A longtime trustee with the Buffalo and Erie County Library system was forced to resign from the library board last month after a series of events sparked by his objection to a drag queen reading to children in the Central Library during Pride Month.
Frank Gist, a retired Buffalo firefighter and bail bondsman, not only objected to the story time event in June, but wrote three columns in the Buffalo Criterion, an African American weekly newspaper, that criticized the event as an “abomination” that was “grooming” and “mentally molesting children.” He ripped the library leadership team as promoting LGBTQ “propaganda.”
Drag has been dragged through the mud — cast in a false light by right-wing activists and politicians over “sexualization” or “grooming” of kids.
Gist’s comments were met with backlash, with library leaders and LGBTQ advocates describing them as “vicious,” “homophobic” and “chauvinistic.”
This Buffalo controversy has unfolded at a time when libraries across the country have found themselves in the crosshairs of a larger culture clash between those who believe that library content and events should be available and inclusive, and those who believe they should exclude topics that appear to promote or “normalize” gay and…
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