By: Grace Liu

This June, during Pride Month, two San Diego residents checked out almost all of the pride month books from a San Diego Public Library, and refused to return the books unless the library removed what the two residents considered “inappropriate content”.

Their plan backfired, however, when The San Diego Union-Tribune reported on the protest. Around 180 people donated more than $15,000 to the library system. The city also matched that donation, so there will be over $30,000 for more LGBTQ themed materials and programs.

Recently, in states such as California, there have been protests against Pride month events and LGBTQ themed books. In North Hollywood, a Pride flag was burned at a school after many days of protests. In Temecula, the majority of the school board refused to teach LGBTQ history.

CatholicVote, a group that promoted a “Hide the Pride” campaign, described LGBTQ material in books as obscure and said that the material should not be available to young library visitors.

Some books that the group targeted included “Julian Is a Mermaid”, a book about a boy whose grandmother took him to a mermaid parade, and “Morris Micklewhite and the Tangerine Dress,” which is about a boy who loves to use his imagination and wears an orange dress to school. These two books were both checked out by the protesters in San Diego.

“The library needs to use its discretion in how it will make certain content available to people who have very different beliefs about whether this is appropriate for kids,” said Brian Burch, the president of CatholicVote.

But, San Diego has grown more diverse, and embraced the LGBTQ community. In 2020, Todd Gloria, San Diego’s first gay mayor, was elected by voters. The community also responded in anger towards the removal of the books, and helped restore the stand.

The Pride Month kiosk at the public library in San Diego was restored and expanded, and all of the books that were checked out last month were returned recently.

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