TRAVELERS REST — The manager of a Greenville County library branch has refused to remove a Pride Month display, defying his leadership's demands as the yearlong conservative-driven push to limit LGBTQ-related material comes to a head.
The Travelers Rest branch manager, Nathan Schmaltz, told The Post and Courier June 20 he believed removing the display in the foyer as administrators instructed would go against his belief as a librarian that he should serve the entire community.
The refusal comes one year after a decision to remove, and then reinstate, Pride Month displays in Greenville County libraries led to an ongoing and chaotic debate about materials and displays.
Schmaltz said he’d worked through these changes with his staff for months, and even removed a display and redesigned it earlier in June to meet a new library system policy.
Next week, the library board is poised to consider a vote to remove all displays until the library system's policy can be rethought after a board member said a new policy the body voted on in April was "inadequate." The policy required all displays to be approved by the library system's executive director.
The comment came during a committee meeting last week in response to systemwide confusion and tension, which included a confrontation between a librarian and a patron over a Pride Month display.
In reworking the display, Schmaltz and his staff replaced it with what he called a “generic” Pride Month display meant to represent the seasonal nature of Pride Month, much like Hispanic Heritage Month or Black History Month, a token display to bring awareness of marginalized segments of the community.
He was directed to take it down.
This time, he said administrators had gone too far.
“My job as a public librarian is to serve everyone in my community,” he said. “The Greenville County Library System has had ample opportunity to do outreach to marginalized groups and instead of doing so they have just made things worse. I can’t in good conscience continue to be a part of that.”
An LGBTQ+ Pride Month display inside the Travelers Rest branch library in Greenville County on June 20, 2023. Provided by Nathan Schmaltz.
Greenville County Library System Executive Director Beverly James, Board Chair Allan Hill and a spokesperson couldn’t be reached for comment. Schmaltz’ supervisor, Brian Morrison, also couldn’t be reached for comment.
The library system features numerous Pride Month displays at branches throughout the county, including two at the Hughes Main Library. Each of those has received administrative approval under the system’s new policy.
In an emailed directive, Brian Morrison, GCLS access and discovery director, told Schmaltz the library system doesn’t want to post content in its foyer displays “that could be interpreted as if the Library System has taken a position on a particular subject.”
Morrison said the imperative, “Read with Pride,” signaled approval by the library system. He further said that if Schmaltz wanted to include an LGBTQ+ display, he could submit a request for one to be located in the adult section inside the library.
At issue is the autonomy of branch managers to create displays for their own communities versus the library board of trustees’ direction that displays receive approval from the system’s central office.
The display in question sits within a glass display case in the foyer of the library. It includes a rainbow-colored construction paper chain, the words “Read With Pride,” four QR codes directing patrons to LGBTQ+ materials within the library system and a copy of “A Mercy,” a novel about 16th century slavery by Toni Morrison that features a gay couple. Staff installed the display June 15.
The display also includes a statement as required by the library system’s policy that states, “The Library System offer resources that present a wide variety of views and opinions on current and historical issues. The Inclusion of an item in the collection of a display does not represent an endorsement of its contents by the Library System.”
Schmaltz said he was told verbally to remove the Pride Month display June 16, citing noncompliance with a new policy because he hadn’t first asked for administrative approval. He emailed his supervisor asking him to reconsider and was told a second time to take it down.
Schmaltz sent an email on the evening of June 19 that stated he wouldn’t remove the display and wouldn’t direct his staff to remove it.
“It is a shame that the administration continues to take actions that hurt the LGBTQ+ community and its own staff,” Schmaltz wrote. “I will not contribute more pain and distress.”
The email stated that if the library system chose, it should arrange for someone else to take it down.
“It’s just gone too far too long, and this is what I feel is best,” Schmaltz said. “We’ll see what happens.”
This marks the second time in June the library system told the Travelers Rest branch to remove a Pride Month display for violating its new display policy.
An earlier display included pictures and artwork of LGBTQ+ books and authors with a title, “All Y’all, It Takes a Village to Make a Library.”
An LGBTQ+ Pride Month library display was removed from the Travelers Rest library branch in mid-June after library system administrators said it didn't meet standards of a new policy that required approval for displays that promoted materials. Provided by Nathan Schmaltz.
Schmaltz said administrators told him to remove it because it included pictures of materials and didn’t meet the threshold for a seasonal display.
He replaced it with the current display, one he said was a seasonal display that didn’t require administrative approval.
Tory Sherrill, a library branch employee, installed that display and got into a heated discussion with a patron who emailed the board of trustees. The issue was discussed at the trustee’s operations committee meeting June 16.
That committee voted to recommend all displays be removed at library branches while the board and administration work to revise its display policy.
Bill Pinkston, chair of the committee read a prepared statement after it voted and said they would work together on policies “which will be fair, inclusive and workable.”
“We also want the displays to be attractive, engaging and relevant,” he said. “That is not going to be an easy task, and may make for significant changes in the procedures for materials display.
“It may take us several steps back before we can go forward to completely meeting our goals: fair, inclusive, workable, attractive, engaging and relevant. That’s actually a pretty tall order.”
Pinkston pointed out that another recognized June holiday, Flag Day, hadn't been featured.
Andrew Farmer, a member of the Freedom in Libraries Advocacy Group (FLAG), said the incident shows a continued effort by the library system to minimize LGBTQ voices.
“What I personally fear is that a lot of the board members and a lot of governing bodies of GCLS want to legislate their personal feelings about the LGBT community onto the public library,” Farmer said. “And that’s simply not how libraries are run.”
