LGBTQ+ librarians grapple with attacks on books – and on themselves
Idaho Librarian June Meissner was wrapping up the day at the downtown Boise Public Library when a man asked her for help.
As an information services librarian, answering patron questions is part of Meissner’s daily job, and serving the community is one of her favorite parts of the job.
But when the man got close enough, “he took a swing at me and tried to hit me in the head,” said Meissner, a transgender woman. “I blocked it and he started shouting abuse and suggesting he was coming back to kill me.”
Global Pride Month events are in full swing to celebrate LGBTQ+ culture and rights. But it comes at a time when people who identify as LGBTQ+ say they are facing increasing challenges at work, ranging from being repeatedly misgendered to being physically abused.
Gender-nonconforming librarians in particular, like Meissner, are also struggling with the growing calls for book bans in the US, with books about gender identitysexual orientation and race top the list of most criticized titles, making the attacks all the more personal.
“When we see attacks on those books, we have to understand that these are also attacks on those kinds of people,” said Emily Drabinski, president of the American Library Association and a homosexual. “Having my identity weaponized against libraries and library staff, the people and institutions I care about most, has made this a difficult and painful year.”
The ALA said it has the highest number ever documented titles aimed at censorship in 2023 after more than 20 years of tracking – 4,240. That total surpassed the previous record set in 2022 by 65%, with Maia Kobabe’s coming-of-age story ‘Gender Queer’ topping the list for most criticized library book for the third year in a row.
Lawmakers are increasingly so Think of lawsuits, fines and even prison sentences for distributing books some consider inappropriate, including in Meissner’s home state of Idaho. Lawmakers there have passed legislation giving local prosecutors the power to file charges against public libraries and school libraries if they fail to keep “harmful” materials out of the reach of children. The new lawsigned by Idaho Governor Brad Little in April, it will go into effect on July 1.
“I think a lot of the political speech around it makes things more dangerous and worse for me,” Meissner said. “It’s so much politics and inciting the general public.”
Meissner’s own attacker was arrested and convictedand she says that while the vast majority of her interactions at work are positive, she still struggles to let her guard down and constantly assess whether a situation could become unsafe.
“As someone who is face to face with the public and trying to help people as much as possible, it really gets in the way,” she told The Associated Press, describing waiting to make eye contact with a patron “and and then, based on what I see when they look at me, that will tell me whether or not I should just let my guard down, let my guard down.
The Florida-based conservative nonprofit Moms for Liberty, which describes itself as a parental rights organization and refers to its members as “joyful warriors,” has spearheaded a nationwide effort to remove books that discuss race and gender identity .
But co-founder Tiffany Justice says the organization — which she says has more than 300 chapters in 48 states and more than 130,000 active members — is not anti-LGBTQ+, though Justice herself told the AP she thinks the Q in the acronym, which stands for queer or questioning, “must go in the trash.” And according to the ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom, approximately 38% of book challenges that “arise directly” from Moms for Liberty’s activities have LGBTQ+ themes.
Justice said Moms for Liberty is challenging books like Gender Queer — a graphic novel about a young person’s struggle with gender identity that includes illustrations of sexual contact, masturbation and a sex toy — because they consider the material sexually explicit, not because they address LGBTQ+ topics .
“The least interesting thing about a child should be his sexual orientation,” Justice said. “Why are we flooding them with sexual content?”
Despite the thousands of petitions to censor books about gender and sex, the legal standards for deeming material obscene or harmful to minors—and thus not protected speech under the First Amendment—are very specific and high, and courts have historically sided with librariessaid Vera Eidelman, a staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union who focuses on the right to free speech in the digital age.
“The mere fact that something describes sex, describes nudity, or even depicts those things is not enough to qualify it as an obscenity,” she said.
Regardless, the book ban movement has in many cases successfully limited access to materials in which LGBTQ+ youth may see themselves depicted.
Beginning June 1, libraries in Louisiana must allow parents or guardians to do so decide which books their child can view. M’issa Fleming, a public librarian in New Orleans who uses these pronouns, says the new law could make it even more dangerous for queer and trans children, who are already in prison. higher risk of becoming a victim of violence, substance use and suicide than their heterosexual, cisgender counterparts. And losing access to LGBTQ+-themed books can lead kids to turn to less trustworthy sources like Reddit.
“Public libraries could provide as many ways as possible to make it less dangerous to learn about yourself, and the law just added another challenge,” Fleming said.
Chaz Carey, a children’s librarian in Worthington, Ohio, knows firsthand how powerful books can be. Alison Bechdel’s 2006 graphic memoir “Fun Home,” in which the author comes to grips with her sexual orientation, changed Carey’s life as a teenager.
“I felt seen. It was like my whole body was breathing,” says Carey, who is queer and uses these pronouns. “It’s so important that these books stay on the shelves. They save lives.”
Carey says being a children’s librarian is a dream job, but the rise of book challenges and anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric is taking a mental toll. They are often mistreated at work, including by some clients who go out of their way to do so while expressing their political beliefs.
“The political environment is just one more layer of weight as we navigate our lives and our place in our community,” said Carey, president of ALA’s Rainbow Roundtable, which aims to meet the information needs of LGBTQ+ people.
What helps for Carey is “taking the time to be sad, and then choosing strange joy and pride.”
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