The Anti-Adventur of A Gay Librarian
Contents:
- THE GAY LIBRARIAN
- WOKE CIA: RECMENT VIO FEATUR GAY LIBRARIAN WEARG RABOW LANYARD
- THE GAY LIBRARIAN: A PARATIVE ANALYSIS OF ATTUS TOWARDS PROFSNAL GENR ISSU
- DO A TAMPA SCHOOL LIBRARY BOOK TEACH ABOUT GAY INTERURSE?
THE GAY LIBRARIAN
In May 2021, as efforts to ban books on LGBTQ topics om school librari were gag polil steam, “Two Grooms on a Cake: The Story of Ameri’s First Gay Weddg” was published. It is a children’s story about Michael McConnell’s 1971 marriage to a man, which was upheld as legal by the U.S. Supreme Court... * gay librarian look *
”Asi om unfound and bigoted ncerns that drag queens are predators thstg children to a state of genr nfn and homosexualy, attacks agast drag queen storytime have stirred bat about library ntraly and what rponsibili a tax-fund civic stutn has servg s muny. The next year, they threw a party at the Amerin Library Associatn’s annual nference Dallas that featured a “Hug a Homosexual” kissg booth, a radil (for s time) attentn-grabbg stunt that proclaimed gay people’s existence to the library world.
The task force, which has sce been tegrated to the ALA as the GLBT Round Table, fought to make librari more clive for gay and lbian library ers, creatg gay and lbian biblgraphi and batg discrimatn agast gay and lbian librarians, who sometim risked losg their jobs when g light of the current polil moment, librarians across the untry are expandg that fight, wh an uptick drag queen storytim and other queer-clive programmg to send the signal that librari are safe spac for margalized people.
“If you've got ‘male, ’ ‘female, ’ and ‘other’ [on your applitn], you're lerally otherg queer people, which is not a good look, ” she of the librarians I spoke to emphasized the importance of visually proclaimg librari as safe spac by velopg a diverse selectn of LGBT-clive books easy-to-accs areas, buildg extravagant displays for PRIDE month — “You uldn't walk anywhere whout beg knocked out by a quote om Harvey Milk, ” said Conley-Abrams — and anizg muny groups like queer book clubs, gay-straight allianc, and teen pri parti.
WOKE CIA: RECMENT VIO FEATUR GAY LIBRARIAN WEARG RABOW LANYARD
* gay librarian look *
It formed a climate of social and polil prott cludg the anti-Vietnam War movement, the civil rights movement, the women’s liberatn movement, and the gay liberatn movement the wake of the Stonewall Rts 1969. Barbara Gtgs, a self-scribed “full-time gay activist, ” got volved the Task Force soon after s formatn and began pilg the first Gay Biblgraphy, a list of gay-posive books and rmatn rourc.
THE GAY LIBRARIAN: A PARATIVE ANALYSIS OF ATTUS TOWARDS PROFSNAL GENR ISSU
In s early years the Gay Task Force foced s efforts on improvg library service and rmatn accs for gay and lbian library ers, and on the profsnal needs of gay and lbian librarians cludg job discrimatn.
Berman argued that the current methods of classifitn and subject headgs for gay materials were largely sensive or even homophobic, cludg the headgs “Homosexuals” and “Homosexuals, Male.
” Berman proposed new headgs like “Gays” and “Gay Men, ” and lled for more nsistent applitn of the subject terms to fictn and non-fictn materials to facilate accs and disvery. In fact, while his stat as one of the first gay grooms may be what most visibly enshr McConnell history, he played a pivotal role creatg library shelf space for “boy meets boy” tal such as his — as well as a wi array of LGBTQ fictn and books about queer history, culture, health re and other rourc. K-12 school librarians, for example, often receive regular trag how to acmodate LGBTQ stunts and are equently the staff member who sponsors the school’s gay-straight alliance.
DO A TAMPA SCHOOL LIBRARY BOOK TEACH ABOUT GAY INTERURSE?
“When I speak to gay groups and mentn ‘the li the librari, ’ listeners over 35 know stantly what I mean, ” she wrote “Gays Libraryland: The Gay and Lbian Task Force of the Amerin Library Associatn: The First 16 Years. Also, he may well be workg at the Gay & Lbian Medil Associatn nference this September Puerto Ri, and those doctors really take their Speedos serly, and if he works very, very hard, the librarian may well be at remedial Speedo level by September. A llectn of vios produced to promote “Humans of the CIA” is drawg fire om nservativ – accg the the CIA of gog full-blown of the vios featur a gay librarian who anized a llectn of board gam for staffers.