Letter to The Blackshear Times

This is a letter that I sent to The Blackshear Times.  My understanding it is in this week's paper, but I haven't seen the paper to fully verify that.

The version they have may be edited from this, which is their right.

 Editor, The Times

 

I love our public library. The staff is excellent, the community programs offered are great, and serve people with a wide variety of interests, including special displays for Black History Month, Women’s History Month, and Sexual Abuse Awareness Month. In addition, they can help you access books not only at the library but from other libraries. They have DVDs, audiobooks, and even an E-reader app.

The library is a public space. It is open and inclusive of everyone. Every. Single. Person. It is one place where wealth doesn’t matter – everyone is served equally. It respects and serves the diversity of religions of this area, including the many denominations of Christianity. It is open to all people, of all races and creeds, and, yes, of different sexual orientations.

One thing you are not free to do is try to exclude and discriminate. You may have as a tenant of your faith that leads you to condemn LGBTQ+ people. That’s discouraging, but it is your right to attend church and dwell in other private spaces where that belief is held. You cannot take that belief into a public space and exclude and make any group unwelcome for any reason.

To demonize a group simply because of who they are physically attracted to is wrong. To accuse that the mere mention of physical attraction is improper is also wrong. Physical attraction in and of itself is not sexualizing, as many who would like to exclude the LGBTQ+ would say.

If a woman is physically attracted to a man, does that mean she is sexualizing? She has the right to find books that feature heterosexual romance. To what degree that romance is physicalized may depend on the book’s age category, which librarians help regulate. Girls may want to read about princesses being rescued by princes, and adult women may want to read, uh, more assertive material. Those attracted to the same sex should also be able to find age-appropriate material. To be gay is no more sexualizing than to be straight. To see a picture of two Dads with their children is no more sexualizing than to see a man and a woman with their children.

A better example of sexualizing may be when very young girls are put in skimpy costumes and adult makeup to compete in beauty pageants or dance recitals.

Every parent has a right to be concerned about sexual predators. Statistically, they need to look closer to home, sometimes family members, but most often friends of the family, people in a position to gain access and trust. Coaches, youth pastors, preachers, and teachers are often in roles that predators use to acquire the “In” they need.

Does this mean you should avoid youth pastors, coaches, etc.? No. Many are safe and positive mentors. To blanketly condemn a whole group for the actions of a few is wrong. You must use caution. But you must not condemn entire groups. That leads only to bigotry and hate.

Some groups in our community are vilified, mistreated, marginalized, and excluded. That should not be true at our public library.

I don’t think displaying something for Pride Month is asking too much. I don’t believe the inclusion of a rainbow flag or rainbow symbolism is asking too much. It is never too much to extend the hand of kindness, inclusion, and love.

Everyone counts in the rainbow of diversity that is our open public Library—every single person.

A local organization that is fighting against censorship, book bans, and discrimination is the Okefenokee Library Alliance. They can be found on social media, including Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you stand for public libraries that are open and accessible to all, please check it out and consider joining.

Everyone has an equal right to the library’s resources. But no one has the right to base their participation on excluding other people – the people themselves, their books, their clubs, or their displays. Because the Library is for everyone.

Every. Single. Person.

 

Tom Strait