By: Nina He

Adrianne Peterson, the manager of Rancho Peñasquitos branch of the San Diego Public Library, was a little bit uncomfortable about the size of her Pride Month display. She didn’t have as many books as she hoped to have because of organizing workshops and staff vacations.

Ms. Peterson had run the library for 11 years, so she was surprised when she read an email from two San Diego residents after she set up the pride display. They stated that they had borrowed almost all of the Pride books and wouldn’t return them unless the library removed all of the Pride books from the library. This has never happened before.

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

No, she hasn’t. Soon after word got out, Ms. Peterson received boxes of the copies of the books that the residents took. Around 180 people gave the library 150,000+ of money, after which a city match would give the library $30,000 for more L.G.B.T.Q. books and materials, and to add to the variety of the popular drag queen story time hours.

Even though there are lots of people that dislike Pride books and L.G.B.T.Q., there’s just as many people that support it and understand it in the world.