hopes it will happen again. It feels like a resurgence of these tactics from about a decade ago, which she hasn’t seen in recent years, but it’s brewing under the surface. While we expected it to come from demographics, we also discovered that it was actually young people who were leading the charge against pride displays.
Joan hopes that the increasing challenges of books in libraries don’t push good librarians out of their careers. This is a passion job and people go crazy because they love it. In this environment, that love and passion can easily be extinguished, and you’ll be tempted to take a job with better pay and more benefits without facing harassment. Because of this, it is not accepted by the community.
By documenting the community’s use and support of LGBTQ books in its collection, this challenge attempt at a small library in Illinois explores how librarians counter lies from groups seeking to ban books and exhibits. A great example of what can be done. For these book and library advocates, Joan said that the positive messages the library received about pride displays (even those that arrived before the display was up) were, if merely emotional, scales to complaints. I shared that it helped balance the So please let your library know that you support the queer books in your collection and the pride displays they have put up.
What about next year’s pride display? “We will not hesitate to offer a comprehensive display,” says Joan.
*We’ve made this librarian’s story anonymous, so Joanne isn’t her real name.
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