FAIRFAX COUNTY, Va.—Over the weekend, a public library in northern Virginia put on a “holiday reading display” featuring two sexually explicit books next to the Bible, which was held by a plush dwarf wearing a rainbow-colored hat. Upon patrons’ complaints, the display was removed on Dec. 7.
The books—”Gender Queer: A Memoir” by Maia Kobabe and “Lawn Boy” by Jonathan Evison—are among many books containing graphic sexual content that have been banned from school libraries in some states, including Arkansas, Pennsylvania, Iowa, Missouri, Tennessee, and Minnesota.
“The Dolley Madison Library holiday reading display was intended to highlight the freedom to read and the fact that many library patrons have more time during the holidays to do so,” Fairfax County Public Library (FCPL) Director Jessica Hudson said in a statement on Tuesday. “It was not the intention of staff to create a display that could be construed as offensive. The display has been removed.”
Stacy Langton, a mother from Fairfax County who has been fighting for the removal of these two books from school libraries, told The Epoch Times that the display was “intentional,” “outrageous,” and “an attack on Christianity itself.”
“It is a blasphemy against Jesus to put pedophilic and pornographic filth such as ‘Gender Queer’ alongside His Word in the Holy Bible, as though they are equal,” she added.
The mother said she received the display pictures from another county resident on Monday afternoon. During her visit to the library the next day, she found out that the display had been removed.
Langton said she spoke over the phone with Nancy Ryan, the FCPL branch coordinator, who told her that the manager of Dolley Madison Library Mary Prisbrey approved the display, an idea of a library staffer. Langton said she learned from Ryan that the display began on Saturday. Ryan declined to comment on The Epoch Times’ inquiry of the conversation.
By Terri Wu
