Fresno County libraries will no longer celebrate LGBTQ Pride Month or participate in the Fresno Rainbow Pride Festival.
The Fresno County Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 to prohibit the Fresno County Library from continuing its affiliation with the Pride Month events on Tuesday.
Driving the news: County Librarian Sally Gomez had asked the board to authorize the Library to contribute funds to participate in the Fresno Rainbow Pride Festival and to celebrate LGBTQ Pride Month for the next five years.
- Had it been approved, the Library would have contributed $125 to set up a booth at the Pride Festival on June 6.
- The Pride Month celebrations over the next half-decade would have seen the Library set up displays, booklists, website announcements, social media posts, activities and provide other informational materials themed around the LGBTQ community.
- What wasn’t at question, however, was if the county would ban any LGBTQ books from the Library.
- Tuesday’s vote did not involve the banning of any books from the Library.
How they voted: Supervisors Garry Bredefeld, Nathan Magsig and Buddy Mendes voted to ban the Library from participating in Pride Month events.
- Supervisors Luis Chavez and Brian Pacheco supported the Library’s inclusion in Pride Month.
Flashback: Bredefeld, who is serving as the Board Chair this year, wrote on social media last week that a concerned parent reached out to him regarding an inappropriate bookmark a Library employee was handing out at schools.
- The bookmark featured LGBTQ-themed young adult books, such as Wild Tongues Can’t Be Tamed, Out Now: Queer We Go Again! and Growing Up Trans: In Our Own Words.
- Bredefeld said more than half of the books recommended on the bookmarks – 131 out of 262 books in total – include LGBTQ, drug and alcohol themes and content. He wrote on X, “Clearly, there is a deviant effort to indoctrinate our young and impressionable children!”
What they’re saying: Dozens of people spoke for and against the Library’s participation in Pride Month events during Tuesday’s board meeting, with the public comment running nearly 30 minutes as people were given one-minute each.
- When asked by Bredefeld, Gomez told the board that the Library is not handing out bookmarks with LGBTQ themes to students in elementary school. She could not confirm if the bookmarks were handed out to the “young teens” age group.
- Bredefeld said there is a clear agenda that the Library is promoting LGBTQ issues to young and impressionable children.
- “That’s clearly unacceptable to me,” Bredefeld said. “And many of my constituents, and many of the constituents throughout the entire County of Fresno – I would venture to say that most – if not a supermajority disagree with what’s going on in the Library.”
The post “No indoctrination”: Fresno County Supervisors end library’s participation in LGBT Pride Month, Pride appeared first on The San Joaquin Valley Sun.
