A Mississippi mayor has told the Madison County Library to remove LGBTQ+ books from its shelves or lose funding. One of the books singled out as an example was The Queer Bible, a collection of LGBTQ+ history essays edited by Jack Guinness. Ridgeland’s Republican mayor, Gene McGee, has refused to release funds to the library until “homosexual materials” are withdrawn…
…Guinness and other Queer Bible contributors joined crowdfunding efforts to replace the $110,000 withheld by the mayor. The target has now been reached…
…”It’s terrifying to think that one individual, due to their personal beliefs, can withhold texts from an entire community,” said Guinness. “I grew up under section 28, which forbade the promotion of homosexuality in schools. An entire generation grew up without information about their history or any understanding that they were not freaks.
“Banning any book is also a slippery slope. In certain countries, LGBTQ+ people do benefit from equal rights but this shows how easy it is for things to slip. There is a shift, an idea of criminalising or deleting certain communities. Today it’s the queer community – tomorrow it could be your community.”
