Yancey library Pride: Residents pack meeting as commissioners consider taking control
BURNSVILLE - The Yancey County Board of Commissioners meeting July 10 featured a standing room only crowd, as residents packed the Yancey County Courthouse to hear the commission talk about its efforts to wrest control of the county library system, which some say is in response to a library location's Pride flag displays last month.
There were heated moments, particularly during the public comment period, as some residents shouted their disapproval of others speakers' comments, which led to a near altercation among two residents sitting in the jury box.
According to Board Chair Jeff Whitson, in the commission's June meeting, he made a motion "to give County Manager Lynn Austin research and the process of taking all necessary steps in taking control of the current library system, and making it a county-ran library, an operation showing no bias to any religious, political or ethnic platform with oversight from the Yancey County Board of Commissioners until a proper new library board can be established."
The motion was withdrawn, and the commissioners agreed to revisit the topic in the July 10 meeting.
Many residents have contended that the commission's attempts to bring the libraries under the county's departmental discretion were in response to a Yancey County library's Pride flag display last month, as June is Pride Month.
Whitson said the issue of displays of any kind has been on his radar for at least four years.
"I personally as a commissioner four years ago approached this situation, because it was getting bigger and bigger - a lot bigger than it should — so I spoke personally," Whitson said. "It's a misconception. It's not just about the Pride displays. It's about all displays because first of all, it's being funded by the public."
Amber Westall Briggs is the regional director of the AMY Library System that serves Avery, Mitchell and Yancey Counties, as well as Spruce Pine.
"Four years ago, they received complaints about the Pride display at that time," Briggs said.
According to Briggs, after hearing about the complaints four years ago, she recommended addressing the issue at a monthly meeting.
"I said, 'Let me come up to a meeting and maybe explain what we do and maybe that will help people,'" Briggs said. "I addressed the display, and the chairman said, 'We're good. Amber and I have talked.' We've been putting Pride displays up for 10-plus years now.
"Occasionally, you'll get a group of people who complain about it. Those are generally given to the commissioners. I don't receive a lot of complaints."
Four years later, the topic of library displays has resurfaced following Whitson's motion.
But Briggs said in the time AMY Regional Library has done Pride displays, she has only received one formal complaint.
According to Whitson, the commissioners hope to bring the library system on as a county department.
"It's not a knee-jerk reaction," Whitson said. "We're not wanting to close the library. We're not wanting to ban any books. We're not getting rid of any books. It's not about getting rid of anything. We're not going to get rid of Black books. We're not going to get rid of Christian books. We're not going to get rid of Christmas books. Everything stays the same."
Briggs said she felt the county's attempt to bring the library system under county operation were in retaliation to the displays.
"I couldn't help but think that because that happened during the month of June, and the LGBTQ display, which I have to mention, that it seemed retaliatory in nature," Briggs said. "But I will move on from that. I believe we will all find common ground to move forward in doing something that everyone can be proud of at their library. But the public library serves all people."
The Yancey commissioners will meet with the AMY Regional Library Board at 5 p.m. July 11.
More: After Macon County commissioner denounced Pride display, community raises $30K for library
Madison County operates a county library system, in which the county commissioners allocate money to the department through its finance officer, Kary Ledford.
According to Briggs, the county system and regional systems differ vastly.
For one, regional library systems are eligible for potentially more funding.
"The regional systems are set up specifically for lower economic areas," Briggs said. "Regional library systems were created specific to rural communities to provide more funding through state aid. So, a region is of multiple counties. There are 12 regional library systems in the state of North Carolina.
"So, in all of those regional libraries, every county and town provides a budget for each of those libraries, and state aid supplements those budgets. If you are a county library, you receive block grants, but if you are a regional library system, you receive an additional block grant."
Public comments
More than 15 residents signed up to voice their opinions of the library displays.
"Now the moment you've all been waiting for, the reason why you're here," Chair Jeff Whitson said prior to the public comment portion of the meeting.
At times, Whitson reminded people to not speak out of turn when voices rose.
Gavin Carew Henry, 24, was born and raised in Yancey County.
"I would like to say that I've always gone to the public library, both here and in Spruce Pine, and I've always enjoyed them and loved them very much," Henry said. "As someone that works right next to the library, I'm there using the printers and always seeing the wonderful and beautiful displays that are built there for the theater and for other organizations around the town.
"It is a public library, and so that means it is for all the people, and I love seeing how many different people come through, and I'd like to see everyone welcome there. I am a queer youth, and I really love this place. This was where I was born and raised, and I want to continue to be welcomed in our public libraries."
More: Macon County commissioner denounces library Pride Month display; opposes funding increase
Franklin Oden, a U.S. veteran, said he supported celebrating residents' differences.
"I'm a white Christian heterosexual American war veteran. I peace kept in Kosovo in 2002, and I fought in Iraq in 2004-05," Oden said. "I'm proudly an ally of the LGBTQ community. If you all don't know what the North Carolina motto is, it's 'To be, rather than to seem,' which means you have to be who you are. You're a much happier person when you are who you are.
"When I was in the Army it was, 'Don't ask, don't tell.' In 2004, I had a tank crew, I had a loader who for a certain amount of time had to hide his sexual identity. The man's in a war zone, any day getting blown up shot, whatever, for his country, and couldn't be who he is. That individual fought with honor, fought with dedication. That individual had a different sexual orientation that some of you all might not approve of. He's still American. Still fought for you. Still bled for you."
Oden said his friend died by suicide in November 2017.
"That happens a lot, in the LGBTQ community," he said. "Any Google search will tell you that. So, as we move forward — and we're a great county here in Yancey County. I've lived all over North Carolina, and I'm proud to be a Yancey County resident. Let's continue to accept everyone, regardless of their race, creed or sexual orientation, because you'd be very surprised who laid down their life for you to be here, and stand here and talk the way that we are."
Rachel Haimowitz, a Yancey County business owner, said "the only reason she was alive today is because of her public library."
"The reason for this is because I grew up queer, and I didn't know it," Haimowitz said. "All I knew is that I was an outsider. I didn't even have a single vision of a future worth living. But what I did finally have, at the age of 35, after decades of suicidal misery, was a well-stocked library. It was there that I found my very first novel with a queer protagonist. She was just like me."
A number of residents said they were against Pride displays at the libraries.
Carl Norris said he served three tours in Iraq from 2003-06. He has lived in Burnsville for two years.
"I had numerous homosexual brothers with me in combat. I, however, am not an ally," Norris said. "I got out in 2013, so I've been out in the real world for 10 years now. I still find it hard to fit in. I moved to Yancey County because these mountains are like the last place left that the world hasn't taken over, and by the world, I mean Buncombe County-Asheville morality. How you base your morals, if you base them off of yourself and your goodness, the standard, it doesn't hold.
"I would say, as far as this whole library thing goes, keep it out of it. Commissioners, we voted you all in for a reason, and it was to protect this county and to protect our families and to protect our children."
Two pastors, including Buddy Waterman, also spoke out against the displays.
"A public library should be a neutral place without any agendas being promoted," Waterman said. "It should not be a platform for any issue that's controversial. It should only be place where people can come and enjoy reading and learning, but not to promote any particular agenda. It's not a political platform."
But Burnsville resident Bonnie Mapes said the library displays are not about promoting an agenda, but rather about promoting inclusion and tolerance.
"Every time I come to a commissioners meeting, I have to sit through a Christian invocation before the meeting begins," Mapes said. "I find that objectionable, both because I'm not a Christian, and because I think it infringes on the constitutional separation of church and state. I'm not advocating for doing away with that. That's the point. I find it objectionable, but I do not object.
"It does make me uncomfortable. But it causes me no harm, and because I am tolerant of other people's beliefs and I respect their right to believe as they please. Our democracy can't exist without tolerance of the beliefs of others. No one person or one group gets to decide what the rest of us get to see in the library, or read or say. A library is a public space. It serves all the public, not just one group of the public. Displays about Pride Month are not political. It's a national month recognition for a group of our fellow citizens, like Black History Month and Women's History Month. It shows that the library is a welcoming place for everyone, where they can feel safe and where they know they belong."
Whitson said he appreciated the differing opinions from residents.
"I think what this exemplifies is the very fact that we live in America, in a free country, because of those that sacrificed," Whitson said. "I too was a combat veteran. I understand all the issues, and don't want to take anybody's freedom away. There's nobody in this room, not one, that understands the freedom we have in all amendments.
"I think this is awesome that everybody gets to come together, have this conversation, this dialogue, and understand what others feeling are."
The Yancey County Board of Commissioners will meet with Briggs and the library board at 5 p.m. July 11 in the meeting room of the Yancey County Library. The meeting is open to the public.
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Yancey commissioners consider controlling library after Pride display