Library battle in Texas over LGBT children’s display re-ignites as parents organize and gather signatures to demand action
Led by Texas MassResistance activist pastor.
Local citizens group taking on public officials, LGBT forces! Showdown at Library Board meeting this week.
January 29, 2018
The battle over public libraries pushing a radical LGBT agenda targeting children has re-ignited in Temple, Texas. A local citizens group run by a Texas MassResistance activist is demanding that the local Library Board stop it. The group is gaining supporters throughout the area and gathering signatures on a petition.
But LGBT activists (mostly from out of town) are building an effort to keep the offensive material in the children’s section of the library. They also want to have the library ban material that criticizes LGBT behavior or questions its morality. The fight has been reported in the local newspapers and TV news.
On Tuesday morning, Jan. 30, both groups will converge at the meeting of the Temple Library Board. The citizens group will be delivering its petition in person to the Board.
Parents and local pastors fight back against propaganda targeting children
As we reported back in November parents in Temple were shocked and outraged to find a very aggressive “gay pride” display (along with handouts) in the children’s section of the local public library. It included numerous books for both young children and teenagers which portray homosexuality and transgenderism as normal and positive, and which encourage youth to consider engaging in LGBT behavior.
Reacting to alarm from parents, the local pro-family group, Concerned Christian Citizens, realized that this must be confronted and stopped. The group is run by Joe Goodson, a pastor and Texas MassResistance activist. Several other local pastors are active in the group.
When talking to the local press, Joe didn’t mince words. “They crossed a line when they put up a celebratory promotional display of the LGBTQ lifestyle. And let’s face it, the agenda to normalize it upon our children,” he said. In addition, seeing where libraries in other cities have begun hosting events such as Drag Queen Story Hour, Joe said this was clearly “a foot in the door for more aggressive attempts to normalize these lifestyles in the future.”
Concerned Christian Citizens said that at the very least, any pro-LGBT display must have an equal display that honestly presents the medically dangerous and immoral nature of that behavior.
Joe and others tried working with the librarians but got nowhere. So they realized they needed to confront the Temple Library Board.
On October 17, 2017, Joe brought over three dozen people to Board’s quarterly meeting. A few LGBT activists heard about it and also attended. The Board heard emotional testimony from both sides – then decided to take no action.
Pro-family conference rallies local parents
On October 20, 2017, Concerned Christian Citizens held a multi-town pro-family conference in nearby Killeen featuring Texas MassResistance speakers, including Dr. Robert Oscar Lopez and former elementary school teacher Caryl Ayala. Parents heard no-holds-barred descriptions of the LGBT movement, and how their indoctrination is getting into local elementary schools and public libraries. Citizens were encouraged to mobilize.
“Request for Reconsideration” to Library Board
In November, after conferring with MassResistance, Concerned Christian Citizens decided to file a formal “Request for Reconsideration” of the Board’s decision to take no action, to be delivered at the Board’s January 16, 2018 quarterly meeting. They made the document into a petition, and began gathering hundreds of signatures from around the region. Read the Concerned Christian Citizens petition here.
Among other things, the petition demands that the library:
[R]efrain in both policy and practice from further advocacy regarding sexual and moral issues and practices, like homosexuality, proven to be dangerous and deemed to be immoral by the large percentage of local residents who hold to biblical and traditional values.
The Library Board reacts – announces a “policy” is coming
The petition clearly got peoples’ attention – including the library officials. After it was publicized, the Library Board realized that they needed to do something. So they decided to create an “official policy” to deal with it and released the following statement to the press:
We are currently working on developing a library display policy and hope to have it in place early this year. The content of the policy is expected to include guidelines for the display of material within the library and criteria to be considered when selecting or approving display themes and materials.
Also, just before their January 16 meeting, the Board announced it was being postponed until this Tuesday, Jan. 30, citing “impending bad weather.”
MassResistance Health Book to be donated to library!
Concerned Christian Citizens is not stopping with the petition. They believe that if the Library insists on giving out “information” regarding LGBT issues and events, then the truth must be told. Joe will be donating a copy of our book The Health Hazards of Homosexuality to the library, and will insist that it be included in any future displays regarding homosexuality. We're quite sure the local LGBT community will try to stop it, or even ban it..
This is the book that the LGBT movement wants banned in every public library! |
Outside LGBT activists go on the attack
All of this was sure to inflame the radical LGBT movement. They are incensed that their “right” to proselytize children in libraries would be in any danger. They definitely don’t want any “library policy” that could get in the way. They are screaming about “censorship” – but of course, that it applies to allowing their propaganda – but not a book that tells the truth.
Since the pro-family petition was announced, an LGBT-induced social media firestorm has descended on the citizens group, calling them (of course) bigots and haters.
A lesbian activist in nearby Belton, TX has started a change.org petition for the LGBT side, which has attracted over 2800 signatures. But their electronic signers are from all over the world. The signers of the pro-family petition signed in person on paper, and are from the Temple area. One would expect a local library to reflect the values of the local community.
The LGBT petition also includes a YouTube video encouraging people to tell Temple political officials to completely reject the pro-family demands. This absurd video is a great illustration of the hypocrisy of that movement. They say that the library should protect the “right to information about the LGBT community” but not information that “slanders” the LGBT community. (It’s interesting that truthful and helpful information about health risks can be seen as slander – which means false and malicious statements.)
Screen shots from the LGBT YouTube video attacking the parents' petition:
An obvious bit of hypocrisy?
Covered in the local media
Given the propensity of the media to be hopelessly biased, the local press in Temple has been relatively fair in their recent coverage of this issue, though they always seem to make it a point to give the LGBT side a chance to “refute” the pro-family side.
Temple Daily Telegraph, Jan. 5: Petition seeks changes after 2017 LGBT displays
KCEN-TV Channel 6, Jan. 11: Controversial Display discussed in Temple (below)
National radical groups pressuring the Temple Library board
There’s more to this battle. Behind the scenes, some of the most radical leftist groups in the country have formed an “anti-censorship” organization, which is attempting to pressure the Temple Library Board not to “cave in” to the pro-family group. We will have a report on that in our next posting.
On Jan. 30, the Temple Library Board will face the local citizens. A big THANK YOU to these local citizens for standing up to the intimidation and insanity. We will have a full report on what happens.