GREENVILLE — In response to backlash around Pride Month decorations at its libraries, the Greenville County Library System has banned virtually all themed material displays at its 12 branches.
While the new policy is a blanket prohibition of all themed displays, with a few exceptions, members of the GCLS Board of Trustees made clear at the Oct. 24 meeting where the policy change was approved that it was a direct response to the LGBTQ materials in the library.
“The purpose of this is so that we, and the library we’re tasked with managing, does not appear to be promoting one thing or another, in this case the LGBTQ agenda,” Allan Hill, the board’s chairman, said.
The policy, which the board approved in an 6-4 vote, will still allow displays themed after paid GCLS employee holidays, such as Christmas. Any other subjects are prohibited under the new library rules.
Board member Joe Poore, who was among those to vote against the policy change, expressed concerns that it was overly broad and motivated by politics rather than what was best for the library and its patrons. He recommended its language and intent be reconsidered, but the majority of counsel overruled his request.
The board vote marks a continuation of ongoing tensions around censorship, book bans and parent rights within the library system. The local political saga parallels a contentious national discourse in which conservative groups are calling for books bans, particularly for titles that discuss LGBTQ issues and racism.
In Greenville County, the debate spilled into public view in June 2022 when the GCLS administration removed, then quickly reinstalled, Pride Month displays.
The issue resurfaced this summer, again over complaints regarding LGBTQ decorations at some of GCLS branch locations, as well as backlash to Juneteenth displays. When the manager of the Travelers Rest library refused administration orders to take down the location’s Pride Month decorations and featured books, the board ordered that all displays be taken down as it reconsidered its policies.
Amid the ongoing debate, the Freedom in Libraries Advocacy Group (FLAG) — a local organization that includes multiple former GCLS employees — released a report this month that indicates the library system has been quietly removing contested books from its stacks.
Over the past year, according to the report, 81 titles with LGBTQ themes have been pulled from the GCLS collection without explanation. The library system has not responded to The Post and Courier’s requests for comment on the report.
The board’s deliberation period on its display policy ended at the Oct. 23 meeting, when it voted to essentially make its display ban permanent, though Hill argued it is laxer than the system’s temporary prohibition because of the exception for paid employee holidays.
Board member Poore said during the meeting that removing all material displays because some people were upset by LGBTQ materials does not “encourage critical thought.”
“Ultimately, we have an opportunity to demonstrate that people can live in a pluralistic community and engage with one another even when they’re open about the fact that they have deeply held beliefs that are fundamentally opposite,” he said ahead of the vote.
