UPDATED: Conservatives want officials in this Central Ky. town to ‘punish library’ after hosting LGBTQ+ Pride panel
UPDATE: According to The Taylor County Library Facebook account, they will be having a special session meeting to discuss the controversy in response to the library’s recent LGBTQ Pride Panel.
The event will take place in the community room at 1 p.m.
The public will be allowed to put their input in during the hour before the 1 p.m. meeting.
Queer Kentucky will keep you up to date on the outcome.
CAMPBELLSVILLE—Critics here are asking local officials to take punitive action against the Taylor County Public Library after it hosted an LGBTQ Pride panel Tuesday night, the first of its kind in this conservative central Kentucky town of about 11,000 that’s located roughly an hour and a half south of Louisville.
Queer Kentucky featured Dalton Bennett of the Taylor County Library last week who coordinated the event.
“This will be the first time merging my professional life with aspects of my personal life,” Dalton said. “Although the thought of backlash weighs heavy on my mind, I feel in my heart that this is to be one of the many pivotal milestones in my life.”
The panel, which included discussions with five openly gay people from across the state, is part of the library’s effort to offer relevant community and cultural events. But some social conservatives say the discussion puts “this Christian community on perilous grounds.”
One local woman told Taylor County magistrates at a special-called government meeting Tuesday night that the LGBTQ panel opened “a Pandora’s Box of political controversial events” and that she was offended by the library board’s “moral decline.” WATCH: Taylor County officials discuss the Pride Panel
The board of the Taylor County Public Library includes appointees made by both city and county government officials, but operates independently with funding from a mix federal, state and local tax revenue.
The woman in the video who addressed elected county magistrates Tuesday night asked Taylor County officials to consider removing library board members from their positions of power and to abolish any local tax money that supports the library and its programming.
Taylor County Judge-Executive Barry Smith, the county’s top-elected official, expressed his disapproval of the library’s Pride panel in a Facebook post earlier this month.
Smith wrote: “Regardless of what you might hear, I personally disagree with our library’s decision to host an LGBTQ pride event. While it is my sworn duty as your County Judge Executive to represent all Taylor Countians, regardless of race, religion, gender or sexual orientation, my religious beliefs as a Christian teach me that homosexuality is both immoral and a sin. Thank you and god bless.”
Campbellsville resident Ashley Bell said she is close with many LGBT youth in the community, both out and closeted, and they are absolutely watching this and being hurt by it.
“Comparing the LGBT community to pedophiles and the KKK, especially in a public forum, is unconscionable and unforgivable,” she said. “Then to have elected officials agree with those sentiments is a disgrace.”
She added that her emotions are all over the place.
“Yesterday’s Pride panel was a beautiful event. I saw so many joyful tears in the room, but before it was even over, my inbox was blowing up with people talking about the fiscal court meeting. One gay friend in attendance was moved by the panel, but then had his gut wrenched by the video of the fiscal court meeting. It was heartbreaking,” Hall said.
Editors note: Spencer Jenkins, founder and Editor-in-Chief of Queer Kentucky attended this event as a panelist. The event was an amazing success within the walls of the Taylor County Library. Insightful, kind and educational conversations were had and we applaud the library in their educational and inclusivity efforts. We at Queer Kentucky believe that open conversations spark progressive movements and we hope more rural libraries follow Taylor County’s lead.
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