They Checked Out Pride Books in Protest. It Backfired.

[Zorro]

Two San Diego residents cleared out the Pride month display at their library and said such materials shouldn’t be available to children, one of several recent clashes over L.G.B.T.Q. issues in California.

Adrianne Peterson, the manager of the Rancho Peñasquitos branch of the San Diego Public Library, was actually a little embarrassed by the modest size of her Pride Month display in June. Between staff vacations and organizing workshops for graduating high school students, it had fallen through the cracks and fell short of what she had hoped to offer.

Yet the kiosk across from the checkout counter, marked by a Progress Pride rainbow flag, was enough to thrust the suburban library onto the front lines of the nation’s culture wars.

Ms. Peterson, who has run the library branch since 2012 and highlighted books for Pride Month for the better part of a decade, was taken aback when she read an email last month from two neighborhood residents. They informed her that they had gotten nearly all of the books in the Pride display checked out and would not return them unless the library permanently removed what they considered “inappropriate content.”

“It was just kind of like, ‘Whoa, curveball,’” Ms. Peterson said. “I began to wonder, ‘Oh, have I been misunderstanding our community?’”

Soon, she would get her answer: Stacks of Amazon boxes containing new copies of the books the protesters checked out started to arrive at the library after The San Diego Union-Tribune reported on the protest. Roughly 180 people, mostly San Diegans, gave more than $15,000 to the library system, which after a city match will provide over $30,000 toward more L.G.B.T.Q.-themed materials and programming, including an expansion of the system’s already popular drag queen story hours.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/22/us/pride-books-library-protest.html

[NowISeetheLight]

1. Stay in Church

Hey Christian Taliban... most of America wants nothing to do with you. Keep your moral crap in YOUR CHURCH and mind your own business. If you don't like gay books don't check them out. The rest of us in FREE AMERICA should have a choice too.

[yankee87]

14. Darn right

Worry about your children learning about LGBTQI citizens, only let your kids in the church libraries.

[azureblue]

15. and if someone

walked up to one of these nut cases and said,"You are forcing others to obey your religious beliefs. OK, then - Leviticus forbids eating pork, and I have no doubt you eat pork. My religion says I should flog you on the spot for committing a mortal sin. Prepare yourself while I beat the sin out of you."
I wonder how they would respond? For sure, they do not want to do what other people's religion says..

[czarjak]

27. Their Rights Matter Most

It's been wrongly decided.

[orthoclad]

33. Their crap isn't "moral"

"Moralizing" might be more like it. They just like being on a pedestal.

They don't believe in god -- they believe they ARE god.

[CrispyQ]

2. Wonderful story!! ❤️ -nt

[BOSSHOG]

3. Doesn't it just warm the cockles of your heart

When the ignorant and the haters amongst us are self appointed arbiters of what is inappropriate content?

I believe one would find such in their brains.

Bravo to the citizens of San Diego.

[Aristus]

4. God, I'm going to cry.

Okay, I AM crying. Readers are saving the world.

And to the deepest pit of Hell for those bigoted assholes. We will win! Just stop already! Go back to your tractor pulls, your monster truck rallies, and your WWF! Leave civilized people alone!

[Hekate]

5. That is so heartwarming. Long live Librarians & the readers who sustain Libraries!

[republianmushroom]

6. I like it

[Old Crank]

7. Now is the city prosecutor

Going to charge the people who checked the books out with theft, for cherry on top?

[azureblue]

17. IIRC in CA

you have to show your driver's license to check out books. And if you fail to return the book, your will not be able to renew you DL until you pay the fine. Some states will send overdue notices, then escalate fines, then charge a fine plus the cost of the book.

[msongs]

8. if the thief does not return the books charge her with theft nt

[TheBlackAdder]

11. Let them take out over $950 and let California's 487 Penal Code kick in -- Grand Theft.

.

I think Target does something like that. They'll track return shoplifters until what they steal is over $1K and then they nail them for the higher grand theft/larceny charge.

.

[ShazzieB]

12. Absolutely!

[niyad]

9. DO NOT F*** WITH LIBRARIANS!!!! EVER!!!

[Qutzupalotl]

10. I thought from the headline maybe they read them

and decided the materials weren't so bad. Silly me.

[Lonestarblue]

24. You're not alone. I thought the same.

I mistakenly attributed rational thought to some in the MAGA cult when I should know better by now.

[Wonder Why]

36. "maggot rational"? Isn't that an oxymoron?

[barbtries]

13. couldn't those assholes be prosecuted?

checking out the books and threatening to keep them? there should be a law about that?

[SunSeeker]

21. Yes, it's called theft of government property.

I used to work at a public library in Southern California. Our local City Attorney used to send threatening letters to jerks who would hoard large amounts of library books and not return them for over a year. We'd usually get the whole load of books from the jerk stuffed in our night drop shortly thereafter. And they couldn't check out any more books until they paid their overdue book fines, which they rarely did, so we would never see the jerks again, thankfully.

[Jamastiene]

26. Where I live in NC, they have been doing that with non-Christian religious books

since the 90s at least. They don't want anyone to be allowed* to learn about any other religion than their version of Christianity here. They are never charged fees and the books are never returned. I knew someone who worked at the library here back in the 90s. That is how I learned about it.

*Now, with the internet, they can't really keep us from reading about other religions. Back when I was a teen thru early 20s, I always wondered why I could never find any books about other religions. Later, when my friend told me, I learned why.

[barbtries]

29. jeezus. where in NC?

sounds like the town, the librarian, etc, pretty much everyone was dedicated to making sure that people would not be exposed to anything else.

I live in Durham.

this shit is UnAmerican! gawd dammit

[Jamastiene]

45. Richmond County

This place is already a theocracy. It's horrible here. I don't see why anyone would want this.

They corner you in the DMV, grocery stores, numerous ones all over the Walmart parking lot (we don't have Costco, Target, and all those other stores here, only Walmart), preaching everywhere.

On top of all that, they are likely to knock on your door to ask you if you know about God. It's the Bible Belt. It's all I ever hear about, lol. They try to talk their way into your house (it's always the hottest days of summer) if you open the door. I won't answer my door unless someone safe I know has let me know they are coming over.

[keithbvadu2]

16. Stories about super Christians who rented dirty movies and kept them.

Stories about super Christians who rented dirty movies and kept them.

They got mad when their credit cards were charged for the sale of the movies.

[617Blue]

31. I'm sure they thoroughly "researched" these films

[EleanorR]

18. Two people-Just like in FL with book bans and in GA with vote challenges, it's just a few

This is the way to fight back. These radical right culture war positions are not popular. Enough already.

[SunSeeker]

19. This makes me smile. nt

[Deuxcents]

22. Me, too.

Fighting back the smart way for maximum payback

[Rhiannon12866]

23. Same here!

[Timeflyer]

25. Stay classy, you freedom-loving San Diegans! And librarians, stay strong, raise hell!

[Snackshack]

30. Fuck these people.

If someone is fortunate enough to find another human that they find joy and happiness in, someone they want to be with for the rest of their life be it male or female more power to them.


These fuckers are going to keep pushing their misguided dogmas on everyone and eventually people are gonna push back.

That religion still has an exempt tax status is bullshit. It should have been revoked long ago but I don’t think there is a Dem alive in congress with the intestinal fortitude to take this on.


I miss Paul Wellstone.

[617Blue]

32. My god, get a job get a life

do these nimrods have nothing better to do? Gotta see this movie, gotta boycott this other move, gotta download this song, gotta boycott this beer, gotta boycott this store...jesus these people are going to drive themselves to early grave.

[BunnyMcGee]

39. jesus these people are going to drive themselves to early grave

That's It!

[BobTheSubgenius]

34. I have renewed hope, thanks to my step-grand.

She has recently finished high school, and is already a success dreamed about by parents. She and her friends react to, and treat their gay classmates the same as if they had green eyes. Something you might take notice of, but don't care about at all.

Now, a chance to boast about her a little. She played varsity basketball and volleyball, plays first chair flute in the county orchestra, sings the national anthem at events, made the honour roll constantly, was homecoming queen because EVERYONE loves her - the kindest person you could hope to meet and is beautiful but doesn't seem to know it - and is starting college in second year because she already completed first year through extension classes during Grade 12.

The university (which was her first choice) was so happy to have her for a student that they are giving her state resident status to lower her costs, and awarded her a scholarship that she didn't even apply for, a rather welcome sum of $87,000...but only redeemable for university expenses, like tuition and dorm costs.

I doubt that either of us will live to see the apogee of her life, which keeps reaching new heights every time we turn around. How could she be anything but Pride-friendly? We are as proud of her humanity and kindness as any of her other, more definable attributes and accomplishments.

[SouthernDem4ever]

35. I'll bet not one of those morons tried to actually read any of the books they checked out

If they did, they might have learned something, like understanding. But they won't. Oh and keep a running tally on those overdue books! See how much revenue they can earn.

[Ford_Prefect]

37. Karma is funny that way...

[johnnyfins]

40. This quote...

From the librarian

“I began to wonder, ‘Oh, have I been misunderstanding our community?’”

A caring, empathetic, human being. Even when faced with ignorant fascists, realizes she serves an ENTIRE community. The fact that she had to second guess herself angers the shit out of me. No one is force feeding these books to kids.

[soldierant]

44. + a very large number

[Initech]

41. Fucking stupid ass conspiracy theory assholes.

Glad people are fighting back against their insanity!

[Ray Bruns]

42. Just wait until those late fines start stacking up.

[Faux pas]

43. Kickin'