Hey, guys, it's Kat. And we are here to listen to to a call in that I got on my podcast
for this month's episode about the Don't Say the gay bill and grooming. We had a lot of really
great conversations for the call-in--- show, and this will not be the last one that I will
be showing you guys.And eventually there's going to be an edited version of the call
in show that goes up on my podcast, which you can find on all podcast platforms. But for now,
I wanted to play a call that I got from a woman named Eileen, who used to be a librarian about
a situation she was in where she discovered that a kid was looking into LGBT resources
and how her support impacted not only that child, but also their family.Let's listen.
- Who am I speaking to and what is your true tea?
- Hello, Kat.
My name is Eileen.
I'm not queer, so a lot of the call-ins you do,
I just didn't know if I should call in.
I am a mother and I used to be an educator.
I was a librarian at an elementary school, K through five.
- Oh wow.
- As a librarian, books are another part of the conversation
that's been happening a lot.
And when I was working as a librarian,
I had one of my fifth graders come and search LGBT,
and I see what their search is.
And so the student searched
and at the time I was relatively new
to the school and the library
and I didn't have any books like that, unfortunately.
So I knew who the student was
and I kind of went back and forth
on whether or not to have a conversation with them.
I did a little research
and I found a bunch of titles
that I felt like this student would particularly care for,
since it was around the theme of being queer.
And I went back and forth for months.
I was like, should I give these books to the parent?
Should I even give these book titles at all?
Like, I was really cautious and I was
afraid that I was going to be overstepping my boundaries,
even though I knew the student
was actively looking for these books.
So it was definitely a little scary.
And so what ended up happening was I waited a couple months
and I ended up giving the student this list of titles
that I had come up with and was like,
"Go to the public library.
"We don't have any here."
And she was thankful
and we didn't really talk about it after that.
And after that, just going,
literally a lot of, two or three of my students
when it came to graduating fifth grade,
the ones that were born as girls showed up in suits.
- Oh.
- And I know, yeah.
I know having conversations with them
that it was a big deal.
This was their last day at school.
They were like, "I'm gonna show up
"in what I actually feel comfortable in."
And the student I'm talking about in particular
ended up transitioning over the summer.
- Oh wow.
- Which I can understand, I can assume to understand.
Easier going into a new school.
- Yeah, definitely.
- Transitioning before you got there.
And so the mother of the student came up to me
after the summer 'cause she had more kids at the school
and she came up to me and was like, "I need to talk to you."
So of course I was terrified.
I was like, "Oh my gosh, what did I do?"
I accept all blame, right?
And she comes up to me and she starts crying
and she tells me her now son, her son's new name
and how impactful I was by just handing
that little list of a couple books to him
and what that meant.
And this parent actually went out
and wrote a letter to the district
and really wanted the district to know
that because I supported their child,
it made all the difference to him.
- Wow.
- Being an educator in that space,
I was in Colorado at the time.
Now I live in Tulsa.
But being an educator in that space,
it was definitely tricky
because I feel like there's no rules.
There's no, you don't know
where you're supposed to step, what you're supposed to do,
because if we look at it a different way
and that parent was not supportive,
I could have been in hot water.
- Yeah.
- I could have been written up.
I could have been fired, I could have,
any of those things could have happened to me,
but because this child was coming from a supportive home
it made all the difference.
So moving forward, I started to add in LGBTQI books
to my library and a lot of people are like,
"You work in K through five."
Like, what they think gay equals sex
and immediately assumed that I was putting
inappropriate books in the library,
which I was not, of course.
There are plenty of books, picture books, novels,
chapter books that have queer representation.
So I just wanted to come in and kind of share that story.
I also had a queer teacher who I worked with.
I know that was something that she thought about
when she got hired was like, "How do I navigate this space
"being who I am in this space?"
So it's definitely a tricky environment to be in.
- Yeah, yeah.
I wanna start by saying thank you so much
for sharing that story and for doing what you do.
Librarians are very much underappreciated
and they have been very impactful in my life.
I'm sure for any kid's life who stayed in the library
for recess and things like that.
So, I definitely appreciate you for doing that.
I don't know if you still do,
but thank you for standing up for that kid.
That is amazing.
What would you say to the people
who are trying to remove some of these books?
Is there a way in your mind to get through to them?
- The big thing with the book banning going on right now,
a lot of the people wanting to band these books
have no idea what the books are about,
have not read the books.
So they're just being fed these titles
so they're opposing these titles.
When you look at the top 10 banded books,
nine of them are queer books.
There's an amazing queer Black author right now
who's been sued several times,
but what has happened is that his book
is being published again and again,
and there's just more copies being printed every day.
He's actually been sued personally.
He's been sued because he talks about being molested,
he talks about his journey.
It's a memoir and they keep coming for him.
And his books keep getting printed.
I will say some of the older students out there right now
when it comes to book banning,
they are forming their own book groups outside of school.
- I've seen that, yeah.
- When it comes to K through five,
children's books that have these topics, it's very easy.
We have picture books with families
that have two fathers or two mothers.
There's some beautiful lesbian family picture books
out right now that are just, as an illustrator,
you would just be like, "Oh my god, gorgeous."
I think the nuance is there,
just like it would be there for any other topic.
Like, I really don't think we have to overthink it.
We have couples, we have crushes.
You know what I mean?
- Yeah.
- I think every week, 50 plus children's books get published
and there's so many choices and options
and it's just about finding them
and it's about not just finding them
and putting them on the shelf,
but advocating for them because there's going to be
children that need to see themselves.
And if they don't, they don't think they deserve to exist.
- Yeah.
- And books are just another form of media,
so they have to be able to see themselves in it.