When Existing Becomes “Inflammatory"

Queer librarians struggle to represent themselves and their community in a suburban southern county

by Anonymous

Image credit: Denton Record Chronicle

In 2010 in the wake of the 2008 economic recession, a fast-growing and relatively affluent county in a southern state terminated all its part-time employees on the logic that full-time employees were more likely to be their family’s primary provider. This included 25 positions in the library system, a non-discretionary branch of the local government.

At the time the system had four branches and staffing was stretched as thin as butter on too much bread. Library hours were cut to Monday-Thursday, with only the two largest branches opening their doors on alternating Saturdays. This resulted in the full-time employees left being forced to work 10 hour days to fulfill their requisite hours.

Morale was low, but things were about to get a lot worse.

Morale was low, but things were about to get a lot worse. Because in 2012-2014, Tea-party candidates began making up about half of the local Republican party, causing a rancorous split in local politics already dominated by conservatives. The fully Republican Board of County Commissioners nevertheless found working relationships strained to the breaking point.

Commissioners Howard and Blackwell (pseudonyms), old-guard Republicans and traditionally supporters of the library, found themselves outnumbered on the five-person board by Overcash, Morgan, and Belk. In the 2013 budget talks, Overcash was pushing a series of deep spending cuts that would affect not only the library, but the parks department as well. Outraged, the local Friends of the Library foundation launched a campaign to call legislators and protest.

Overcash was incensed and accused Howard of instigating the call to action...

Overcash was incensed and accused Howard of instigating the call to action by giving the FOL false information about the actual number proposed to be cut. Whether or not the information came from Howard is unclear, but it wasn’t false, merely outdated. Two library staff members were placed on leave-without-pay for a short period of time over the incident, and Overcash and Morgan pushed for harsher punishment.

By then it was clear that he and crony/minion Morgan were not to be reelected, and in a move that many saw as retaliatory and vindictive, Overcash rammed through his budget in a late-night meeting that left no open period for public comment. The cuts included five more positions at the county’s largest branch because Overcash reportedly visited the children’s section one afternoon and saw no children but two staffers. When it was pointed out that this would cause struggles in shift and lunch coverage, he recommended more cutbacks in opening hours.

Later that year, the new Board of Commissioners, with Howard as its chair, unanimously voted to reverse many of the cuts. And for a time, there was peace.

But in some ways, the damage had been done. Library leadership was now gun-shy of anything that looked remotely like advocating for political action and for a few years staff were discouraged from even such anodyne things as voter registration displays, or advertising that patrons could fill out and turn in their voter registration forms to the library for interoffice courier to the Board of Elections.

Things seemed to be loosening up toward the end of the decade, with library staff permitted to volunteer for poll work, and Pride displays going up several years in a row without comment or fuss.

Covid represented another psychological scar, of course, not only generally, but with the politicization of lockdowns, mask wearing, and occupancy quotas. But all in all things seemed fine.

They were told if they wished to promote acceptance and services for LGBTQ+ people, they needed to do it “under the radar.”

In June of 2021, a part-time staff member brought in a pride flag to the largest branch, intending to hang it in a workspace where the public were not permitted. The Librarian at the time, Cutter, decided to hang it up behind the reference desk, fully visible from 90% of the building’s main floor. It remained up with no comment from the Director of Libraries (whose office was in the building) and no public complaint for several days.

When the complaint came, it was from a county official, who happened to see it when being shown around by the Director. Shortly thereafter, staff were ordered to remove the flag, and mandatory meetings were held to remind staff to remain nonpartisan and apolitical. They were told if they wished to promote acceptance and services for LGBTQ+ people, they needed to do it “under the radar.”

Angered and disheartened, staffer Landry (a member of the LGBTQ+ community) reached out to the Director by email. They report feeling as though their concerns were dismissed out of hand, so decided to design a program for later that year, the same month the largest city in the region held their annual Pride Parade.

They faced significant, if mostly veiled, opposition from library leadership.

“Fast Forward a bit,” Landry said over Instagram, “and in order to get things off the ground, I had to submit my [program] proposal 2 or 3 times. Once it was approved, there were various points at which I was roadblocked (i.e. we can’t do a life essentials drive for the queer youth center we had partnered with on numerous occasions with no offered alternative; Taylor [a queer staff member working at a different branch in the county] couldn’t give a presentation on queer history (after it had initially been okayed) because they were a county employee, basically arbitrary, made up rules to make launch impossible/make me give up.”

There was also hard pushback against a proposed activity involving symbolic, paper bricks for patrons to color in or write supportive messages on and build a communal wall on a public bulletin board as part of an educational display on Stonewall. The reason given for the pushback was that it was inciting violence towards the police.

Leading up to the program, reception was mostly positive, and what pushback staff received appeared to be scripted. Several reported answering questions all worded along the lines of “what outside organization is coming in to do this?” or “what national organization is sponsoring this event?” Answers that staff members were the driving force behind the program and the only presenters being partnered with were local nonprofits were not received well.

A notable local queer news site did a writeup of the event beforehand, while Landry happened to be out of town. The Director instructed the branch manager to do the interview, and no mention of Landry was ever made, which Landry sees as deliberate.

The program, a half-day convention with tie-dye stations, craft booths, panels, and presentations, was a roaring success, with almost 300 attendees. It was one of the most well attended events put on by the entire library system that year, and feedback was overwhelmingly positive.

Branded as Celebrate with PRIDE, Landry intended for the program to recur annually. As they left the library later that year, Cutter promised to take up the torch. Again, things seemed normal for a time.

At this time, the county had a DEI Committee, and a library employee who sat on it submitted the Pride event for commendation. Reportedly less than half an hour later, the Director received an extremely hostile call from the then-County Manager. The lash-back after this was so severe that the county DEI Committee eventually simply disbanded, and going forward all library programs and even displays were placed under unprecedented scrutiny by county leadership.

The new directives included a mandatory renaming, and orders not to use phrases like “celebrate,” “joy,” or, ironically, “pride.”

The following year, when Cutter tried to recreate the program, she was met with a slew of restrictions and stipulations, which she eventually found to be untenable, and the program was cancelled.

The new directives included a mandatory renaming, and orders not to use phrases like “celebrate,” “joy,” or, ironically, “pride.” Staff were also told they could not have tie-dye crafts, gift bags, confetti, or anything denoting “a party.” Focus was to be on education only, leaving many queer staff members feeling pathologized, as if queerness were being treated like a mental illness.

Cutter butted heads repeatedly with the Director and the branch manager during this time over their lack of support and inaction, and left shortly after.

County leadership’s attitude toward the library and library staff shifted sharply after this, and it wasn’t long before the Director herself was, as some saw it, forced out, with the explicit intent to hire someone more conservative.

...as if queerness were being treated like a mental illness.

The current library director, in her two years of service, has sent out an annual reminder in May that staff are not to do any “overt Pride displays,” and to “be careful with wording of signs, we don’t want to be seen as making a ‘call to action’, and even using the word ‘celebrating’ as it can be inflammatory.” In a 2023 email, she wrote, “We don’t want to be seen as pushing an agenda or shoving topics down our patrons throats.”

In Commissioner Howard’s 12 year tenure, he oversaw the planning and funding of a new building for an existing branch as well as the opening of a brand new location set to begin operating later this year. Unfortunately, after an accusation of wrongdoing that some in the county saw as politically motivated, and with a resurgence of MAGA energy, Howard lost his reelection bid, and November of 2024 saw the return of Commissioner Morgan and several others of the same ilk. He was later cleared by the state bureau of investigations.

They are making all the same noises as before, proposing cutbacks, and even aping President Trump’s DOGE by creating a “Commission on Financial Efficiency.”

As for the library, they were told that they would not receive any new budgetary funds this fiscal year, and as talks are in process to set the budget for 2026, they’ve been asked to submit a 5% cut in their budget request. It remains to be seen if history will repeat itself, but relations between Commissioners are once again devolving into accusations and power-cliques.