LGBTQIA+ Ban on Juvenile Media in Greenville County Library

StandbyGVL
November 3, 2022
11:06 am
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Political Spillage in Greenville County

If you’re just jumping into this thread, there’s a lot to unpack, but we are going to try and break it all down for you and supply all the resources needed to do your own research and decide accordingly.

The Greenville County GOP who was seemingly unproductive from April until September of 2022 has focused it’s attention and spotlight onto the LGBT community of Greenville County by appealing to parents it’s claim, an issue within the library system is making pornographic materials and sexually explicit media content available to juveniles who have borrow access at our Greenville County Library.

Now would be a great time to establish, this is not the case; in fact, this claim is far from the actual procedures set forth by the structure of Greenville County Library’s policies and procedures for users of it’s library system(s); online, or branch registered users.

Now, to preface this debate, you will need to know that it involves the Greenville County Library Board of Trustees, Greenville County GOP (grand old party), and the Greenville County Council who has a 25+ year history of bullying the local LGBTQIA+ community with senseless resolutions upheld by baseless propaganda that is misguided, unfounded, and contain false fear-mongering content.

Reference the 1996 Anti-gay Family Resolution Act by Greenville County Council

It is also important to know how these entities are acquainted, for instance: the Greenville County Council appoints the Greenville County Library Board of Trustees, and Dr. Sid Cates, a 1984 graduate of Bob Jones University (Christian/Conservative) who retired from Greenville County Council now holds a position on the library’s Board of Trustees. All in all, this is yet another example of political spillage from one group to another. One using its resources and contacts from within to provoke LGBTQIA+ residents as its history reflects for decades under the scope of county officials and administrators.

How Did We Arrive Here?

During Pride month (June) the Greenville County Library Board of Trustees, Chair Mr. Allan Hill claims to have received phone calls, emails, and numerous complaints about LGBT media being featured in local branches before he appeared abruptly to the Travelers Rest branch and conducted himself in a threatening and combative manor to branch administration and staff whom of which some have since resigned. From the accounts we’ve heard, Mr. Hill was a tyrant who according to staff there at the time say, “if he were any other patron, he would have been asked to leave.”

Shortly after, a criminal complaint was filed with Travelers Rest Police Department by Albert Hill (no relation to Allan Hill) citing, “graphic cartoon illustrations and exploitations for gay sex, hand jobs, anal, oral, and how to use sex apps,” according to the incident report.

“According to The State, Travelers Rest Officer Matt Sewell investigated Hill’s complaint and talked with the branch manager as well as the director and assistant director of the Greenville County LIbrary. They gave him all the books in the library pertaining to the subject. After investigating the articles, he decided, “At this time all allegations were unfounded.” read more

What We Have Learned About Minor Access

The Greenville County Library turned 102 years old in May of 2022 and has been provisioning its users access since the beginning of its existence, careful to keep up with the evolvement of society and educational matters and to preserve our library as a safe space for children with endless opportunity for education without political assertiveness. Its provisioning is the sole responsibility of the Greenville County Library Board of Trustees who decide the rules for use of it’s systems procedures, and other policies related to operations of the library and its branches.

Greenville County Library users are confined to two categories upon registration: computer users and/or borrowers. see policy

For computer users: “Persons age 18 or older, with photo identification, may apply for a Computer User card at any Library location. A Computer User card provides up to three hours of free access per day to the Library’s public computers.”

For minor borrowers: “A parent, stepparent, foster parent (“Parent”) or legal guardian may apply for a Borrower card for a minor with proof of the child’s existence. As the person responsible for what is borrowed with a minor’s Library card and for any late fees or charges associated with its use, a Parent or legal guardian may choose either,

Little Learners (ages 0-59 months)

– limited number of Easy and Juveniles books

– limited number Juvenile music CDs

A Parent or legal guardian may upgrade a Little Learners card to a Juvenile or Juvenile Adult card when a child is five years old.

Juveniles

– (restricted to juvenile materials only)

– cannot access downloadable media ie. hoopla, overdrive, Freegal Music

Juvenile/Adult

– access to materials classified for young adults and adults

– access to Interlibrary Loan Service and digital materials such as eBooks and Audiobooks.

When we attempted to search a questionable adult media from our juveniles user account we were prompted with the following message:

For external or downloadable media, the library features three options: Hoopla, Overdrive and Freegal Music which are ALL RESTRICTED from access by juvenile users unless parents specifically change their child’s status. A child cannot do it on their own.

When we searched for keyword “LGBT” in the library’s main circulation system (Encore), we found a total of 74 results on 3 pages (page 1, page 2, page 3) that may be reserved or borrowed. Only 14 of which were rendered when our search was advanced and reduced to “juvenile.”

Is seems as though the conflict being raised is by those who know little about our library, its policies, or even how its media is categorized. The GOP has highlighted the book, It’s Perfectly Normal as a peak of interest, however this book is confined to “Juvenile Parenting/Early Childhood” which is an adult section of our library system and not obtainable by actual juveniles. See results below

The Latest; Last Minute News

Greenville County Councilman, Ennis Fant says he doesn’t think there is support for the resolution. It seems that council knows there is a lot of attention on this despite community turnout. He goes on to say, “We don’t have any jurisdiction over the library. That is the boards responsibility. I wont be voting for it.” He closes with, “We vote for the board members, it is there job to oversee the library.”

Councilman Fant does however let us know about a meeting on 11/2 at 12:15pm for the Greenville County Library Materials Committee to review it’s policies. This is likely where we will see an executive decision form around LGBT materials in our library.

Councilman Ennis Fant says “I don’t think there’s enough support for the resolution.”

Tuesday, Nov. 1st 12:15pm The Library Materials Committee has a scheduled meeting to review its policies. Materials committee motioned to hold all questionable materials (24 in total) for review to make its recommendation to the board of trustees. It seems as though the committee's resolve would be to relocate the PEC section from the children's area to the adult area, although it did understand that PEC books are not borrowable by juveniles and limited to adults of unrestricted juvenile cards of users whose parents have given permission.

View Agenda

Listen to Audio

Greenville County Council Meeting

The Greenville County Council meeting was a temporary win for the LGBT+ community on Tuesday night when the resolution proposed by Councilman, Joe Dill failed to gain the support it needed to suspend the rules and pass. The council voted in majority NOT to suspend it’s rules, but the resolution battle is not over.

The council expressed it’s support to let the appointed Library Board of Trustees perform it’s duties it was elected to do by allowing the Materials Committee to make a recommendation to the full board for official vote and procedure.

Maybe a resolution will not be needed in this case, but it is important to pay close attention to the recommendation of the Materials Committee and the final word from the Library Board of Trustees to see exactly which way the decision will go and whether or not Greenville County Council accepts the recommendation or if it feels it’s necessary to implement this resolution to hereby order the board to perform its duty in a manor spelled out by the resolution presented by council.

Stay tuned for more information as it becomes available. Have any additional information? Call us at +1-864-800-0213 or message us at info@standbygvl.org.