(LifeSiteNews) — A Florida county opted not to renew financial support for the American Library Association (ALA) due to the organization’s far-left stances as recently highlighted by the ascent of a self-described Marxist to its leadership.
The Citrus County Chronicle reported that the Citrus County Commission voted not to reinstate for its 2023-2024 budget a $275 ALA membership fee. A Special Library Advisory Board previously recommended cutting ties with the organization due to recent controversial aspects of the ALA that have recently drawn attention, including its latest president Emily Drabinski, who has said it is “really important to me” that she is a “Marxist lesbian,” and its stance on children’s access to sexually explicit content.
The ALA’s Library Bill of Rights declares books and other materials in libraries “should not be excluded because of the origin, background, or views of those contributing to their creation” or “because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval” and that a “person’s right to use a library should not be denied or abridged because of origin, age, background, or views,” without any means of restricting certain material on the basis of “chronological age.”
“The real crux of it is about Marxism and that’s what I don’t understand, that nobody is up in arms about it,” commissioner Diana Finegan said. “If we don’t all stand together against this, we’re going to be in real trouble.”
Christian Family Coalition representative John Labriola addressed the commission, urging it to “stick to your guns and not reestablish ALA funding” and stressing that Drabinski was not an outlier: “She was elected by that board because she represents their values.”
The inculcation of gender fluidity and the rest of LGBT orthodoxy among the youth in public school has been a longstanding concern, from school libraries to sports team and restroom policy to drag events to ideological classroom materials to even socially “transitioning” troubled children without parental input.
The issue, along with the promotion of ideological messages in taxpayer-funded education, has fueled a parent backlash that has been credited with Republican gains in states like Florida and Virginia, whose current respective governors have taken leading roles in fighting back.
Last month, the Texas State Library & Archives Commission also decided to cut ties with the ALA over its radicalism.