A Pinellas official targeted a library Pride display. Now it’s gone.

PALM HARBOR — Throughout June, Pinellas County Commissioner Chris Latvala repeatedly trained his ire on a small patch of bright color: a display in the children’s section of the Palm Harbor Library that celebrates Pride month.

Now, after weeks of pressure from Latvala, and a smattering of complaints outweighed by messages of support, the display has been removed.

The display was up Wednesday, when a Tampa Bay Times reporter and photographer visited the library. Library director Gene Coppola said then that the complaints had triggered a review by the Palm Harbor Community Services Agency, the public board that oversees the library. It was removed hours later, library employees said Friday.

Coppola did not respond to requests for a follow-up interview. Library employees said Friday that he was on vacation and that the library would not contact him for comment. Phil Phillips, the chairperson of the Community Services Agency’s volunteer board, declined to comment.

Described by Latvala as “massive” and “like a Pride parade,” the display took up a sliver of the library’s children’s wing. Twenty-five books about LGBTQ+ characters and topics, designated by publishers as appropriate for kids from toddlers to preteens, sat atop a shelving unit. A Pride flag was draped over the endcap, with a smaller trans pride flag on top.

Coppola said the display reflected the library’s mission to be community-minded, inclusive and politically neutral. The books may not be for everyone, he said, but that’s no reason to put them away.

“I think we are a safe haven for all kinds of people,” he said.

Across a public meeting, emails and social media posts, Latvala, a Republican elected to the County Commission last fall, took aim at the display and Coppola. In one post, he wrote that “the vast majority of residents in North (Pinellas) County were opposed to this” and that “Gene is no longer fit to run the Palm Harbor Library.”

On another post, Latvala replied to a commenter who suggested opponents of the display check out the books and refuse to return them.

“Some folks have already checked out these books. And may not be returning them,” he wrote, followed by a smiley-face emoji.

Latvala said in an interview that he based his statement about resident opposition on previous election results in North Pinellas, which have favored Republican candidates, even as the messages of support for the library outnumbered those that criticized it.

He denied that he wanted Coppola fired. After his statement about the library director was read back to him, he said he would leave Coppola’s employment status up to the Community Services Agency, which has the power to hire and fire a director.

Latvala never saw the display in person, he said. He based his descriptions and criticisms on photos he’d received.

He was the first person to complain.

A commissioner’s complaints

Coppola, who has spent 23 years of his 40-year library career in Palm Harbor, said he was prepared for some backlash this year. LGBTQ+ issues are a political flashpoint nationally and in Florida. State lawmakers have attempted to block access to gender-affirming care for trans youth and Medicaid recipients. Scores of books have been restricted or removed from Florida schools.

“I think I would be sticking my head in the sand to think that we would not have more feedback,” he said.

There are older echoes from around Tampa Bay, too. In 2005, debate over a Pride display at a library in Town ‘N Country led to Hillsborough County banning any public acknowledgment of Pride, a policy it repealed in 2013.

Still, the vitriol has been unusual for the Palm Harbor Library. The library’s Pride displays started 10 or 15 years ago, Coppola said. Neither he nor Marisa Steuer, the library’s head of youth services, could recall any complaints about previous years’ Pride displays.

That changed with an email from Latvala on June 7.

“Do you believe young kids should be taught about transgenderism?” he wrote to Coppola, using a term that the advocacy group GLAAD says is used “to dehumanize transgender people.”

A day later, as Coppola presented the library’s budgetary requests for the next year during a County Commission work session, Latvala raised the issue publicly for the first time. He later posted a video of the exchange to YouTube, under the title “Chris Latvala fights to protect children,” which he shared to his Facebook page.

He doesn’t believe the library should get rid of the books, he said, but he doesn’t think they should be on display for children.

When Latvala wondered why the library’s other sections don’t have such displays, Coppola corrected him: There are Pride displays in the teen and adult sections, too. The director later added that seasonal displays are a standard practice for the library, which has similar setups for federal holidays, religious celebrations, and history and heritage months.

Many governments in the region hoist a flag for Pride month, and earlier this month the County Commission issued a proclamation officially recognizing June as Pride month. St. Petersburg, about a half-hour drive south of Palm Harbor, holds one of the largest Pride celebrations in the Southeast, with a parade downtown scheduled for Saturday.

In an interview, Latvala denied responsibility for the complaints that followed his, “none of which were coordinated by me.” As of Thursday, the library had received 17 complaints about the display, including Latvala’s initial email. More than half of them came in the day after the meeting and his Facebook post, and several cited Latvala’s comments. Some of those writers described books about LGBTQ+ people as “pornographic,” “perverted,” “evil” or “repulsive.”

Fifty other emails praised the Pride display. Some writers identified themselves as parents who regularly take their children to the library, and others said they’d grown up in Palm Harbor and were glad to know today’s kids had access to such books.

“Thank you for making my kids feel safe and loved,” one person wrote.

Latvala waved off the positive emails, saying some came from people outside the area as part of a “social media push.”

“They exist here”

Coppola was personally hurt by Latvala calling him unfit, he said, but he respected the commissioner’s opinion.

“I treat this issue the same way I would with any issue, which I think is the right way — to take the high road,” he said.

The books picked for the display were already on children’s shelves as part of the library’s collection, librarians said. They included “Melissa,” a novel following a week in the life of a transgender fourth-grader; “They’re So Flamboyant,” a picture book about a group of flamingos gaining acceptance in their new bird-neighborhood; and “Who Are You?: The Kid’s Guide to Gender Identity,” which Latvala said he found particularly troubling, for explaining the meaning of words including “cisgender” to a young audience.

Many of the books have come out in the past several years, as representations of trans and queer people in media have become more common, said Steuer, the head of youth services.

“And they exist here in Palm Harbor, too,” she said on Wednesday, while the display was still up. “I think I would be remiss in my job if I didn’t have books representing everybody. And there is no need for you to take it home if it’s not right for your family.”