American Library Association faces backlash over ‘Marxist’ president, anti-Christian views

American public libraries have been already feeling the warmth for internet hosting drag queen story hours and feuding with Christian actor Kirk Cameron earlier than phrase broke that the American Library Association’s newly put in president calls herself a “Marxist lesbian.”

Now, the nation’s largest library affiliation is having a Bud Light second. Pressure is mounting on conservative-leaning states to sever ties with the 147-year-old “voice of America’s libraries” over issues in regards to the leftist advocacy of American Library Association President Emily Drabinski.
 
Ms. Drabinski was voted president-elect in April 2022. In a now-deleted tweet, she mentioned, “I just cannot believe that a Marxist lesbian who believes that collective power is possible to build and can be wielded for a better world is the president-elect of @ALALibrary.”
 
The tweet resurfaced, and the blowback was fast. The Montana State Library Association voted final month to interrupt off from the American Library Association, saying the state structure “forbids association with an organization led by a Marxist.” Texas has carried out the identical, mentioned state Rep. Brian Harrison, a Republican.
 
The State Freedom Caucus Network led a dozen conservative teams in calling on states to “ensure that no taxpayer dollars can be used by these associations or by state and local libraries to support the ALA in any way.”
 
“Our libraries are local treasures,” the Aug. 3 open letter says. “We will not let them be overrun and held hostage by a radical organization acting well outside what its core mission should be.”
 
Trent Talbot, president and founding father of Brave Books, which publishes Mr. Cameron’s kids’s tales and sponsors his library tour, mentioned Ms. Drabinski ought to be “removed from her position immediately.”
 
“Until that happens, we will continue to advocate for states to stop supporting the ALA with funding,” Mr. Talbot advised The Washington Times. “It has been incredible seeing several states choose to do this and stop funding an organization that is for the corruption and confusion of our kids.”
 
Ms. Drabinski defended her tweet in an interview with NBC News. She mentioned she was “excited to highlight and celebrate two aspects of my identity that are really important to me and are often under a lot of scrutiny.”
 
“I didn’t anticipate these kinds of targeted attacks being used as a bludgeon against library workers across the country,” she mentioned. “I really think that is regrettable, and I wish that wasn’t happening right now.”
 
In her nook is the New York Library Association, which mentioned Friday that “we condemn the backlash towards the American Library Association’s President, Emily Drabinski.”
 
“With the uptick of challenges to books and programs featuring the LGBTQ+ community, it is not surprising to hear the recent uproar of lawmakers across the country calling for the defunding of the American Library Association,” the NYLA assertion mentioned. “We know clearly that their concerns are rooted in their discomfort at the power of an outspoken and public member of the LGBTQ+ community being exactly who she is without fear.”

After the Montana vote, the American Library Association issued a assertion saying it values “diversity in perspective and background.” Without mentioning Ms. Drabinski, it mentioned the group’s president makes selections in session with an elected 15-member govt board and an elected 131-member council.

The association mentioned it has awarded $218,000 in grants to 23 Montana libraries over the previous two years.

“Despite the decision in Montana this week, ALA remains committed to providing essential support, resources, and opportunities for every library and library worker in every state and territory across the nation to help them better serve their communities,” the association mentioned.
 
Meanwhile, a web based “letter of support” praising Ms. Drabinski as a “compassionate, capable and courageous” chief has gathered greater than 2,300 signatures, lots of them from librarians and American Library Association members.

“We are living in times where homophobia is rampant in libraries, with library workers at risk of physical violence and online harassment on a regular basis,” the letter mentioned. “State library associations that aren’t standing up to homophobic anti-book and -library groups are not doing their jobs as library advocates.”

The left-wing outlet Jacobin blasted the Montana fee’s withdrawal with a submit headlined “Montana Conservatives Are Stoking McCarthyist, Homophobic Attacks on a Librarian.”
 
‘Queering the Catalog’
 
Critics of Ms. Drabinski say such defenses are smokescreens for her far-left political agenda.
 
The American Accountability Foundation, a conservative opposition analysis group, delved into her earlier articles, interviews and statements. In a memorandum, it concluded that “Emily Drabinski is a radical, self-avowed Marxist and queer activist.”
 
The memo quotes Ms. Drabinski as saying her “queerness includes the subversion of those kind of normal family types” by criticizing the “Christo-fascist right,” defending drag queen story hours and reimagining libraries as a “space based on an ideology that centered notions of queerness and difference rather than democracy and citizenship.”

She criticized the Dewey Decimal System for together with “overwhelmingly Christian” works in a 2013 article headlined “Queering the Catalog: Queer Theory and the Politics of Correction.”
 
In a 2019 article, she mentioned libraries might reply to the election of President Trump by creating “research guides that help people understand how to resist authoritarian regimes.”
 
In 2022, Ms. Drabinski referred to as it a “principle of librarianship” that “every reader has a right to decide for themselves what they read. And that includes children.”
 
Given that she was elected president in April 2022 and assumed workplace in July, “I think that’s a pretty clear reflection of where a large portion of her membership is, which is unfortunate,” mentioned Tom Jones, president of the American Accountability Foundation.
 
“The question becomes: Is this an organization that should have such a leadership role in our local libraries? The answer for most of America is no,” Mr. Jones mentioned. “New York, San Francisco, Chicago, the answer’s probably yes, but for the rest of America, these are not the people we want influencing the purchasing list at our small local library. Unfortunately, they are.”
 
As the nation’s main library group, the American Library Association gives skilled growth, offers awards and grants, and advocates for libraries and librarians, together with these at faculties. The Chicago-based group has about 50,000 members.
 
“It’s a multimillion-dollar organization that has a 100-plus-year history,” Mr. Jones mentioned. “We see this with a lot of professional associations. They do a lot of the nonpolitical stuff — training, technical standards — but then they come over the top with a heavy dose of political activism that’s integrated into that. And you can’t separate the two.”

Last week, a librarian in Davis, California, shut down a discussion board on “fair and safe sport for girls” over “misgendering” after a speaker referred to male-born athletes who establish as ladies as “men.”

Brave Books drew nationwide consideration to the difficulty final 12 months by launching Mr. Cameron’s library tour in response to tug queen story hours at libraries. The writer mentioned it requested greater than 50 libraries that host drag queens to sponsor readings by Mr. Cameron, however none accepted.

Brave Books as a substitute has rented out assembly rooms at libraries for the Cameron occasions, which usually draw overflow crowds.

In June, the association was accused of viewpoint discrimination for providing tips on find out how to thwart the “See You at the Library” occasion hosted Aug. 5 by Brave Books.
 
Sen. Marco Rubio, Florida Republican, spearheaded a letter final month calling for the Institute of Museum and Library Services to research. He mentioned the American Library Association is “actively discriminating against Brave Books on account of their faith and is likely doing so with taxpayer funds.”
 
Mr. Rubio, joined by Republican Sens. Mike Braun of Indiana and Kevin Cramer of North Dakota, additionally referred to as on the institute to halt all federal funding to the association pending the end result of an investigation.
 
“The ALA should not be eligible to receive federal funding should an investigation find that the ALA violated the First Amendment rights of Americans,” the July 28 letter mentioned.
 
The American Library Association has not commented publicly on the Senate letter or the muse report. The Washington Times has reached out to the association for a response.
 
Mr. Cameron mentioned “See You at the Library” was successful regardless of the association’s ideas, which included tightening guidelines on assembly rooms and scheduling conflicting occasions to stop his followers from renting public rooms for a nationwide e book studying.
 
He mentioned the occasion was held in additional than 300 public libraries throughout 46 states.
 
“The American Library Association’s resounding encouragement to librarians to sabotage our ‘See You at the Library Day’ was no surprise, being that their president is a self-described Marxist,” Mr. Cameron advised The Times. “This only added fuel to our fire.”