Seattle Public Library Responds To Being BANNED by TransPride

June 27, 2023 | MK Scott
Seattle Public Library Responds To Being BANNED by TransPride

To make a bold statement, organizers of Trans Pride released a statement last week. that Seattle Public Library would be banned from tabling at Trans Pride, which occurred this past Friday, June 23rd at Cal Anderson Park.

The main reason was that they rent their space to anti-trans and anti-gay events. By the way, as a city property, the library can't discriminate, just like Libraries in the south have no legal right to ban Pro-Trans, Pro-Gay books.

I reached out to the City of Seattle for a statement:

Chief Librarian Tom Fay has spoken about The Seattle Public Library and Trans Pride.

"We understand and respect Gender Justice League's decision. I have invited them to discuss these issues in more depth when and if they feel the time is right but hope to not burden them further during Pride month. The library shares their concerns about the harm being caused to transgender and gender diverse communities through efforts such as book banning, anti-transgender rhetoric, and the passage of harmful anti-transgender legislation in several U.S. states. The library is also concerned when room bookings from groups outside of our community strain the community relationships we have worked hard to build and strain our limited publicly funded resources. We know other members of the community and members of our staff share these concerns, too.

The library remains committed to intellectual freedom and stands by our decision to allow Brave Books to book a meeting room. However, we will continue to discuss and investigate our options for handling meeting room booking requests that present these challenges to our community.

The library was participating in many other Pride activities this month, including Capitol Hill PrideFest on Saturday, June 24, the Seattle Pride Parade on Sunday, June 25, and several Library-sponsored Pride events: Find a list and details at www.spl.org/Pride. We are grateful to our staff for working closely with the community to uplift and celebrate these important stories during Pride month and all year long."