Maryland

mahatmakanejeeves

(60,949 posts) Mon Jun 6, 2022, 11:56 AM Jun 2022

School board candidate checks out all LGBTQ books displayed at public library to make it "safe"

School board candidate checks out all LGBTQ books displayed at public library to make it a “safe place for children”

boingboing.net
School board candidate checks out all LGBTQ books displayed at public library to make it a "safe...
In Frederick County, Maryland, Heather Fletcher, a candidate for the Board of Education, was dismayed by a display of LGBTQ books at the public library. So

Link to tweet

School board candidate checks out all LGBTQ books displayed at public library to make it a "safe place for children"

DAVID PESCOVITZ 9:31 AM MON JUN 6, 2022

In Frederick County, Maryland, Heather Fletcher, a candidate for the Board of Education, was dismayed by a display of LGBTQ books at the public library. So she checked them all out in an effort to make the library a "safe place for children," she says. The titles Fletcher borrowed include How to Survive a Plague: The Inside Story of How Citizens and Scientists Tamed AIDS, We Are Everywhere: Protest, Power, and Pride in the History of Queer Liberation, and David Bowie Made Me Gay: 100 Years of LGBT Music, and more than a dozen others. One can only hope Fletcher reads the books and learns something. From {WTOP}:

[Frederick County Public Libraries spokesperson Samantha] Jones also said the display aimed to "raise awareness of diverse experience and perspectives."

[Fletcher] also removed a cup of pins with a variety of gender pronouns printed on them[…]

Fletcher says she'll no longer visit any county libraries, adding "this has nothing to do with the gay community. It has to do with the preservation of innocence," according to the News-Post.

Home » Frederick County, MD News » Frederick Co. school board…

Frederick Co. school board candidate removes LGBTQ books from library by checking them out

Melissa Howell | mhowell@wtop.com

June 4, 2022, 2:54 PM

Heather Fletcher, a candidate for the Frederick County Board of Education, checked out all of the books on a display showcasing LGBTQ titles at the Brunswick Public Library in Maryland.

The Frederick News Post reports Fletcher walked out of the library with about 20 books after staff declined her request to move the display of books out of the lobby.

Frederick County Public Libraries spokesperson Samantha Jones told the News-Post that staff at the Brunswick branch reconfigured the display soon after Fletcher had checked out the books.

{snip}

Melissa Howell
Melissa Howell joined WTOP Radio in March 2018 and is excited to cover stories that matter across D.C., as well as in Maryland and Virginia.

mhowell@wtop.com

7 replies

= new reply since forum marked as read

Highlight:

School board candidate checks out all LGBTQ books displayed at public library to make it "safe" (Original Post) mahatmakanejeeves Jun 2022 OP

What a complete and total MUDAK Jilly_in_VA Jun 2022 #1

Well, Gawd bless her little heart for making it safe for others packman Jun 2022 #2

A picture is worth a thousand words: Chainfire Jun 2022 #3

And watch her never turn the books back in. I hope that they fine her big time, until she SWBTATTReg Jun 2022 #4

School board candidate checks out many LGBT books from library so others can't see them mahatmakanejeeves Jun 2022 #5

WTF are age-inappropriate" questions??? elleng Jun 2022 #7

I'll drive through there tomorrow, on way to Boonsboro for strawberries, elleng Jun 2022 #6

Jilly_in_VA

(10,889 posts)

1. What a complete and total MUDAK

Reply to mahatmakanejeeves (Original post)

Mon Jun 6, 2022, 12:08 PM

Jun 2022

Look that up in your Ukrainian-English dictionary, Heather darling!

packman

(16,296 posts)

2. Well, Gawd bless her little heart for making it safe for others

Reply to mahatmakanejeeves (Original post)

Mon Jun 6, 2022, 12:14 PM

Jun 2022

Chainfire

(17,757 posts)

3. A picture is worth a thousand words:

Reply to mahatmakanejeeves (Original post)

Mon Jun 6, 2022, 12:54 PM

Jun 2022

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_book_burnings

SWBTATTReg

(24,094 posts)

4. And watch her never turn the books back in. I hope that they fine her big time, until she

Reply to mahatmakanejeeves (Original post)

Mon Jun 6, 2022, 12:56 PM

Jun 2022

returns all of the books OR some nice soul comes in, and buys another copy of each checked out book, and donates it to the library.

Note, she did return the books but still, for one person to single-handedly decide what my child should and should not read pisses me off and I'd be glad to give her a piece of my mind too about her doing this single-handedly.

mahatmakanejeeves

(60,949 posts)

5. School board candidate checks out many LGBT books from library so others can't see them

Reply to mahatmakanejeeves (Original post)

Mon Jun 6, 2022, 01:13 PM

Jun 2022

This is sort of what ex-Loudoun County supervisor Eugene Delgaudio used to do. He'd go to the library, grab all the handout copies of The Washington Blade, and take them so that he could throw them in the trash.

ALERT

School board candidate checks out many LGBT books from library so others can't see them

By Jillian Atelsek jatelsek@newspost.com Jun 2, 2022 152

A Frederick County Board of Education candidate said she checked out all of the books from an LGBT pride month display at the Brunswick Public Library to make the library a “safe place for children.”

Heather Fletcher checked out the roughly 20 books on Tuesday so that other patrons would not be able to read them, she told the News-Post on Thursday. She said she also took a cup of pins with pronouns — often used as a sign of gender identity — printed on them.

Fletcher said she was “disturbed” by the display and worried it would prompt “age-inappropriate” questions from young children. She said she didn’t want her three children to see the word “queer” on a book and that she removed the items after trying, unsuccessfully, to convince the staff to move the books out of the main lobby area. ... “This has nothing to do with the gay community,” Fletcher said. “It has to do with the preservation of innocence.”

She said Thursday that she would no longer patronize any county libraries. ... Fletcher said on Friday that she had returned the books.

{snip}