Ridgeland Mayor's Plan To Ban 'Homosexual Materials' From Library Inspires UM Religion Talk
OXFORD, Miss.—University of Mississippi student Sara Giray doesn’t remember reading about any gay couples in books growing up, but she remembers years of school-required readings that centered around heterosexual couples—in everything from Marie Lu’s “Legend,” to Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet.”
Her college hosted a brown bag “Religion for Lunch” conversation on Feb. 1, 2022, to discuss Ridgeland (Miss.) Mayor Gene McGee’s decision to refuse the Madison County Library System its funding unless the staff agrees to purge LGBTQ+ books from their shelves, a story the Mississippi Free Press originally reported.
“It’s unethical to just provide that portion,” Giray said at the event, explaining that it is only fair to show both same-sex and opposite-sex couples. “How are you supposed to identify yourself if you don’t ever see yourself?”
“If you don’t centralize other viewpoints—outside of heteronormative, societally acceptable sort-of viewpoints—you’re putting a lot of youth at risk of things like depression, suicide and so forth,” Giray said.
Read more: https://www.mississippifreepress.org/20478/ridgeland-mayors-plan-to-ban-homosexual-materials-from-library-inspires-um-religion-talk/