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Libraries: Sanctuaries for Sin
Jun 05, 2023 / Written by: John Horvat II
Libraries have become the latest battlefield in the Culture War
Once a place of learning where the good character of our youth was formed, the library has become the latest battlefield in the Culture War. On one side, concerned parents are horrified by the pro-LGBTQ children’s books found on library shelves. Conversely, rabid liberals denounce the “bannings” of these often pornographic books as violating readers' rights.
The clash between the two is becoming ever more intense. The liberal media try to reduce the debate to a narrative that portrays poor parents as backward book banners who keep vital information away from children.
However, parents are not preventing books from coming into the libraries. They are trying to get them out. No one seems to be asking how such a vast number of these books found their way into the library mainstream in the first place. This question should be at the center of the controversy.
If you live in or around the Chicago area, please consider joining our peaceful, legal and prayerful Rosary Rally on-site at this years American Library Association's convention on Saturday, June 24th – Find out more here!
A Conspiracy Theorist Could Not Make This Up
The answer is simple. These books are in the libraries because activists put them there. This infiltration of literature into libraries started in the seventies. Activists in the library field gradually introduced LGBTQ-themed books into school and public libraries—without permission, unannounced and unseen. They imposed their agenda upon their communities on a scale that is only now coming to light. Over the past two years, there have been 1,600 challenges to books already in libraries.
There is no need to contrive a conspiracy theory to make these affirmations. Liberals and librarians themselves tell the story. The liberal educational site, The 74, showed this step-by-step process in an article titled “How Libraries Came to be Sanctuaries for LGBT Kids.” The report shows how a steady stream of often sexual-explicit materials is directed to librarians sympathetic to the cause, who fast-track them to the shelves.
Libraries are sanctuaries for “LGBT Kids” on purpose. Not even the most creative conspiracy theorists could imagine the radical programs that these librarians have put together to create these sanctuaries.
A Pro-LGBTQ Network Forms
The 74 story explains how the move to mainstream LGBTQ materials began in the seventies in the aftermath of the 1969 Stonewall Riots in New York City. A new homosexual activism invaded all areas of the nation’s cultural life.
In 1971, the American Library Association formed its Task Force on Gay Liberation to provide a public space for the homosexual cause. The association relied upon activists like Michael McConnell, a homosexual librarian specializing in curating LGBTQ books for library collections. His “marriage” is the subject of a 2021 children’s book titled “Two Grooms on a Cake: The Story of America’s First Gay Wedding,” which is the target of parents’ complaints since it clearly imposes an LGBTQ theme and targets children.
Early activists like McConnell lobbied publishers to target libraries with “queer”-friendly books. They arranged regular training for K-12 school librarians on how to encourage LGBTQ-confused students. One set of skits taught reference desk staff how to deal with fearful patrons who were embarrassed to ask for these highly-sexualized materials. Librarians were shown how to display these materials, mixing them with other causes to minimize controversy. Gradually, librarians learned how to turn the public library from a haven of learning to a sanctuary of “safety and privacy.”
Another influential activist of the Task Force was the late Barbara Gittings, a lesbian librarian from the early days of the struggle. She openly tells of her efforts to change the library culture in her book, Gays in Libraryland: The Gay and Lesbian Task Force of the American Library Association—The First 16 Years.
The Network Grows
The result of all these gradual efforts is that LGBTQ-related materials are now plentiful and available for all library audiences, whether adult, student or children.
The sixties-sounding Task Force on Gay Liberation has morphed into a woke Rainbow Round Table. It focuses on screening LGBTQ-themed books to see which ones get shelved. It also gives awards to books that make the prize-winners more attractive to librarians.
In 2018, the American Association of School Librarians published “Defending Intellectual Freedom: LGBTQ+ Materials in School Libraries,” which teaches staff how to explain and defend these materials smuggled into the libraries.
In addition, libraries do not need to buy the books. An organization called GLSEN offers “Rainbow Libraries,” consisting of boxed 10-book sets of age-appropriate books delivered to librarians with posters and other classroom resources. The boxed sets are now in 1,800 schools in 28 states. The 74 article notes that GLSEN plans to be in three thousand schools by the end of the year.
In other words, the laborious attempt to get these materials out of the library will be in vain unless parents can turn off the spigot spewing forth these often graphic publications free of charge thanks to pro-LGBTQ activists who make no secret of their goals.
If you live in or around the Chicago area, please consider joining our peaceful, legal and prayerful Rosary Rally on-site at this years American Library Association's convention on Saturday, June 24th – Find out more here!
Not a Healthcare Issue but Child Abuse
The LGBTQ library network frames the debate as a child health issue. Its activists claim that the library is often the only safe space where inquiring youth can discover their sexuality. Without these resources, young people can despair, and lives will be lost. Not having these materials, they argue, will create a non-welcoming and hostile environment for the LGBTQ-confused student.
In an Internet age where everything is available online, these claims hold no water. Furthermore, there is no proof that lives will be lost. What is known is that the content of many of these books is so indecent that it cannot be described in polite society.
The effort to turn libraries into promotion centers for these obscene materials is to validate the LGBTQ lifestyle in the minds of youth. The goal is to tear down some of the last barriers of modesty and decency that defend childhood innocence. Under the false banner of health care, children will be exposed to pornographic materials forbidden by law. This is child abuse to the highest degree.
Reframing the Debate
The debate needs to be reframed into a moral one. It is wrong to subject anyone, especially children, to pornographic portrayals of unnatural vice. When prominently displayed (as in June), all these libraries are now turned into “sanctuaries” of sin. In the effort to create “safe spaces” for LGBTQ-confused children, activist librarians have turned them into unsafe spaces for countless Christian and Catholic children who wish to avoid occasions of sin, vital to their salvation.
Parents are the guardians of their children before God and the nation. They have the duty to keep the children (and themselves) away from these materials that are so filthy that indignant parents who attempt to read them at school board meetings are ordered to stop in the name of decency.
The True Nature of this Culture War
The 74 article and others show that the library controversy is not the product of paranoid parents trying to prevent books from libraries. This is a brutal culture war, the product of a calculated and deliberate process of placing these books in libraries over decades.
It is not enough that books be removed. The networks supplying steady streams of fifth into America’s libraries must be stopped. The nature of this culture war calls for ensuring the activists and library associations no longer work contrary to parents and the community. Libraries should not be unsafe, hostile places where sin and vice are celebrated.
Indeed, this struggle is much bigger than library shelves. The LGBTQ themes now aggressively appear in beer ads, department stores and baseball games. Everywhere it forces itself upon the public square. The Culture War cannot be ignored. Everyone has to take a stand.
If you live in or around the Chicago area, please consider joining our peaceful, legal and prayerful Rosary Rally on-site at this years American Library Association's convention on Saturday, June 24th – Find out more here!
