Prepared for Pride Month: A Conversation

Pride Month displays and programming, as well as materials with LGBTQ+ characters and themes, have been a primary target for censorship. Library workers have faced harassment, LGBTQ+ events have been canceled due to safety concerns, and many resources have been defaced, damaged, or destroyed by the individuals or groups targeting them. From public and school libraries to academic and special libraries, no part of the library ecosystem has been spared in the campaign against LGBTQ+ content. In this conversation, panelists will share their expertise and provide attendees with best practices and practical strategies to advocate for and support LGBTQ+ content and programming during Pride Month and beyond. 

Panelists:

Pat Tully has been the Director of the Ketchikan Public Library in Ketchikan, Alaska since 2017. Since receiving her MILS at the University of Michigan in 1988, Pat has worked in public and academic libraries, first in technical services and starting in 2004 in library administration. She has shared her experience of challenges with attendees at the Alaska Library Association conference.

Deborah Caldwell-Stone is Director of ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom and Executive Director of the Freedom to Read Foundation. For over twenty years she has worked closely with library professionals and library trustees on a wide range of intellectual freedom issues related to library service in the United States. She has served on the faculty of the ALA-sponsored Lawyers for Libraries and Law for Librarians workshops and is a contributor to the 10th edition of the Intellectual Freedom Manual. She has contributed articles on law, policy, and intellectual freedom to American Libraries and other publications.

Betsy Gomez is Assistant Director of Communications & Outreach for ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom, coordinator for Unite Against Book Bans and the Banned Books Week Coalition, and former coalition and editorial director for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, an advocacy organization dedicated to the First Amendment rights of the comics community. Gomez edited and designed the award-winning publication CBLDF Presents: She Changed Comics, which profiles more than 60 groundbreaking women who expanded the expressive possibilities of the comics medium. With more than a decade of professional experience defending intellectual freedom, Gomez also has an extensive background in educational publishing as a content developer and editor. 

Outcomes:

• Attendees will learn best practices for supporting Pride Month exhibits and programming.
• Attendees will learn advocacy tools and methods to gain community involvement and support.
• Attendees will learn ways to address challenges to LGBTQ+ content in their library collections.

This Freedom to Read Foundation event is co-sponsored by the American Library Association Office for Intellectual Freedom (ALA OIF), the Rainbow Round Table, the Freedom to Read Foundation, the American Association of School Librarians (AASL), and the Public Library Association (PLA).