School board candidate checks out many LGBT books from library so others can't see them

Jillian Atelsek, The Frederick News-Post, Md.
·3 min read
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Jun. 3—A Frederick County Board of Education candidate said she checked out all of the books from an LGBT pride month display at the Brunswick Public Library to make the library a "safe place for children."

Heather Fletcher checked out the roughly 20 books on Tuesday so that other patrons would not be able to read them, she told the News-Post on Thursday. She said she also took a cup of pins with pronouns — often used as a sign of gender identity — printed on them.

Fletcher said she was "disturbed" by the display and worried it would prompt "age-inappropriate" questions from young children. She said she didn't want her three children to see the word "queer" on a book and that she removed the items after trying, unsuccessfully, to convince the staff to move the books out of the main lobby area.

"This has nothing to do with the gay community," Fletcher said. "It has to do with the preservation of innocence."

She said Thursday that she would no longer patronize any county libraries.

Fletcher said on Friday that she had returned the books. She shared a photo that showed some of the titles of books she checked out:

—"How to Survive a Plague: The Inside Story of How Citizens and Scientists Tamed AIDS" by David France

—"We Are Everywhere: Protest, Power, and Pride in the History of Queer Liberation" by Matthew Riemer and Leighton Brown

—"Indecent Advances: A Hidden History of True Crime and Prejudice Before Stonewall" by James Polchin

—"When Your Child is Gay: What You Need to Know" by Wesley C. Davidson and Jonathan L. Tobkes, MD

—"David Bowie Made Me Gay: 100 Years of LGBT Music" by Darryl W. Bullock

—"Love That Story: Observations from a Gorgeously Queer Life" by Jonathan Van Ness

Frederick County Public Libraries spokesperson Samantha Jones said that after Fletcher checked out those books, employees at the Brunswick branch reconfigured the display.

There is no limit on the number of books a patron can check out at once, Jones said, and in theory, Fletcher could renew the books she checked up to 10 times.

"We support the rights of all library customers and program participants to form their own opinions of books or collections," Jones said.

The display aims to "raise awareness of diverse experience and perspectives," Jones added.

Fletcher spoke during the public comment portion of FCPL's Board of Trustees meeting on Wednesday evening. Jones said Fletcher used part of her time to question why taxpayer money should not have been used to purchase the pronoun pins.

"Those were not actually created with any public funds," Jones told the News-Post on Thursday. "All of our libraries have 'Friends of the Library' groups that support them, and items like that always come from those. So, it is not taxpayer money going toward things like that."

Kris Fair, director of the LGBTQ advocacy nonprofit The Frederick Center, said he sat down recently with at least one conservative school board candidate.

The conversation came in the wake of several tense Frederick County Board of Education meetings at which Fletcher and others expressed anger over updated elementary health curriculum guidelines that include references to sexual orientation and gender identity.

Fair, his colleagues and the school board candidate(s) reached common understanding on several points, he said, including that all were opposed to "sexualizing children," something the candidates had argued would happen as a result of the curriculum guidelines. But on Thursday, Fair said he didn't understand Fletcher's argument that the availability of books about gay people endangered children.

"I truly struggle with that statement," Fair said. "I'll remain perplexed on it, I think, for the rest of my life."{/div}