FREDERICK COUNTY, Md. — A school board candidate in Frederick County said she will no longer take her children to the local library, after seeing a prominent display of books for LGBTQ+ Pride Month.
Heather Fletcher, who has three young children, told WMAR last weekthat she checked out nearly 20 books from the display at Brunswick Library - and took a cup of "pronoun" pins - to see if they were inappropriate. She also asked library officials to move the display to a less conspicuous place, and she says they declined.
Fletcher released a statement this weekend where she noted about the buttons: "The pro-noun buttons were given to the Brunswick Branch Library by their “Friends of the Library” support groups. The following groups provided the resources that funded the display and the pro-noun buttons: Human Rights Campaign; The Trevor Project; The Frederick Center; GSA Network; Advocates for Youth; GLSEN; PFLAG; Q Chat Space; and GLAAD. I played cards with some ladies on June 3rd and some of them wanted to have the pro-noun buttons. Since the buttons were meant to be given to the public, I gave them to the ladies."
Two other candidates who are running alongside Fletcher declined to comment on her actions, but did say they support the library. Fletcher is running on a slate along with Ashley Nieves, April Montgomery and Tiffany Noble.
April Montgomery said:
The Brunswick Library is a wonderful place to take your children and they carry multiple genres of books for adults and children alike. Being from Brunswick, this library is where I take my daughter for musical story hour. Frederick County Public libraries provide many activities for families and I fully support the work that they do and the many opportunities for positive experiences for our community.
Tiffany Noble said:
I fully support our local libraries as they play a critical role in our community. I highly recommend parents bring their children to some of the amazing events they have like musical story time and toddler story time.
Fletcher said she is not against the LGBTQ+ community but is "just deeply concerned about the oversexualization of the children in our community and the harmful effects that this may have on them."
She posted photos of pages from the books she found inappropriate, saying they're "for adults only."
She also said in her statement: "The actions that I took at the library, I took as a parent. The ladies who I am running alongside of in my campaign for Frederick County Board of Education had no knowledge that I was going to have a conversation with the librarian or that I was going to check out the books."
