Fairfax Family Forum

When news broke that Fairfax County public libraries had excluded/censored/banned (use whatever term you want) over 85 books presenting a pro-family perspective on marriage and same-sex attraction, we had hoped groups in our area who had recently displayed such fervor in protecting intellectual freedom during the “And Tango Makes Three” controversy would be similarly outraged.  Unfortunately, at least one of the main Tango advocates has proven less-than-consistent when the viewpoint requiring protection is one they do not like.  Equality Loudoun has made it fairly clear they do not oppose the exclusion/censorship/banning of certain diverse viewpoints (many of them Christian) here in Fairfax.

In a recent post on their blog, Equality Loudoun mocks the over 100 students who submitted over 85 books to 13 different high school libraries by referring to their actions as merely a “political stunt.”  The blog then went on to somehow insinuate the perspective these students sought to include was “discrimination” and would even violate “the rights of GLBT people.”  Huh? 

The Fairfax libraries rejected the books donated by over 100 students because they presented (and these are their words from rejection notices) “too Christian of a viewpoint” and “not a balanced view.”  This wasn’t initially clear as the typical first reason provided for the denial of the books was the requirement for two positive reviews. But when said reviews were provided by the students, the Fairfax officials moved on to this objection that the books were “too one-sided”, “unbalanced, and “too Christian of a viewpoint.”

I’m sure Jonathan Rauch or Mel White’s books and the 300 or so others supporting the radical redefinition of marriage and same-sex sexual activity currently present in Fairfax public school libraries are not “balanced” and that’s okay—it doesn’t mean they should be excluded/banned/censored just as much as these books presenting a pro-family perspective shouldn’t be.  The Library Management Handbook for Fairfax County Public Schools makes this clear when it states:

Materials should not be excluded because of the origin, background, or views of those contributing to their creation. … Libraries should provide materials and information presenting all points of view on current and historical issues… [School libraries should support] the diverse interests, needs, and viewpoints of the school community.

Seems like the libraries aren’t living up to their own rules as they display an agenda of permitting books that present an extreme liberal view of human sexuality while rejecting mainstream Christian books presenting a competing perspective.  As we pointed out earlier, this situation is an obvious affront to the intellectual freedom espoused by Banned Book Week, which seeks to ensure “the availability of those unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints to all who wish to read them.” 

Some of the same-sex “marriage” advocates, including Equality Loudoun (who, incidentally, repeatedly referred to our blog in their post without so much as linking to our full post… seems like they are afraid of providing their readers with the full context of our comments… strange) are defending Fairfax’s exclusion/censorship/banning of these 100+ donations as being selected by high school kids rather than “professional librarians” or of “uneven quality” (how they know that without having read probably any of the 85+ books is hard to imagine).  These seem like nothing more than reaching justifications for excluding viewpoints they don’t particularly like.  These groups go on to defend this apparent prohibition of pro-family Christian books by painting a straw man argument that it’s irrational to scream “censorship” if you come running into the libraries with a handful of books they want “immediately shelved” and the librarian rationally says this isn’t the process.  Of course this is not what happened here in our county.  Here, we have over 100 students submitting over 85 books beginning in October 2007 and continuing for a year with thorough reviews for each book provided upon request.  Equality Loudoun says that “there are a lot more books in the world than there is space in public school libraries to shelve them. Most books don’t make the cut.”  This is true, but the issue here is the fact that due to an apparent ideological litmus test Fairfax systematically ensured that those books that “don’t make the cut” are those that present a pro-family and often Christian viewpoint.  Of course these folks know this is the real issue, but they are apparently terrified of having to compete with another legitimate perspective in the arena of ideas in Fairfax schools.

Thankfully, not all who oppose the viewpoint presented in these books and embraced by these students are acting so hypocritically.  The Technology Liberation Front denounced the exclusion with the following statement:

Now let me be perfectly clear about something. I find the themes of some of these books as distasteful and intolerant as many on the Left do. But I also find Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” distasteful and intolerant and yet I would never call for it to be banned from a library. In fact, I absolutely want it there. I want to make sure that people see what such hatred and intolerance can lead to. And I want people to aggressively respond to it and express their opposition to such thinking.  But they can only do that if they can read it for themselves.

We’ll pay close attention to this situation as it develops.