Once a feature of public men’s rooms, dark clubs and secret pedophilic encounters, homosexuality may now be as close to you and your children as the nearest public library.
And not just the adult reading. The books causing controversy these days are written for children and located in children’s and young adults’ book sections.
A Mississippi mayor is illustrating this yet again as he attempts to withhold $110,000 in funding from county libraries unless they pull all “homosexual materials” from their shelves. Ridgeland Mayor Gene McGee has refused to hand over the first quarterly payment of 2022, which was already approved by the city, to the Madison County Library System.
Library Director Tonja Johnson immediately cast the controversy as religious, rather than one of obscenity, parenting or even the safety of young people.
“He explained his opposition to what he called ‘homosexual materials’ in the library, that it went against his Christian beliefs, and that he would not release the money as the long as the materials were there,” she told the Mississippi Free Press.
Johnson said that the library system is a public entity rather than a religious institution and serves the whole community, which apparently includes its nonstandard sexual tastes as well, in books directed at the young.
“I told him our collection reflects the diversity of our community,” she said.
DailyMail.com, reporting the story, reached out to McGee’s office but got no immediate response. The mayor’s office also did not respond to multiple interview requests from the Mississippi Free Press. McGee did not attend a Board of Alderman meeting on Jan. 18, the news outlet reported, where it was confirmed that the funding was already set aside for the library in a contract with the city and that the mayor did not have the legal authority to remove it.
Johnson said that if the mayor was able to cut library funding in this way, then the library would look at legal action.
