Donations flood Pa. library after elected officials call LGBTQ community there a hate group

A small library in southcentral Pennsylvania wanted $3,000 more in county funding in 2022. County leaders said they could not provide the extra money because the library would soon be hosting meetings of a "hate group."

That "hate group" was actually a support group for members of the LGBTQ+ community in Fulton County, a county of fewer than 15,000 people on the Maryland state line in the Appalachian Mountains.

The small group for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people was going to meet occasionally at Fulton County Library in McConnellsburg. The library's director and a staffer at a local health care facility worked together to create the group after people expressed interest in one.

Supporters near and far have since donated nearly $30,000 combined to two fundraisers for the Friends of Fulton County Library. That's 10 times more money than the library asked for in the first place.

“It’s wrong that a library that functions for our entire community and does so many good things is the one that is going to be – that is not going to get the funding it needs, have the money it needs because of these personal, misguided biases,” said Sarah Cutchall, a mom of three whose Facebook fundraiser has raised more than $9,600 in five days.

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This is the first controversy Jamie Brambley has experienced in her 25 years working at the library.

"We were disheartened by it all," the library director said. "We certainly don't seek controversy. We're a nonpartisan organization that welcomes everyone and we seek to have programming and materials for everyone in the community."

Supporters began stepping up after the local newspaper, the Fulton County News, published a story last week reporting on the Nov. 2 meeting where the three county commissioners discussed the Fulton County Library's request for an increase of $3,000 on the $12,000 in county funding it received this year.

The increase would have restored the library's county funding to what it got until 2010, when the budget was cut amid the recession, Brambley told the Chambersburg Public Opinion on Tuesday. County funding accounted for about 3.6% of the library's overall budget last year, she added; other funding comes from the state, grants and fundraising.

According to the Fulton County News, commissioners Randy Bunch and Stuart Ulsh, both Republicans, said they could not OK increasing funding for an organization that supports a hate group. When commissioner Paula Shives, a Democrat, asked them to clarify, they both "responded in their own words that the LGBTQ+ community is a hate group, in their opinion," the newspaper reported.

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When Shives again asked for clarification, Bunch said, "If we support them, we have to support Proud Boys and Black Lives Matter," according to the newspaper's report.

Ulsh turned the conversation to Muslims, asking if people who follow Islam are wanted in Fulton County.

The Public Opinion attended the budget-discussion portion of this week's commissioners' meeting, on Tuesday. Asked to confirm why he did not support increasing the library's funding, Ulsh said it came down to the county having no more money to allocate.

Immediately, a Fulton County News reporter asked why he did not say this previously when he identified an LGBTQ group as a hate group.

Ulsh said only Bunch used those words, not him. As the reporter pushed back, Ulsh asked Shives for her recollection.

"I know Randy said it and you (were) backing him up," Shives said.

Bunch was not present. He has not responded to a request for comment. The minutes from the Nov. 2 meeting were not available as of Wednesday.

For her part, Shives told the Public Opinion she was OK with granting the library's funding increase but ultimately got on board with no increase after the "hate group" discussion for fear that her colleagues would cut some or all of the library's funding.

Ulsh confirmed Tuesday that the decision to not increase the library's funding would stand. The draft budget is to be advertised to the public starting next week.

In a statement, the ACLU of Pennsylvania said Fulton County's commissioners are "punishing their local library because it is a place where LGBTQ&T people gather."

"The First Amendment doesn't allow government officials to discriminate based on disagreement with a message, and our legal team is researching this situation," said Witold Walczak, legal director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania. "The commissioners have a responsibility to their community and that includes LGBQ&T people and Muslims. We are worse off as a country when people face discrimination simply because of who they are. Gay, lesbian, bisexual, queer, and transgender folks are just trying to live their lives like everyone else. Equating this gathering of community members to a hate group is ludicrous."

Commissioners' meetings have not been formally recorded, but Ulsh said they would be from here on out.

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Emily Best almost could not believe what she was reading after the local new article was shared in a group chat.

"I wished I could say I was more surprised by what was said by the Republican commissioners about the support group for LGBTQ folks," she said. "... I just couldn't believe that they were saying these things publicly. That to me is unAmerican. It definitely doesn't seem to be a very Christian thing to say."

Best, who lived in McConnellsburg for five years until recently and often took her young son to the library, made a GoFundMe. She hoped to raise $5,000, enough to cover the additional funding the library sought and a bit more.

She was blown away when that goal was reached within hours. By Wednesday morning, more than $21,000 has been raised.

The success shows how important local libraries are, she said.

"Libraries can be a place to go when you maybe aren’t part of the majority group in this community," Best said. "For kids, libraries can be lifesavers. Maybe this small community doesn't accept you, but in the library, you can find stories about people like you and you can get through this."

Cutchall, the host of the Facebook fundraiser, said the amount of support the library is getting "makes (her) want to cry." She said she did not intend to provoke people to attack Bunch and Ulsh and they have a right to their opinions, but they were wrong to use their positions to make funding decisions based on personal biases.

"I hope that things change, that people realize that saying those things are wrong, that believing those things are wrong," she said. "The biggest change I hope to see is the LGBTQ+ community realizes they have allies that they may not have known before. People are in their corner and have their back. Wrong is wrong."

What is the LGBTQ support group?

The LGBTQ support group will serve as a safe space where members can be their authentic selves, said Catya Bookhamer, who developed the group with Brambley.

Bookhamer, outpatient manager at True North Wellness in McConnellsburg, is keeping some aspects of the group private for safety reasons. It will consist of more than five but fewer than 10 members, and new members will be considered each quarter (interested people can fill out an application at Fulton County Library). Meetings will be hybrid, and in-person locations won't be made public.

As the daughter of two moms, Bookhamer always looked out for ways to help people in the LGBTQ community. She started thinking about starting a support group after a community health needs assessment showed a need for one in the area.

Around the same time, Brambley from Fulton County Library contacted Bookhamer after library patrons expressed interest in such a group. The two women developed a proposal that included meetings at the library, and the library's board approved it.

Bookhamer said the library's funding request was not connected to the group and that none of the extra funding would have been earmarked for it.

The fundraisers that resulted from the denied funding will have a big impact on the people who will participate in the support group and others in the LGBTQ community, Bookhamer said.

"The group members know they have support right here. It's not just statewide or nationwide supporters or major organizations...it's their neighbors. The folks that visit the library. We have allies just popping up in every corner of the county that are emailing and trying to show support."

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How might the library spend the money?

The library "will continue to provide open access to materials, programming and facilities to all community members in accordance with all Pennsylvania state laws," regardless of how much money it gets from the county, Brambley said.

The successful fundraisers should help with some big wants, though.

"There is a lot more we could do with additional funding," Brambley said.

The library would like to create a "maker space" with a 3-D printer and other materials and resources for craftspeople. It needs new computers, as the current ones will not be able to handle the coming upgrade to Windows 11. The library also wants to expand its popular hot-spot lending program, which gives people Wi-Fi access free of charge.

Fulton County Library has also been wanting to open a third branch, in the southern end of the county.

"That has been a long-term goal of ours. And all that requires...a steady source of predictable funding," Brambley said.

Amber South can be reached at asouth@publicopinionnews.com.

This article originally appeared on Chambersburg Public Opinion: Donations flood PA library after LGBTQ community labeled 'hate group'