Why People Are Losing Faith In Public InstitutionsLibs once again cannot understand why normal people object to woke takeover of public institutions and abuse of power
Rod Dreher
Aug 25, 2022
Here is a Washington Post story about a foaming-at-the-mouth smalltown mob that voted to defund its public library when the librarians refused to remove a controversial graphic memoir called Gender Queer from its shelves. The story is exactly what you think it will be: more media gaslighting about queer "banned books," a winsome tragedy about gentle librarians -- one of whom is "pink-haired and openly queer" -- resisting the fundamentalist bigots who hate books and liberty. Here is a quote:
Nykamp, the Jamestown Conservative organizer, was also there, lambasting “Gender Queer” as pornographic.
“On page 135, I can see a middle-aged man with an erection touching another young man’s erection,” she told the room. “Possibly a man younger than 18.”
The township supervisor, Laurie Van Haitsma, sided with Nykamp.
“It’s graphic as you can be,” she said. “I would not want my children and grandchildren seeing it.”
A lawyer had reviewed the book and determined it wasn’t pornographic, McLain replied. Still, given the mature content, she’d initially placed it in the adult section — near novels with heterosexual sex scenes. As the objections mounted, though, she moved “Gender Queer” behind the counter, making it available only upon request.
“We have to represent every segment of the population,” McLain said, “not just the vast majority.”
OK, stop right there. I am supposing that the print version of the Washington Post doesn't show illustrations from Gender Queer. Why not? Here are some, one of which I've slightly altered. I apologize for offending some of you by this, but you have to understand exactly what we are talking about here.
[Graphic images were not included from the original article. Be forewarned, they can be offensive.]
You know what doesn't appear anywhere in the story? A consideration of what right people in a democracy have to determine the standards in the public institutions they fund with their own tax dollars. To the Post writer, this apparently does not exist. The writer quotes a local librarian saying that "we have to represent every segment of the population," but that is rhetorically dishonest. For one,
One of the organizers, Lauren Nykamp, declined to be interviewed but responded to some of The Washington Post’s questions over text. “This is not about LGBTQ material,” she said. “It is about sexualized material.”
The idea that Lauren Nykamp -- who was right not to speak to the Post except in writing (note well, readers who may be asked for an interview) -- would somehow be fine with the same kind of graphic material if it depicted heterosexual sodomy and suchlike, is absurd. She clearly distinguishes between material that "represents" LGBT people, and this specific example of it.
Second, it's not true at all that libraries have to "represent every segment of the population." Libraries have to curate matters. Nobody in libraries is worried about representing fascists or white supremacists on the shelves -- and they shouldn't be. This is empty rhetoric.
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Source:
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/why-people-are-losing-faith-in-public-institutions/
