Faced with an investigation by human rights officials in New York State and waning public criticism from librarians, LGBTQ advocates and others, the Smithtown Library Board on Thursday restored Pride Month displays in its children’s reading rooms.
The 4-2 vote overturned the board’s decision Tuesday to remove displays that include picture books such as “Pink is for Boys” and “Puppy Pride,” as well as a history of the AIDS memory quilt. Displays in the library’s adult and teen areas have not been removed and books from the children’s exhibit remain in the library’s collection, library director Robert Lusac told Newsday.
The trustees also adopted a statement read by President Brianna Baker-Stein, which said the board “recognizes that our earlier decision was made without the time, care and due diligence that a decision of this type deserves and that it is it was the wrong decision. ”
Commissioner Marie Gergenti, who made the initial proposal to remove the displays in the nursery, told Newsday earlier this week that she was responding to complaints from community members, but ended a phone interview without specifying the complaints.
Gergenti and trustee Teresa Grisafi opposed the measure to restore the displays of Thursday’s meeting, which took place through Zoom and had 1,000 attendees. Trustees Marilyn Lo Presti and Thomas Maher voted to remove the displays earlier in the week, but on Thursday Lo Presti said he abstained to seek “guidance from members of the LGBT community.”
Maher canceled his initial removal vote and explained that he had cast his first vote because there was still no “appropriate policy”.
“I always have and will always support LGBTQ rights, although it may not seem like it at the moment,” he said.
Following Thursday’s vote, David Kilmnick, president of the Long Island LGBT network, said in an interview that members of his organization were “ecstatic” but determined to encourage library council candidates to challenge Gergenti and other board members who supported the removal of displays.
“They woke us up and we will make sure it doesn’t happen again,” Kilmnik said.
Earlier Thursday, Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a statement that she had ordered the New York State Department of Human Rights to investigate the removal.
“In public places, it is forbidden by law to engage in discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity,” Hochul said. “Everyone – and especially young people in our country – deserve to feel welcome in the library. For many LGBTQ + children, libraries are a place of refuge and information where they can be welcomed and recognized as they are. “We will not tolerate the ‘Don’ t say gay ‘philosophy has its roots in our country.”
A Hochul spokesman said in an email that “an object could be fined and ordered to end discriminatory policies if DHR finds, after investigation and public hearing, that it has violated the law.”
Some residents of Smithtown, a tightly conservative city, said Thursday they supported the removal.
“Let the children be children without confusing them,” said Robert D’Adario of Commack, a retired aerospace industry. The display of pride “forces a discussion about homosexuality with an age group in which it is not at all appropriate to talk about sex,” he said, reflecting what he described as a nationwide “agenda. “There are flags everywhere, parades.” – At this moment we have to.
Jerry Prince, a barber, said in his store at Route 111 on Thursday that gender and sexuality issues should “depend on parents talking to their children.” Books like the ones included in Pride’s exhibits in the library “end up completely confusing the children,” he said, although he said he hadn’t actually seen the displays.
But proponents of the Smithown display and beyond have said Pride displays should never have been removed. These included writer and Nesconset-born Jody Picult, who tweeted that she was “disgusted” by the board members who voted to remove the displays.
Jennifer Fowler, president of the Suffolk County Public Library Association, said her group “believes this action discriminates against library visitors and employees who are part of the LGBTQIA community.” The New York Library Association and the Suffolk County Library Association, which represents library staff, issued statements against the removal.
Speaking at the meeting on Thursday night, Gergenti said that the reaction in recent days has been exaggerated and misdirected. “I can’t even tell you about the docking, the corruption I’ve been through,” said Gergenti, a well-known conservative voice at the Smithsonian School Board meeting who was elected trustee of the library last fall.
Gergenti never advocated for the removal of any books from the library, she said, and only cared about the welfare of children. “All children must be accepted,” she said, “not just a specific, specific group.”
Grisafi, in his own notes at the meeting, also complained that the people had been “called hateful, ignorant and fanatical.” Removing books about LGBTQ people from children’s rooms “has nothing to do with anyone’s personal feelings about Pride,” she said, but “to present age-appropriate materials to young library visitors.”
Nicholas Spangler covers the city of Smithtown and has been with Newsday since 2010.
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