2 Librarians Fired After Republicans Mistake Autism Symbol For Pride Display

Two librarians in Kansas were recently fired from the public library where they worked because Right Wing idiots became angry over an alleged pride display that they put in the library. But it wasn't a pride display - It was an Autism Awareness symbol. Now the librarians are suing, and they have a rock solid case if ever such a thing existed. This incident also proves that it isn't about the "content" of books, it is about the erasure of the entire LGBTQ community, as Farron Cousins explains.

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*This transcript was auto-generated. Please excuse any typos.

Over the summer, two librarians working in a public library in the town of Sterling, Kansas were fired after a temporary summer worker complained to the library's board that these two librarians, librarians by the name of Carrie Willie will, Carrie Wheeler and Brandy Lancaster, the temporary employee, complained that these two librarians had set up what she thought was a pride display. As she says, this was totally offensive. Offensive is the word that this temporary library worker used. She was offended because there was a rainbow. Well, turns out this was not an L G B T Q Pride display. This was actually an autism and neurodivergent awareness display set up with the infinity symbol with rainbow colors, which is typically a symbol used by neurodivergent people. And it featured the books in the display. Uh, you had Emma and mommy talk to God, the color purple Uncle Tom's cabin separate is never equal wonder And to kill a Mockingbird and only the color purple out of all those books contains any L G B T Q content.

So this was not an L G B T Q Pride display, but this little staffer who wasn't even a full-time worker, was only there for a couple weeks, became so offended by the thought of L G B T Q people that she filed a complaint that resulted in these two librarians getting fired. Let me read you this statement. Uh, well actually, here's a quote. This is from L G B T Q Nation. Uh, on June 22nd splitter, a temporary summer library employee complained about the display to Lancaster saying she found the gay pride symbol offensive and going into an anti L G B T Ty, uh, diatribe, even though Lancaster explained that the infinity symbol represented neurodiversity and autism splitter then complained about the display to Michelle Miller, vice chair of the library board. Miller reportedly told Lancaster that she could get her fellow board members to have Lancaster take down the display.

And here's what Miller, again, vice chair of the library board had to say, I'm totally fine with diversity of skin color display, just not represented with rainbow colors. I do not want any kind of rainbow display, especially in this month. We have a conservative town and as a library do not need to make political statements. I certainly do not want the library to promote L G B T Q agendas, but that's not what they were doing. This was an autism and neurodivergent display that talked about inclusivity, like, and, and it actually said, we all think differently trying to show people

Because according to this report, both of the two librarians who were fired are neurodivergent. It's just trying to show people like, Hey, we're all different and it's okay because we can all still be included. But this little summer employee said she was offended and then went into an anti L G B T Q tirade and the board was like, yeah, you make a good point. We're very conservative. Let's fire these people. Well, these two librarians have of course, now filed a lawsuit, um, and two other patrons of the library have filed a lawsuit along with them against these sterling Free Public library, the library's board, the city and its mayor for allegedly violating their constitutional rights to free speech due process and equal protection, and for violating the Kansas Open Records Act.

This is a rock solid lawsuit because these women had their employment terminated over something that wasn't true. This is a public library, by the way. This is not a school library.