Restrictions of LGBTQ literature harm the wider community. 

By Erica Wilson

One side of the room clapped and cheered at the Craighead County Jonesboro Public Library Board meeting following the announcement that the annual June Pride display would no longer be in the children’s section. But Rosemary Heyl’s 12-year old, a transgender boy, turned to Heyl’s husband and said “Daddy, I need to go to the bathroom.” He locked himself in a stall and started crying, as the feeling of people cheering his exclusion weighed on him. The Heyl family has always loved visiting the library, making it something of a Father’s Day Tradition. Walking into the children’s section a few years ago, her LGBTQ kid saw the Pride display and felt validated, but then witnessed the controversy surrounding its presence. It was a crushing weight. Heyl’s husband spoke at the next board meeting, calling people out by saying “You say you’re protecting children, but who’s protecting my child? How was excluding them in their best interest?” Not a single person could give him an answer, Heyl said. 

Trends in library programming censorship efforts have paralleled nationwide book-banning attempts and targeted legislation toward librarians, many of which have been left feeling demoralized and undervalued. Groups such as the Freedom to Read Foundation and the National Coalition Against Censorship have rallied around librarians. Christine Emeran, NCAC’s youth free expression program director, said she thinks the show of support and a provision of resources is essential to avoid librarians feeling isolated and self-censoring. 

Jonesboro Public Library Director Vanessa Adams said librarians still organize an annual Pride display in both the teen and adult sections. Controversy over library programming began before Adams started her position, when programmers experienced backlash over hosting a transgender author in 2019, Adams said. It was part of the library’s annual author event in which schools would typically attend as a field trip, but did not that year due to the rise in safety concerns, according to a Facebook statement that clarified no one was required to attend and the author was there to discuss her book. 

And amid 2021 backlash surrounding the Pride display and children’s books with LGBTQ themes, the library lost both its director and assistant director, the latter of which cited threats to her well-being in her resignation letter. Adams stepped into the director role on Valentine’s Day in 2022. “I stepped into a mess here,” she laughs. Since she started, she had only seen two book reconsideration requests as of mid-April, but book-banning efforts have been rapidly increasing across the nation. The American Library Association reported 1, 269 demands to censor library books and resources nationwide in 2022, nearly doubling the 729 challenges reported in 2021. Books targeted for censorship tallied 2, 571, a 38% increase from the previous year. The vast majority of those titles included LGBTQ or BIPOC content.

“The idea that information is scary or should be hidden away, it never stops with the books,” Heyl said. “The idea that LGBTQ literature is too inappropriate for a child to have in their hands just, it’s a very quick jump to LGBTQ people are too dangerous to be around kids, and that just leads to people getting hurt.”    

Adams, who grew up in Jonesboro, recalls how some of her peers expressed feelings to her like, ‘When I was in high school, I wasn’t sure if I was gay or not and fortunately the Jonesboro Public Library had some books about it that I could read.’ 

“That’s why I think there should be something on the shelf for everyone,” Adams said. “I do believe you need a balanced collection, but I do believe there should be something on the shelf for everyone so that they can see themselves in the literature.” 

Emily Walker, who previously worked as the Fayetteville Public Library’s assistant youth and teen librarian for just over 3 years, strived to make the space as inclusive, comfortable and encouraging as possible for anyone who walked through the doors. As a queer librarian, Walker said pointing kids toward representation in books was especially important to her. It was not until college that she read a book that included specific representation that she identified with, and it is essential to her that kids have the ability to read happy, positive stories that they can resonate with. She co-ran a teen book club and recalled a time when one of the teens and their parents approached her. They thanked Walker for helping them feel so supported, citing that the book club was helping them feel safe and comfortable with their identity.  Each June, Walker hosted Pride bingo that teens could fill out, with spaces such as “read a fantasy book with a queer character” or “read a book with a trans main character.” She found it so rewarding to provide an avenue for creating excitement among kids about simply feeling seen, she said. 

However, her programming efforts did not come without pushback. In August of last year, Walker worked to hold a Back to School Bash at the library geared for transgender and queer teens. The event had to be shut down because the hosts were receiving hundreds, if not thousands, of threatening phone calls and emails, she said. 

Adams recalls a Blacklight party hosted at the Jonesboro library in which people took to social media to make comments such as “I wouldn’t take my child and let them be in the dark with those librarians.” People referred to the librarians as pedophiles and groomers. The slandering language was utterly and completely demoralizing for the staff, Adams said.

With librarians now fearing for their safety or their jobs, targeted legislation is simply adding fuel to the fire. Senate Bill 81, now titled Act372, would hold librarians criminally liable who are found to have provided “obscene materials” to minors. Both Adams and the Fayetteville Public Library’s director Willow Fitzgibbon share the same sentiment: Their libraries do not harbor any obscene material. Publishers take the definition of obscenity, marked by being offensive to moral principles, into consideration, and Adams pointed specifically to the Miller’s test, which has three parts. It includes whether the average person would find that the work appeals to prurient interest, depicts or describes sexual or excretory functions in a patently offensive way, and whether the work lacks artistic, political or scientific value. Adams says that for the library to get in trouble for having obscene materials being obscene on their shelves, the term would have to be redefined in the Senate and the House.

As of right now when someone challenges a book at the Jonesboro Public Library, they are given a reconsideration request form. It states that library officials will not consider the challenge if the person has not read the book in its entirety, asks for specific objection examples and recommendations for books to replace it. A committee of library staff has to read the entire book and then meet to decide whether to remove it or move it to another section. With Act372, the power of the final decision would not rest with the library board, but with elected officials if someone were to contest the board’s decision. A similar process is in place at the library in Fayetteville, and the city’s library staff have never had to move a book to a different collection or remove it entirely as a result of challenges. 

“Now, it’s been taken out of (the committee’s) hands and put into the hands of the city council, which are elected officials and I don’t think elected officials need to be deciding what’s on our shelves, because it’s political then,” Adams said. “It infuriates me, every librarian in Arkansas, we’re all mad.” 

Fitzgibbon thinks that any time material is removed from the library or people lose access to material, there is potential damage for members of the community. 

“Just because the material isn’t for somebody doesn’t mean it’s not going to be of value or have important information for somebody else,” Fitzgibbon said. “We really do believe in the First Amendment right, that people should have the access to explore ideas and information, and part of (it) involves having ideas out there that you don’t agree with, but it’s just important to be able to provide access to different ways people think and different perspectives.”

Walker said librarians share the sentiment that their job hinges on whether or not they can make inclusive book recommendations to kids without fearing they could be putting themselves in jeopardy.

“It’s a fear of all of us, my coworkers and myself, that we’re not going to be able to help these kids that need it and want it and we’re being criminalized for what?” Walker said. “Reading from every perspective is so important because even if you don’t quite know someone’s point of view, if you read from their point of view you’re going to be more empathetic and understand where they’re coming from. It just broadens your horizons.”   

Overall, Emeran thinks society should place more trust in librarians. 

“They do have credentials, they are trained (to select materials),” Emeran said. “There should be more respect to their practice and to their professional judgment.” 

The library is more than just a repository for knowledge, Heyl said. It is a community hub, one that’s welcoming and inclusive environment should be preserved. At the Jonesboro library, community members gather for karate or yoga classes, research their family tree in the genealogy department, attend arts and craft fairs or summer concerts, and can gather materials for their garden in the seed library. It’s a safe place for people to go, one where people are not expected to spend any money, Heyl said.  

“(It’s important for librarians to know) that they know they have people in their corner, and they know that they have more people than the very vocal handful of people in our community that have decided to absolutely run them into the mud, it’s shameful what these people have done to these librarians,” Heyl said. 

With many librarians feeling like they have come under fire for programming and book selection efforts, Emeran encourages community members to show their support by becoming active in their communities, whether it be through attending school board elections, budget meetings or writing letters in support of challenged books. One of the best ways to combat censorship is to call it out, and the First Amendment holds firm that no particular viewpoint or belief is allowed to dictate what students can learn and read. 

“I think that as community members, our presence is essential to defeat, you know, their opponents who are usually single individuals with particular views and to show that there’s a wider support for what librarians do,” Emeran said.