Athens County library admin encouraged paring back Pride Month displays

^{This piece was originally published in the Athens County Independent and appears here with permission.}

^{The Athens County Independent has since published a letter from the editor regarding this story.}

By Dani Kington

After controversy over LGBTQ+ displays and resources last year, the Athens County Public Libraries administration encouraged staff to pare back displays for Pride Month and remove permanent displays of LGBTQ+ pride flags.

At the same time, records obtained by the Independent show that the library administration, helmed by Director Nick Tepe, encouraged branches to incorporate LGBTQ+ materials and resources into displays year-round.

Some patrons noticed less vibrant displays at the libraries this year, however, and complained directly to Tepe. In his communications with them, Tepe pinned responsibility for the displays entirely on decision-making by local branches.

Tepe told the Independent that libraries were in charge of decision-making over their Pride Month displays, and that the guidance to offer toned down displays constituted only that — “guidance.”

Tepe said that guidance was part of a broader effort to think hard about how to best serve the local community after last year’s controversy.

Multiple library staff members declined to comment for this story, citing fears related to their employment. Athens County Public Libraries United, the labor union which will represent library employees, also declined to share a statement on the issue.

Controversy encouraged lengthy reevaluation

Last year, the Athens News was flooded with letters to the editor objecting to LGBTQ+ books, Pride displays and events. Some letters called on community members to attend the July 2023 library board meeting to protest LGBTQ+ displays and holdings. Instead, more than 100 people turned out to support the library and defend the displays and holdings. 

The American Library Association describes a pattern of similar issues across the country and says, “many of these challenges come as part of an organized campaign by extremist organizations.”

At the July 2023 board meeting, Tepe told the board and audience that the library’s LGBTQ+ holdings and Pride displays were appropriate because of broad community interest. He told the Independent that the comments at the meeting reinforced the importance of supporting the LGBTQ+ community.

But the anti-Pride letters to the Athens News apparently made library administrators re-examine their approach to pride displays. 

“In the aftermath of what we went through last year, everybody at the library had a lot of conversations about what happens next,” Tepe told the Independent. “We spent months, honestly, after July (2023), working through a lot of those feelings in staff, trying to figure out, what does it mean to serve our community? What is the best way that we can make sure that all parts of our community are heard and feel seen, and make sure that we can deliver what the community is asking of us?”

On Oct. 24, 2023, records show that three library branch managers met with libraries Assistant Director Lindsay Place to discuss “what happened in July with the newspaper kerfuffle,” including “ways other libraries in the state are supporting their local LGBTQ+ communities, and the art of choosing our battles as well as how we’d hope to more productively show our support without relying on eye-catching displays year-round.”

On that same day, Tepe reached out to the director of the Portage County District Library, seeking a presenter for staff “on librarianship, professional ethics, intellectual freedom, maintaining boundaries between our personal beliefs and our work for the library, and serving all patrons non-judgmentally.”

For context, Tepe told the Portage County director that “in the wake of the challenges we had this summer about Pride displays in the library, we have had some challenges within the staff in separating their personal pro-LGBTQ activism and their work for the library, and coming from that some difficulties in getting them to step back and look at library displays and programming through the lens of what the community is really asking for,” Tepe said. 

He also referred to “conservative” patrons and staff members who “cannot see a place for themselves at the library.”

Tepe said the issue was “exacerbated when I gave a talk that was from a very practical, rational perspective about the issues and didn’t pay enough attention to the emotions people were feeling around this.”

In that meeting, Tepe said, he “talked about how we really needed to pay attention to the folks who lean conservative but who aren’t fully in the hard right culture war. These folks are probably made uncomfortable by LGBTQ issues, so if we really push it on them they will abandon the library and move harder right. Progressive folks on staff heard me say ‘we need to abandon our LGBTQ patrons/friends to mollify these conservatives,’ and conservative folks on staff heard me say ‘you’re really just as bad as the hard right people if we push you on this.’”

Instead, Tepe wrote, “I should have focused on … that we serve the entire community regardless of political views, and that means that we need to take seriously whether we are favoring one particular view or another in our materials, displays, and programming. When I’ve done this well, I’ve talked about finding things from every part of our community that they can celebrate and feel good about, not ‘both sidesing’ hot issues.”

The records the Independent obtained are unclear if the presentation on professional ethics Tepe wrote about took place. However, library managers appear to have taken Tepe’s concerns about LGTBQ+ symbols to heart. 

For example, in a February email chain, a library branch manager asked Tepe about how to approach employees about removing pride flags. In one case, a staff member had asked the manager about posting a construction paper depiction of a pride flag on a bookcase. 

The manager offered a potential response to the staff member. “Permanent displays that are non-thematic are fine, but ones that are representing a clear theme should just be up for a month at a time. How long were you thinking about the pride flag for?’” the manager wrote, asking Tepe, “Does that sound okay or do you have a better way of saying it?”

The manager also said she was “at a standstill” with a staff member about flags in the library’s window. “He knows it’s preferred he takes them down but I don’t think he will unless one of us says he absolutely has to do so,” she wrote, adding, “No one has ever complained about them (and has rather just thanked us for them), but I know it could still happen at any time.”

In response, Tepe wrote, “Putting up any flag doesn’t really convey information on a topic, and it risks alienating as many patrons as it brings in. It is important that we are welcoming to all of our patrons, and especially so patrons from marginalized groups who are not widely welcomed, but we need to think about what we are doing to make them welcome and not whether or not we have a flag posted” (emphasis in original).

In an interview, Tepe described hanging pride flags as a possible example of “performative” allyship.

He said there’s “a difference between performative allyship of — you know, thinking about, like, Bud Light putting out rainbow cans or something like that — but it also could go to just hanging up flags and everything — versus actual allyship, which is making sure that that community is represented all the time and in ways that they can feel seen regardless of the time of year.”

A year earlier, however, Tepe apparently had a different stance on pride flags.

On July 5, 2023, Tepe told an employee concerned about a pride flag at their library, “Bottom line, people will find things to love or hate about just about anything we do, so it’s really up to you all to think about how your community will respond to anything you display in the library. If you think most folks will like it, feel free to keep it up!”

Patrons noticed scaled-back displays — and complained

Records obtained by the Independent show that Becca Lachman, the libraries’ communication director, emailed Assistant Director Lindsay Place to ask how to join the Women of Athens group, apparently in response to the post. 

Emails to and among library staff indicate that patrons at the Athens Public Library began complaining about less colorful displays on June 1.

The Athens branch manager, Amy Drayer, wrote to Tepe on June 1 that a patron “felt that by doing as little as we are” the library is “letting the groups that she and other[s] came out to support us against” win. 

“I told her our goal was to include more of our LGBTQ community year round,” the branch manager wrote. 

“I suspect she is not going to be the first or the last person we have come in complaining one or way or the other,” the manager wrote, adding that since she was about to leave for vacation, “now I’m worried — and thinking [staff] could be in for a very rough ride.”

In a separate email on June 1, Drayer informed her staff about the complaint and offered “talking points” for “those upset by lack of PRIDE,” including activities at The Plains Public Library and that the library is “acknowledging our LGBTQ community everyday by inclusiveity in our catalogue and our ongoing monthly displays.”

In that thread, a staff member states that the library’s pride displays weren’t ready by opening on June 1 because “I was off yesterday lol.”

An Athens patron emailed a complaint to Tepe on June 11. “I wanted to reach out and let you know that myself and my 14 yr old were disappointed that there was no pride display at the Athens branch of the library when we were there today. I know there was some backlash last year from other parents about not wanting to see one. I hope that there can be some sort of compromise considered for the future. We don’t expect anything extravagant.”

On June 12 — the same day as the Women of Athens Facebook post — the Athens Public Library branch manager reached back out to Tepe and said, “I had another complaint today regarding our lack of our pride flags AND the buttons.”

The next day, a teenaged patron reached out to Tepe and expressed concern about the displays, too. (It’s not clear if the writer was the child of the patron who complained to Tepe on June 11 or someone else.)

“As a teenager, the only support or representation I am usually able to access comes from everyday media,” the teen wrote. “June is the one month I get to see people like me being represented in the world. … These displays are some of the few things I get to enjoy in a month were LGBTQ+ members are allowed to be proud of who they are. Now, bigots have taken something else from us, and you, the main decision maker I assume, have helped them.”

Tepe responded to all patron complaints in roughly the same way: He emphasized the library’s goal of reflecting the community and its efforts to ensure LGBTQ+ people are represented in library displays and holdings all year round. In some emails, he pointed out that the libraries did have Pride Month displays and that The Plains library held a Pride Month event.

In all of his responses to concerned patrons, Tepe said displays were handled by local library staff. 

“All of our displays and programming are handled by the staff at the local libraries, so if there’s ever anything that you want to see or if you think anything is missing, please reach out to the staff or the manager at that location to let them know what you would like to see,” Tepe told the teenager who complained. 

In her June 12 email exchange with Lachman, assistant director Place blamed the complaints on the library’s past pride displays.

“The main thing is that we have gone so big with pride that even pairing back makes it look like nothing,” Place wrote. “I’m hoping that staff can see that when we really go above and beyond for one thing we need to be prepared to do that continuously and for everything or this is exactly what happens.” 

Place echoed that thought in an email to all staff members sent the same day. 

“Remember that our goal is that everyone sees themselves in our buildings and that while we may not have the big flashy displays this year, we do still have them,” she wrote. “This is why it’s important for us to celebrate things on a more equal scale because patrons are very in tune with what we have and get used to a certain way.”

Smaller displays not enough for some

When a patron thanked Tepe for the absence of “over-the-top pride displays” this year, Tepe said the change was a decision by local staff. 

“Some of the libraries might have a small pride display, but the events and atmosphere is not pushing or pressuring parents one way or another,” the patron wrote Tepe on June 12. “Thank you for trying to respect both sides of the issue.”

Tepe replied, “All of our displays and programming are handled by the staff at the local libraries, so all credit goes to them.”

At least two libraries received complaints or threats regarding Pride displays. A patron whose 8-year-old child asked about pride after seeing displays at the Chauncey Public Library accused the library of “sexualizing children.” Another patron picked up a book from a Pride display at The Plains Public Library and told staff, “things would be better if he could get rid of people like this.”   

“Staff, in no uncertain terms, said that was not ok and not tolerated here,” The Plains staff member reported to Place.

Tepe told the Independent, “We kind of got the whole gamut this pride month, and we’re just continuing as much as possible to try to serve the whole community, to provide to the community the things that they’re asking for in a way that meets their needs. That’s always what we’ve tried to do, and that’s what we’re continuing to try to do.”

Tepe said that the library has continued to receive complaints about its LGBTQ+ holdings since last July, but that the library continues to take a strong stand for the materials.

“We continue to fight to make sure that these materials remain available to everybody in the community, because these are materials that people in the community want,” Tepe said.

“Our job is to serve all parts of our community, and we will continue to do so,” he added. 🔥