News Censorship Dateline
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NEWS CENSORSHIP DATELINE LIBRARIES In his October video, Dorr reads To fight back against the self- Coeur D’Alene, Idaho a blog post titled “May God and the anointed censor, the library is display- Books that a patron judged to be crit- Homosexuals of OC Pride Please For- ing the recently found missing movies ical of President Donald Trump disap- give Us!” from his website, which he with a sign that reads: “The Berkley peared from the shelves of the Coeur calls “Rescue The Perishing.” The Public Library is against censorship. d’Alene Public Library. video ends with Dorr burning Two Someone didn’t want you to check Librarian Bette Ammon fished this Boys Kissing, a young adult novel by these items out. They deliberately hid complaint from the suggestion box: David Levithan; Morris Micklewhite all of these items so you wouldn’t find “I noticed a large volume of books and the Tangerine Dress, a children’s them. This is not how libraries work.” attacking our president. And I am book about a boy who likes to wear a Arnsman said the most recent Fifty going to continue hiding these books tangerine dress, by Christine Balda- Shades movie, Fifty Shades Freed, was in the most obscure places I can find cchino; This Day In June, a picture noticed missing in mid-June. A year to keep this propaganda out of the book about a pride parade, by Gayle ago, she said, the second of three Fifty hands of young minds. Your liberal E. Pitman, and Families, Families, Fam- Shades movies, Fifty Shades Darker, angst gives me great pleasure.” ilies! by Suzanne and Max Lang, about also went mysteriously missing. The The library posted the note on a nontraditional families. library bought a new copy of that bulletin board, along with a typed Since then, several GoFundMe movie and nothing else happened. note from the library. The library pages and Facebook fundraisers have “This time they went missing and invited the patron to provide titles raised thousands of dollars for the because of it happening a year before, that s/he would like to see, adding: library—much more than the roughly we kind of had a feeling it was delib- “We are sorry you feel the need to $50 needed to replace the burned erate,” Arnsman said. hide books you don’t agree with since books. The library bought new copies of that takes up valuable time to reorder Dorr calls Rescue The Perishing a the movie on DVD and Blu-ray to and replace lost titles.” Reported in: “crisis center and pro-life, pro-family replace the missing movie. Then, the Spokane Spokesman-Review, Septem- movement.” He has declined to be new copies of the movie and older ber 27. interviewed and indicated that he will copies of the other movies in the tril- not pay any library fines or fees for the ogy went missing. Orange City, Iowa destroyed books. Additional investigation by the More than 200 books have been Orange City is the county seat of library showed the movie Eyes Wide donated to the Orange City Public Sioux County, known as the most con- Shut and the documentary Jerusalem Library in northwest Iowa after a man servative county in the state. Reported also were missing. checked out—and then burned—four in: Sioux City Journal, October 28; Des Most of the movies were found LGBTQ children’s books on October Moines Register, October 31. hidden in the library, though Arns- 19. Religious activist Paul Dorr threw man did not want to reveal specifi- four library books into a burning trash Berkley, Michigan cally where the movies were hidden. can while streaming live on Facebook. Someone has been hiding or remov- Copies of the older Fifty Shades mov- He burned the books in protest of the ing the Berkley Public Library’s tril- ies have not been found, but new cop- city’s second annual gay pride event. ogy of Fifty Shades movies that depict ies have been purchased. The library had faced criticism consensual sexual bondage, as well as In all, Arnsman said the library has earlier this year, when members of two other films on DVD. The library spent more than $100 to replace the the conservative, historically Dutch says it is censorship. movies, but now has all of them in Reformed community spoke out “One of the tenets of being a DVD and Blu-ray formats for patrons against LGBTQ books held by the library and being a librarian is access to check out. No one has come for- library. In response to the uproar, to all information. You can’t pick and ward to say they took or moved the the library in March 2018 changed choose what you’re going to carry. If movies. Arnsman doesn’t expect the its classification system and opted to patrons want that, we have to provide person to do so, either. arrange books by subject and cate- that information, even if it is a feature She said the trilogy of Fifty Shades gory instead of alphabetically by the film,” said Lauren Arnsman, a refer- books (on which the movies were author’s name. ence librarian at the library. based) has not gone missing. JOURNAL OF INTELLECTUAL FREEDOM AND PRIVACY _ FALL–WINTER 2018 18 CENSORSHIP DATELINE _ NEWS Arnsman said about 14,000 peo- the book mistakenly. Each family was sending a message of advocacy on the ple are in the library’s service area of contacted and offered a replacement part of the library, which he wanted Berkley, Michigan, but the library book. to maintain as a neutral space. Library also has patrons from Southfield, Meehan said something like a staff, however, saw the policy as dis- Huntington Woods, Oak Park and rating system on books could have criminatory and directly in conflict Ferndale. helped prevent this. with the American Library Associa- She said she was surprised at the “It’s not appropriate for kids,” she tion’s Library Bill of Rights. positive comments and community said. “It would’ve been nice to be able In June 2017, WCLS employee support voiced after the Facebook to pick up the book and see an “M” Natalie Daniel created an exhibit posts. for mature and explicit sexual con- for Pride Month titled “Got Pride?” Supporters praised the library for its tent and language and I could’ve said, featuring a collection of LGBTQ- recent display of the formerly missing ‘OK, that’s not for us.’” Reported in: themed material. Some patrons movies and its stance, with comments KFOX14 TV, July 6. reportedly complained, according to ranging from “thank you” to “love Tucker, as did an unnamed county my library.” Reported in: Detroit Free Plano, Texas official. Tucker, who is in charge of Press, July 3, July 5. The Plano Library in Septem- WCLS’s eight branches, instructed ber removed Holy Terror, a graphic workers to change the display mid- El Paso, Texas novel by Frank Miller, from circula- month to “June is Pride Month,” and An El Paso mom complained to a tion, in response to concerns raised to remove from the display additional local TV station that her son received by the Dallas/Fort Worth chapter LGBTQ resources linked to outside an “inappropriate” book from a local of the Council on American Islamic organizations. Although the rest of the library. Tiffany Meehan’s kids took Relations. display remained in place throughout part in a summer reading program CAIR-DFW Executive Director the month, Tucker issued a direc- at the Jenna Welch and Laura Bush John Janney had asked the library to tive that future displays should not Community Library. They received see if there were any standards, poli- be LGBTQ-themed. Some patrons a goodie bag with a free book at the cies, or code of ethics that the publicly would interpret such signage as “advo- end of the program. funded library followed when faced cating for that point of view” on the Her 11-year-old son, Harrison, with publications that dehumanize or part of the library, he told the press. got a book titled Will Grayson, Will marginalize minorities—especially This year, library staff was again Grayson, an LBGT-themed young when those publications are targeted instructed not to create a display adult novel by John Green and David at children. After a short conversation specifically pointing to LGBTQ- Levithan. Harrison said he read three with a library representative about the themed material. Instead, the display paragraphs before taking it to his library’s screening process, the library addressed the broader theme of diver- mom. reviewed the graphic novel and agreed sity, featuring material on race, reli- “I read it and it had a bunch of cuss to withdraw it from circulation. gion, sexual orientation—including words,” Harrison said. Miller conceived the novel as LGBTQ materials—and other topics, Meehan said it only got more response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, with signage reading “Libraries are for graphic from there. “As I flipped but in 2018 he expressed some regret everyone.” through, it just got worse and worse. for the book. Reported in: cair.com, To supplement the display, some (It was) very sexually explicit and it September 19. employees had buttons made that uses many curse words,” she said. said “Ask me about LGBTQ Reads.” She took the book to the library Washington County, Utah LGBTQ Reads is a website which to find out why it was given to her Library staff at the Hurricane branch features LGBTQ-themed material, 11-year-old.