Letters to the editor Jan. 31

Transparency in book selection process needed

I’ve used the Flathead County library system for over 30 years. After reading about the recent controversy between library staff and board over two books, “Gender Queer” and “Lawn Boy,” I did some basic digging.

Searching the Montana Shared Catalog reveals ImagineIf as an outlier, holding seven copies of “Gender Queer” (trans author’s graphic novel illustrating pedophilia and gay sex). Other Montana public libraries with copies are Great Falls, Helena and Bozeman, holding one copy each. ImagineIf has two copies of “Lawn Boy” (novel explicitly describing sex between pre-teen boys). Five other libraries around the state hold one copy each.

Why have local newspapers rejected a challenge to print specific passages or images? How can material essential to understanding the controversy be unfit for the newspaper, but fit for minors to check out of the library?

A library subject search for “transgender” yields about 90 items at ImagineIf; roughly two-thirds are picture books, juvenile, or young adult. I could find only one title challenging transgender-affirming ideology: Abigail Shrier’s “Irreversible Damage.” Copies? One, finally on order. Where are the books from opposing perspectives?

I challenge those defending the librarians and their book selection process to explain the miniscule portion of books approaching transgenderism with an ideology other than gender-affirmation. On this critical issue, has our library exhibited a commitment to diverse views? Or promoted a single viewpoint?

Next, I looked at the American Library Association. “Gender Queer” and “Lawn Boy” won ALA Alex Awards, given for books “written for adults that have special appeal to young adults, ages 12 through 18.” Did ImagineIf add “Gender Queer” and “Lawn Boy” to its collection based on their ALA awards? Though housed in the adult collection, what was the intended audience? Adults? Or young adults?

ALA lists of “banned and challenged books” include plenty of LGBTQ-friendly titles, but ignore similarly censored opposing-view titles like “Irreversible Damage” or “When Harry Became Sally.” The ALA website’s “Advocacy” section is heavy on “social justice, diversity, and inclusion.” Surely we all know these terms fuel the politics of the left. The ALA has staked out hard left political territory. Why is it unreasonable for the board to ask whether ALA affiliation still benefits our viewpoint-diverse county and its libraries?

Recent letters and editorials have praised library staff and raised alarms about the board, yet they have not addressed Montana law regulating distribution of obscene materials to minors; they have not acknowledged the library’s deficit of material from opposing viewpoints; they have not been forthright about the political leanings of the ALA; nor have they explained why the county’s librarians have made this issue their hill to die on.

I heartily agree with others who place high value on our public libraries, but I think it’s clear that more transparency in the book selection process is in order. I urge library staff and board to work together toward that end.

­— Margie Rasmussen, Whitefish

Fair access to books

In our experience, our ImagineIf public library has been an inclusive place, “providing fair access to books and information in Flathead County since 1942.”

However, it looks now like a policy is being changed specifically to allow censorship of books. While technically this may be legal, it is surely unethical for appointed trustees to impose their own values on our entire community. By this action, we even wonder if certain members adequately meet qualifications to be library trustees.

According to the library website, trustees must show “commitment to freedom of expression and inquiry for all people” and have the “ability to represent needs and varied interests of the community at large.” Parents should have the right to decide what their children read, not trustees; adult community members should have access to all materials without censorship. This is a right and value encoded in the very first amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

One wonders why three library trustees instead make decisions that deny fair access to books, and why our three county commissioners continue to support appointees who clearly don’t serve all residents of Flathead County?

Censorship aside, we also note that the position of library director has been offered to someone without any formal competencies. The library will lose state funding due to a loss of accreditation, and staff morale and services are likely to suffer with this hiring.

Our public library is an intellectual haven and is staffed by dedicated and caring people who treat all who enter with dignity and respect. Imagine if the library continued to be guided by a qualified library director and dedicated to access of books and information without censorship. That would indeed be a welcome change from the current proposals.

— Michele and Joel Tohtz, Kalispell