A holiday reading display at the Fairfax County Library was promptly taken down after a public outcry.
The display showcased the controversial books “Gender Queer” and “Lawn Boy” alongside the Bible.
Per Fox News:
“The Dolley Madison Library holiday reading display was intended to highlight the freedom to read and the fact that many library patrons have more time during the holidays to do so,” Fairfax County Public Library Director Jessica Hudson told Fox News in a statement Tuesday. “It was not the intention of staff to create a display that could be construed as offensive. The display has been removed.”
The display featured gnomes with stocking-style hats paired with books. The gnomes with “Lawn Boy” and “Gender Queer” had bees on their stocking-hats, while the gnome with the Bible had a rainbow-colored hat, along with other rainbow paraphernalia. The display also featured quotes from controversial books, such as Salman Rushdie’s “The Satanic Verses.”
“Lawn Boy,” by Jonathan Evison, includes long sections of a boy reminiscing about explicit experiences he had at 10 years old. “Gender Queer: A Memoir,” by Maia Kobabe, includes photos of sexual acts between a boy and a man. Concerned parents had spoken up at Fairfax County School Board meetings to protest the books’ presence in school libraries, but the school district reinstated the books after two committees ruled that they do not contain pedophilia or obscene material.
“It’s so outrageously offensive,” Stacy Langton, the Fairfax County mother who confronted the school board with images from the books in September, told Fox News in an interview on Tuesday, referring to the display at the library.