Hey, this pride month (or literally any time of year), you wanna know something fairly easy and great you can do?
Contact your local library (or comment on their social media) positively for any pride/LGBTQIA+/queer-related displays or events they have going on.
Seriously.
What I’m seeing and hearing from the (mostly US-based) library workers in my groups and social circles is that the anti-queer (anti-gay, anti-trans, anti-drag queen story time, etc.) comments and complaints that have ramped up in the past year aren’t going away. Even library workers with supportive coworkers/bosses/boards are steeling themselves to deal with an avalanche of garbage, or are second-guessing their displays and events because the amount of vitriol can wear a person down so much. And the ones without supportive people or work environments? It’s worse.
Give the library something else: give them both the ammo (by being one of the numbers they can count worth the positive group) if they need to show their community isn’t wholly negative. Give them the compliment of knowing that their work got appreciated.
- A comment like “I love this” or “Wow, that looks great!”
- An email about how much you’re excited about X event
- A call saying you wanted to let them know you appreciate this thing
- Tagging them if you share a picture or positive comment on social media
- “Cool shirt/pins/etc!” (Because people are also bring harassed about personally being queer, even if it’s not a library display)
- Literally anything that would be positive for them to receive