Little Rock Libraries Continue Hosting Pro-LGBT Events

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The Central Arkansas Library System continues to list pro-LGBT events on its calendar.

For example, one library in Little Rock is hosting a “delightfully queer craft circle” sponsored by Teens 4 InQlusion — a Gender and Sexualities Alliance (GSA) for teens and young adults — this month.

Last year the Central Arkansas Library System defended its decision to host pro-LGBT programs geared toward youth, noting that the programs are funded in part by the Arkansas LGBTQ+ Advancement Fund at the Arkansas Community Foundation, the Alice L. Walton Foundation, Olivia and Tom Walton through the Walton Family Foundation, and the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation.

Family Council previously reported that the Arkansas Community Foundation awarded a grant to the Central Arkansas Library System to set up a Gender and Sexualities Alliance (GSA) for teens and young adults. The money is part of a $1 million fund that the Walton Family Foundation created to support pro-LGBT groups in Arkansas.

Unfortunately, public libraries in Arkansas have become a popular platform for promoting LGBT ideology and objectionable material to children and teens.

For instance, the Jonesboro public library has been at the center of multiple controversies — such as inappropriately hosting an LGBT Pride display in its children’s library, placing books with sexually-explicit images in its children’s section, and failing to adopt a policy that separates sexual material from children’s content.

That’s part of the reason voters in Craighead County voted to reduce funding for the library last November.

It should go without saying, but libraries don’t have to organize pro-LGBT events or promote inappropriate children’s books to be successful.

Public libraries are supposed to be a place where members of the community can enjoy books and learn about literature. These sorts of pro-LGBT activities are an unnecessary distraction for our public libraries.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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Craighead County Votes to Reduce Funding for Library that Features Sexually Explicit Children’s Books

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On Tuesday voters in Craighead County reduced the millage for the public library in Jonesboro.

As we have written repeatedly, the Jonesboro public library has been at the center of multiple controversies for nearly a year and a half — including inappropriately hosting an LGBT Pride display in its children’s library, placing books with sexually-explicit images in its children’s section, and failing to adopt a policy that separates sexual material from children’s content.

As different people have pointed out, some of these books — such as Gender Queer and l8tr, g8tr — contain explicit images or descriptions of teens engaging in sexual acts.

Library officials have stood by their decision to share sexual material with children. The library even posted on Facebook that it isn’t the library’s responsibility to protect kids from obscenity.

Apparently citizens in Craighead County have decided enough is enough.

On Tuesday voters chose to reduce the library’s millage from two mills to one mill.

Library officials in Jonesboro have said the tax cut will “devastate” the library and could force it to close some of its branches, but news reports indicate the library has enjoyed a budget surplus of more than a million dollars for the past three years, and documents from the Craighead County Clerk’s Office show the millage tax provided more than $3.1 million in revenue for the library last year.

Even if the library weren’t spending public tax dollars on obscene children’s books, reducing the millage in Craighead County arguably will help balance the library’s budget and provide relief for taxpayers.

Public libraries are supposed to be for everyone. More and more, Family Council is hearing from people who are deeply troubled by the obscene children’s books that librarians have placed on the shelves of their local libraries this year.

As we keep saying, it’s ridiculous to think that a library isn’t in any way to blame when a child finds pornographic or obscene picture books in its children’s section.

Families should be able to take their children to the library without worrying about what their kids might see.

And taxpayers should not be forced to subsidize graphic novels that depict explicit images of minors engaged in sexual acts.

Unfortunately, many libraries in Arkansas don’t seem to understand that.

Hopefully, Tuesday’s vote in Jonesboro sends a message that public libraries cannot ignore the concerns of the people in their communities.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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