Meeting turns heated after Pride display removed from Pennsylvania library

A western Pennsylvania municipality council meeting turned heated on Tuesday as locals clashed over the leader’s decision to replace a Pride Month display with a Fourth of July display in the local library. Citizens of Monroeville, about 14 miles east of Pittsburgh, packed into the meeting and delivered harsh criticism to board members over the switch. Locals specifically took issue with Councilmember Bill Krut characterizing the display as a means of grooming children in a social media post last month.

Library board Chairwoman Kelly Meredith opened public comments on Tuesday and accused certain council members of pressuring the library to remove the Love is Love display from the children's section. Public libraries provide informative materials about diverse experiences, which is in no way trying to influence children, she said.

Several speakers in favor of the LGBT display characterized the removal as censorship by those they described as narrow-minded leaders. One woman claimed libraries are a vast resource of information, helping in combating those she described as small-minded, implying that some council members fit that description. One man introduced himself as a California liberal who moved to the municipality eight months ago, and he appeared to become emotional when describing his support for the library’s LGBT programming. The resident also accused heterosexuals of being the child groomers and said heterosexuals continually pushed him to be straight his entire life.

Did anyone in attendance support the decision to remove the Pride display? A minority of attendees rose to express their support for the decision. One woman said the opponents of the decision were more organized and better able to turn out people to speak. She also accused the library of having an exaggerated focus on sexuality. Another woman expressed concern about politics intruding on children’s programming and said the library should implement a system in which parents had approval over books included on the shelves. One impassioned speaker said God was waking Christians up from passivity and argued that taxpayer funds should not be used to push an agenda on minors.

How did the municipality council respond? Monroeville’s municipal manager, Alex Graziani, addressed attendees and said he took full responsibility for the decision to replace the LGBT display. The display stayed up most of the month and was only taken down to make way for the America250 display about a week before the Fourth of July, Graziani said.

The LGBT displays in the teen and adult sections remained up, Graziana said, and he denied there had been any attempt to remove books from the library as some had claimed. Graziani highlighted the effort Monroeville expended for celebrating both the semiquincentennial and the municipality’s 75th anniversary and said he simply asked the library to move forward with its seasonal displays the weekend before the Fourth of July.