One person’s tastes can’t limit access to books for all

A Frederick County Board of Education candidate’s decision to check out every book in an LGBT pride month display at the Brunswick Public Library, hoping to make the library a “safe place for children,” is disturbing on several levels. The idea that any individual would appoint herself as the arbiter of what is appropriate for children to see in a library display, and intellectually vandalize the display by checking out every available book, is bad enough. The idea that seeing the word “queer” on a book title might somehow corrupt a child is unrealistic. Most children encounter the word, usually as a slur, long before they know what it means.