(Because of a Netflix Bio, Bayard Rustin is back in the public conscious and I have to admit, albeit with a degree of reluctance, that one of the most conservative places in the country at the time, Oklahoma City, was way ahead of the rest of us in this regard as Bayard Rustin played a role in addressing the attempted book banning twenty years go. I present this tale of presenting school libraries with two books on Gay History when “Homosexual Themed Books” were facing censorship.)
State Representative Sally Kern’s attempt to ban what she broadly described as “Homosexual Themed” books brought people‘s attention to the fact that with all the books in Oklahoma City’s high school libraries on diversity in America, there weren‘t any that included Gay people unless as footnotes, or as characters that did not end their stories well.
I had found a few books in my high school library that dealt with the topic of Homosexuality. Among these were a book on debate topics with essays on the pros and cons of various controversial topics including Homosexuality authored by a prominent celebrity pastor; a book on AIDS where all the heterosexual couples were in normal relationships with some minor varying details while the sole Gay teen had decided on a life of promiscuity involving a lot of older men; and one where a conservative televangelist treated the topic of teen sex with cautions about those abominations that might lead them astray with, of course, Homosexuality topping the list. But as far as any history, biography, or work of fiction not related in any way to sex, unlike such books involving heterosexuality, there was nothing.
Money was raised from individuals and organizations within the city’s Gay Community so that one copy each of the books Stonewall, by David Carter and Forgotten Profit: The Life and Times of Bayard Rustin by John D‘Emilio could be bought for each high school in Oklahoma City and presented to the School Board in the summer of 2005 as a gift to cover this void. With two shopping bags filled with books bound in pairs by rainbow ribbon, one set for each high school, members of the community presented the books to the Board at one of its public meetings.
The books had been chosen because of their historical value, and because there was nothing in either that could be even remotely objectionable, with the target audience being high school students so as to avoid any possibility that someone could accuse the books of being recruitment tools from which children would need protection. Indirectly the actions of the state representative regarding the books in the public libraries also guided the choice of the books and the audience as we followed her proposed requirements for age appropriate Homosexually themed books placed appropriately. The books would be only for high school students, and, being histories, were relevant to the curriculum.
They were not sensational.
We decided on a public presentation as opposed going to the individual schools as a way to make sure the books were not just silently put in a closet somewhere with no central person or department to keep after to get the books on the shelves if it ever came to that.
At the meeting, various members of the Gay Community spoke to the Board about the importance of such books, and how information may not only have helped the speakers, themselves, make better decisions in their youth, but might help the students avoid some of the pitfalls involved in figuring out on your own what it meant to be Gay and where they fit into the big picture. Both books contained flawed individuals whose errors were not glossed over, so it was not a question of presenting a false, rosy picture, but one that was realistic and at times embarrassing.
I had been to many Board meetings and the procedure for Community Comments had always been first come, first served. However, that night the acting chair grouped people according to topics, listing the book donation last even though I had been the first person to sign up to speak.
Usually at Board meetings when any one group and its members spoke and finished their business, those people left. To have artificially placed us last ignoring the Board‘s own procedure guaranteed that when we got up to present the books the audience would not be there and we would be addressing ourselves and those Board members who had not left or taken a bathroom break. This would deny us both the drama of the moment, and witnesses beyond ourselves and the Board.
As it was, due to some confusion experienced by a group called before us, we were moved ahead of a union issue only to have the acting chair announce that there were four speakers, naming only three, and then absenting himself so that after the third speaker was finished there was a very awkward pause that almost brought our presentation to an ignorable standstill since by procedure the chair announces the next speaker. Since I was the fourth intended speaker whose name had not been called, I went to the podium anyway, made my remarks, and presented my set of books along with the other three speakers who came forward from their seats with theirs.
The irony was that the acting chair who gave many people beyond us the impression he was trying to interfere or at least minimize the book donation was a Black man who benefited from the Civil Rights work of Bayard Rustin, a Black man, or he may not have been sitting on the Board. Yet, obviously being ignorant of who Bayard Rustin was, he tried mightily to censor us and the presentation. This was demonstrable ignorance of Black History, and oddly enough fit well into Strom Thurmond‘s attempting to control Black History as he did in 1963, and showed that even supposedly informed people were woefully uninformed about their own history. I was embarrassed for him and his lack of knowledge about someone like Bayard Rustin and his obvious assumption that Rustin was a bad thing.
We did not ask for special, but for equal treatment, and did not expect these two books to be treated any differently than any other books, nor would we accept that they were treated less than any other book. Before even presenting the idea of a book donation I had checked on the school district policy about such donations and found there was none.
The televised media covered our presentation in a positive way, showing the two books presented, and asking those responsible their motivation for donating the books and their hopes for the books‘ impact on students.
The books were passed on to the administrator in charge of district school libraries. Convinced that someone would come forward to make some impossibly unfounded and bizarre claim that the “homosexual agenda” was being promoted in the schools, and that the “Homosexual Lifestyle” was being taught as an acceptable alternative to Heterosexuality, the director of libraries wanted to have a few people read the books to see if there was anything to which anyone might choose to object. Her intention was to anticipate any objections that might arise by coming up with answers to them before they were voiced.
The District‘s initial inability to let the book donors know where the books had ended up when asked a few weeks after their presentation gave the impression that there may have been some reluctance in accepting the books, and they had been conveniently lost in the labyrinth of school headquarters. It would have been a good way to dodge having to deal with them or any backlash toward the donation.
When the books were located, they were just where they were supposed to be, in the office of a person who wanted the books in the libraries but who also found herself facing a possibly awkward and unsought position. The District‘s procedure for addressing complaints from parents or students about any book in any school library was applied in anticipation, and when all was said and done, and all arguments that could be were anticipated, the books went into the libraries after a six month process.
Upon checking after the date given as the day of delivery of the books to the high school libraries, I found most high school librarians contacted had received the books with some already having placed them on the shelves. One newly built high school had the two books as some of the first to be placed on the new school library‘s shelves.
As with the Gay History Month displays and other materials that had found less support in the past, these books did not bring down any storms of fire and brimstone, and if they were responsible for the loss of souls or any other demonic mayhem, no one has yet mentioned it.
.
.
.
.
.
