Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
Editorials & Other Articles
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Public libraries are the latest front in culture war battle over books
VIRGINIA
Public libraries are the latest front in culture war battle over books
By Gregory S. Schneider
July 25, 2023 at 6:00 a.m. EDT
A crowd packs a July 10 meeting of the Samuels Public Library board in Front Royal, Va., to discuss removing books that some find objectionable. (Gregory S. Schneider/The Washington Post)
FRONT ROYAL, Va. — Melody Hotek watched the library board room filling up and knew she was in for a tough night. Soon every seat was taken and people lined the walls, some 120 in total, with two sheriff’s deputies on hand for any trouble. ... “This is quite a crowd, and I am nervous,” Hotek said into the microphone as she convened her first meeting as chairwoman of the Samuels Public Library trustees. In the two years she’d been a member of the board, the 70-year-old grandmother was used to quiet sessions with zero spectators. ... Now the crowd was buzzing and jittery. A few months earlier, a handful of residents had begun demanding the removal of certain books in the children’s section of Warren County’s only public library. Most of the titles involved LGBTQ+ themes. Powered by support from conservative media, the group persuaded the county’s Board of Supervisors in June to withhold 75 percent of the library’s funding until something was done to address the complaints. ... At the July 10 trustees meeting where Hotek began her term as chairwoman, residents on both sides of the issue had turned out to see how the library would respond. The clock was ticking. Samuels Public Library had only enough money to operate through September unless it could persuade the county to release the rest.
The situation in Front Royal, about 70 miles west of Washington at the northern end of the Shenandoah Valley, marks an escalation of book wars in Virginia and across the country. In recent years, clashes over whether to ban books — part of a national movement of parental grievance against cultural change in education — have largely played out in school libraries in Texas, Florida, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Virginia. Now the issue is spreading to public libraries, too.
{snip}
Exactly what set off the issue in Front Royal is unclear. ... By one account, as told in a publication of the conservative Family Research Council, a woman’s 4-year-old grandson visited the library earlier this year and saw a sexually explicit book in the children’s section that the grandmother found appalling. ... That story could not be corroborated; the person who described it in the FRC publication, Thomas Hinnant, declined to answer questions from a Washington Post reporter. The library’s supporters insist the tale is apocryphal.
{snip}
Though both sides had arrived primed for battle, the rules of the library trustees imposed limitations: only five speakers total, for three minutes each. ... Shouting broke out as soon as one of the book opponents tried to divide her time with another speaker. It reached a fever pitch when {local resident Mark Egger, 67, a piano teacher,} took the microphone. He wanted extra time. He argued with hecklers. He slammed the American Library Association for removing the name of “Little House on the Prairie” author Laura Ingalls Wilder from its children’s book award because she wasn’t “woke enough.” ... “Maybe if her book was called ‘The Little Transgender Fairy on the Prairie,’ they would have kept her name on the award,” he said, to laughter and angry shouts that were equally thunderous.
{snip}
{Delores Oates, a member of the Warren County Board of Supervisors who is running for a House of Delegates seat as a Republican}, posted an essay to an online Catholic civic group that said the library was still out of line. ... “I support the removal of pornographic literature and severing ties with the ALA,” Oates wrote. Most of the library board “should be replaced by new members who care about the well-being of children. … We set an example for the rest of the country to follow — residents using their political power to demand accountability from government officials taking cues from the radical left.”
{snip}
By Gregory S. Schneider
Greg Schneider covers Virginia from the Richmond bureau. He was The Washington Post's business editor for more than seven years, and before that served stints as deputy business editor, national security editor and technology editor. He has also covered aviation security, the auto industry and the defense industry for The Post. Twitter https://twitter.com/SchneiderG
Public libraries are the latest front in culture war battle over books
By Gregory S. Schneider
July 25, 2023 at 6:00 a.m. EDT
A crowd packs a July 10 meeting of the Samuels Public Library board in Front Royal, Va., to discuss removing books that some find objectionable. (Gregory S. Schneider/The Washington Post)
FRONT ROYAL, Va. — Melody Hotek watched the library board room filling up and knew she was in for a tough night. Soon every seat was taken and people lined the walls, some 120 in total, with two sheriff’s deputies on hand for any trouble. ... “This is quite a crowd, and I am nervous,” Hotek said into the microphone as she convened her first meeting as chairwoman of the Samuels Public Library trustees. In the two years she’d been a member of the board, the 70-year-old grandmother was used to quiet sessions with zero spectators. ... Now the crowd was buzzing and jittery. A few months earlier, a handful of residents had begun demanding the removal of certain books in the children’s section of Warren County’s only public library. Most of the titles involved LGBTQ+ themes. Powered by support from conservative media, the group persuaded the county’s Board of Supervisors in June to withhold 75 percent of the library’s funding until something was done to address the complaints. ... At the July 10 trustees meeting where Hotek began her term as chairwoman, residents on both sides of the issue had turned out to see how the library would respond. The clock was ticking. Samuels Public Library had only enough money to operate through September unless it could persuade the county to release the rest.
The situation in Front Royal, about 70 miles west of Washington at the northern end of the Shenandoah Valley, marks an escalation of book wars in Virginia and across the country. In recent years, clashes over whether to ban books — part of a national movement of parental grievance against cultural change in education — have largely played out in school libraries in Texas, Florida, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Virginia. Now the issue is spreading to public libraries, too.
{snip}
Exactly what set off the issue in Front Royal is unclear. ... By one account, as told in a publication of the conservative Family Research Council, a woman’s 4-year-old grandson visited the library earlier this year and saw a sexually explicit book in the children’s section that the grandmother found appalling. ... That story could not be corroborated; the person who described it in the FRC publication, Thomas Hinnant, declined to answer questions from a Washington Post reporter. The library’s supporters insist the tale is apocryphal.
{snip}
Though both sides had arrived primed for battle, the rules of the library trustees imposed limitations: only five speakers total, for three minutes each. ... Shouting broke out as soon as one of the book opponents tried to divide her time with another speaker. It reached a fever pitch when {local resident Mark Egger, 67, a piano teacher,} took the microphone. He wanted extra time. He argued with hecklers. He slammed the American Library Association for removing the name of “Little House on the Prairie” author Laura Ingalls Wilder from its children’s book award because she wasn’t “woke enough.” ... “Maybe if her book was called ‘The Little Transgender Fairy on the Prairie,’ they would have kept her name on the award,” he said, to laughter and angry shouts that were equally thunderous.
{snip}
{Delores Oates, a member of the Warren County Board of Supervisors who is running for a House of Delegates seat as a Republican}, posted an essay to an online Catholic civic group that said the library was still out of line. ... “I support the removal of pornographic literature and severing ties with the ALA,” Oates wrote. Most of the library board “should be replaced by new members who care about the well-being of children. … We set an example for the rest of the country to follow — residents using their political power to demand accountability from government officials taking cues from the radical left.”
{snip}
By Gregory S. Schneider
Greg Schneider covers Virginia from the Richmond bureau. He was The Washington Post's business editor for more than seven years, and before that served stints as deputy business editor, national security editor and technology editor. He has also covered aviation security, the auto industry and the defense industry for The Post. Twitter https://twitter.com/SchneiderG
The Washington Stand
NEWS
Rural Virginia Parents Fight for the Removal of Pornographic Kids Books from Public Library
Dan Hart
June 14, 2023
In a victory for a grassroots movement of concerned parents and citizens of a small town in the Shenandoah Valley of northern Virginia, the county Board of Supervisors has agreed to restrict the funds of a public library until an agreement can be reached on what to do with dozens of pornographic books for kids that were found there.
On June 6, hundreds of local Catholics and other concerned citizens packed a Warren County, Virginia Board of Supervisors meeting in Front Royal to make their voices heard in opposition to dozens of pornographic children’s books that were found on the shelves at the Samuels Public Library.
“This is not literature. This is smut,” one dad said after reading an excerpt about anal sex from “This Book Is Gay.” Another soon-to-be mom discussed the book “It’s Perfectly Normal,” which is aimed at pre-teens and includes cartoon depictions of naked couples in various sex positions as well as discussion of masturbation and abortion. “Ideally, funding the library is important, but a sense of decency is owed the community before funding is owed to the library,” she said.
The grassroots movement, which has become known as “Clean Up Samuels Library,” announced on Wednesday that the Board of Supervisors had agreed to address the concerns of the community during a meeting on Tuesday night.
“The Board of Supervisors appropriated 100% of the funding for Samuels Library, but restricted 75% of it until September while board members negotiate with the library about what to do regarding these books,” the group stated in a press release. “The funds will be in a separate bank account until a deal is worked out.”
{snip}
NEWS
Rural Virginia Parents Fight for the Removal of Pornographic Kids Books from Public Library
Dan Hart
June 14, 2023
In a victory for a grassroots movement of concerned parents and citizens of a small town in the Shenandoah Valley of northern Virginia, the county Board of Supervisors has agreed to restrict the funds of a public library until an agreement can be reached on what to do with dozens of pornographic books for kids that were found there.
On June 6, hundreds of local Catholics and other concerned citizens packed a Warren County, Virginia Board of Supervisors meeting in Front Royal to make their voices heard in opposition to dozens of pornographic children’s books that were found on the shelves at the Samuels Public Library.
“This is not literature. This is smut,” one dad said after reading an excerpt about anal sex from “This Book Is Gay.” Another soon-to-be mom discussed the book “It’s Perfectly Normal,” which is aimed at pre-teens and includes cartoon depictions of naked couples in various sex positions as well as discussion of masturbation and abortion. “Ideally, funding the library is important, but a sense of decency is owed the community before funding is owed to the library,” she said.
The grassroots movement, which has become known as “Clean Up Samuels Library,” announced on Wednesday that the Board of Supervisors had agreed to address the concerns of the community during a meeting on Tuesday night.
“The Board of Supervisors appropriated 100% of the funding for Samuels Library, but restricted 75% of it until September while board members negotiate with the library about what to do regarding these books,” the group stated in a press release. “The funds will be in a separate bank account until a deal is worked out.”
{snip}