A local church is urging its members to permanently remove books from the Shelby County Public Library by checking them out and never returning them. The books portray gay characters and historical figures or explore LGBTQ+ themes.

Pamela Wilson Federspiel, who has been director of the library in downtown Shelbyville for 34 years, says the action is tantamount to “stealing.”

But three leaders of the Reformation Church of Shelbyville defend what they call an “act of civil disobedience.”

  • hkffepdsedzcfpjdxk@sh.itjust.works
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    23 hours ago

    I’ve worked in libraries and this isn’t a new tactic. The funny thing to me is that the library will almost always rebuy the missing book unless they were planning on removing it anyway, so the net result is a signal to the publishers to print more LGBTQ books.