County commissioners held a meeting Tuesday. People in the community voiced their opinions after finding LGBTQ+ books in the children’s section of the library
MONROE COUNTY, Ga. — The Monroe County library is the talk of the town again this year.
Some folks are concerned about two LGBTQ+ themed books being filed in the children’s section.
David Barbee is the library assistant for the Monroe County library. He says he’s been going to the library since he was five years old, and he’s against the books being removed.
“I don’t really believe that any book should be censored,” Barbee said. “We are completely against that, and we are very much against our place of business being shut down in any way.”
County Chairman Elect Alan Gibbs feels differently.
“I don’t want my 6-year-old seeing that,” Gibbs said.
Gibbs says commissioners found several books in the children section that he’s not sure belong there. The library told us in January they designate LGBTQ+ books with a sticker.
“Since then, we found that there could be some other books that are sexually motivated that don’t have the stickers on them,” Gibbs said.
County Commissioner Eddie Rowland says more than one hundred people showed up Tuesday to voice their opinion on LGBTQ+ books in the children section of the library. He says people have asked for the library to be shut down or even defunded because the board did not remove the books.
“60% to 70% of the people in Monroe County don’t want to see our library defunded or closed but they would like to see some of these books in question moved to another location,” Rowland said.
Legally, they’re trying to figure out what comes next. Alan Gibbs says the library can either move the books or it may have to be shut down for a week while board members are removed and replaced.
“Less than a week would be acceptable if we have to do that, but I don’t want to do that. It’s an easy fix,” Gibbs said. “Let’s just move the books to a section that the kids aren’t in.”
Now, the chairman-elect says they love the library and hopes they don’t have to make the decision to shut it down.
This isn’t the first time the placement of books in the Monroe library was called into question. In January, the library board voted unanimously to keep two LGBTQ+ books in the young adult section after residents sent requests to relocate the books.
