Librarian Resigns in the Face of Intimidation and Extremism

A librarian in Idaho has resigned from her position citing the threat from rising rightwing extremists after a group of enraged parents pressured a local school board members to ban books on LGBTQ themes.  The Boundary county library director, Kimber Glidden, decried the environment of growing extremism and threats in her recent resignation announcement on Facebook and admitted that the hostility she faced had affected her so much she had contemplated moving away from the area altogether.

“Nothing in my background could have prepared me for the political atmosphere of extremism, militant Christian fundamentalism, intimidation tactics and threatening behavior currently being employed in the community,” Glidden wrote in her announcement, the Spokesman-Review reported.  Librarians across the U.S. have faced the ire of a right-wing political groundswell that has targeted books on racial justice and LGBTQ issues.

This incident is part of an escalating movement, guided by the group Moms for Liberty, a group linked to deeply pocketed right-wing groups and conservatives, by Republicans to prevent the teaching of race and gender identity in schools.  A group of parents, known as the Boundary County Library Board Recall, whose goal is to “protect children from explicit materials and grooming”, launched a petition in July to recall four school board members after they updated a library policy that had not been updated for years.

Gidden, who was hired late last year, told the Idaho Statesman that she chose to wait to leave her post until the library’s budget was finalized because her early departure “could jeopardize whether the library district gets funded”.

She noted that unlike other places where book bans have targeted books centered around race and gender equality and identity, she saw that her library “does not have the titles that people are wanting to ban”, the Spokesman-Review reported.  What finally pushed her to resign was the group’s inability to listen to her answers and their opposition to rejoining the American Library Association earlier this year.  “It wasn’t a final straw so much as a constant barrage of the same rhetoric and people not listening to my answers,” Glidden told the Spokesman-Review. “They don’t want to hear the truth.”