The Public Debate Over Sexually Explicit LGBTQ+ Children’s and Youth Books Comes to Greenville County Public Libary System

We’ve all seen the video clips of the ongoing debate across the country regarding what kinds of reading material should be accessible to America’s children and youth. We’d like to think that Greenville County would be immune to having to battle this but the fight is here. Yesterday both sides stood their ground at the month meeting of the Greenville County Library Board.

I had the opportunity to be there to hear some of the speakers but I was standing at the threshold to the room so it was hard for me to judge the size of the crowd. I’m guessing there was somewhere between 100-150 people in there and it seemed pretty balance to me but one of the women I spoke with thought the balance may have been slightly infavor of the LGBTQ+ crowd. However, that said, there had been a meeting just a couple of weeks ago and there were perhaps 3 people on the side of conservatism and tradition values and 30+ on the LGBTQ+ side.

The group fighting against the proliferation of LGBTQ+ materials in our public libraries is asking the library board to remove the sexually explicit books from the children’s and youth section and put them in the adult section is my understanding. We don’t want to see our children exposed to this material. In a normal world, which of couse we do not live in, but if we did, this kind of material would be grounds for some kind of charges…it’s sexual exploitation and is corrupting America’s children and youth. We’ve heard about this going on in our public schools across the U.S. buried in DEI and BLM materials. Of course it’s also in the public libraries. Many of us don’t want it here in Greenville County. I would submit that the vast majority trying to protect our children from this assault on their innocence are Christians. We all have heard the following Bible verse read from the pulpit many times over from Mark 9:42…Jesus tells his Disciples….“whoever causes one of these little ones who believe [in me] to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were put around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.” To most of us it’s just common sense that you would not expose and encourage sexual activity or exploration in children and youth. At a minimum these discussions should occur with the full knowledge and consent of the child’s parents and not something they might randomly discover in a public library.

What I don’t get is it would seem to me to be pro-LGBTQ+ one must believe in sexualizing children and youth as early in life as possible. Is this what they believe? It exposes children and youth to something they are not ready for and it may become very confusing for them. But of course the LGBTQ+ community and the medical establishment that support their efforts count on children being confused. And of course, they are the “experts”…the doctors, counselors and librarians…they are all certified and educated and have way more knowledge than the average parent…right? They may have more education than the average parent but this does not mean they know what’s best for the child. It’s the parent’s role to make these decisions.

Conservatives in South Carolina have been lulled asleep and it’s time to wake up. Because so much of the state is conservative and votes strongly in favor of traditional values, we figure that our elected Republican officials will have our backs. But you would be wrong. The Left is organized and the act as one big pressure group. That’s not the way conservatives operate but we must get more active and show up. Just have the body count at meetings and events will go a long ways. We don’t have to be nasty but we should be vocal and let our voices be heard making sure our elected representatives know where we stand.

It’s one thing for consenting adults to choose what they do, but it’s another when you start messing with the kids as they have been doing for some time given the explosion in gender dysphoria across the country. Many of us have had the attitude of “live and let live” but again, that’s when it’s consenting adults. It’s a different deal when our children are involved. Oh and for those saying we want to ban books…that’s not true. We just think some of this explicitly sexual material should not be readily accessible to our children is all. Can’t we all agree on that?

BTW, the next meeting for the Greenville County Library Board of Trustees is scheduled for noon on April 24th at the same place – Hughes Library downtown Greenville.