Transgender people and allies urge Cranston Library to cancel harmful, anti-trans panel
“We call on the Cranston Public Library to acknowledge that they made a mistake in approving the event and immediately cancel it to prevent further harm to the transgender community.”
September 19, 2022, 11:43 am
By Uprise RI Staff
The following is a press statement from TGI Network, LGBTQ Action RI, Womxn Project, Haus of Codec, Democratic Women’s Caucus, Youth Pride RI and Sage RI:
On Monday evening, September 19, 2022, members of the transgender community, our allies, families and neighbors will gather to show love and support for the transgender community at the William Hall Branch of the Cranston Public Library. This will occur while the library hosts a panel of guests whose rhetoric is known to incite violence against the transgender community through messages of misinformation, hatred and fear.
Rhode Island has long served as a beacon of hope, acceptance and inclusion for the transgender community and at any time, the library could choose to host affirming and accurate informational programming that highlights the many community leaders and diversity of experiences within Rhode Island’s transgender community. Instead, the Cranston Public Library is hosting an event fueled with anti-trans hatred, even though it violates their own policy against hate speech and while the library has an equity and inclusion policy to “provide a safe and inclusive space for all visitors regardless of race or color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, actual or perceived gender identity or expression, disability, age, national or ethnic origin, or socio-economic status.”
“We would like the Cranston Public Library to explain how they are providing a safe and inclusive space for all visitors including trans young people while hosting a speaker who proclaims that transgender kids do not exist. How are transgender people supposed to feel safe in this library before, during, and after this event?” said Jaye Watts a long-time advocate in the Rhode Island transgender community.
“The library is a trusted public institution that disseminates information; people are going to assume the information from these speakers is true. Our public libraries cannot be in the business of legitimizing hateful, false speech,” said Ethan Huckle of TGI Network of RI.
Transgender young people know who they are, and there is ample research that demonstrates when transgender youth are supported and affirmed for who they are, they have less psychological stress and better outcomes than trans youth without that support. Simply put, supporting transgender youth saves lives. Promoting false information that transgender youth do not exist and should not be supported causes direct harm to the community. Our library is not a place to cause harm, and the Cranston Public Library should be ashamed to allow this event to continue.
We can only assume that the Cranston Public Library did not understand the nature of the event when they agreed to host it. And we hope that the library never would have allowed themselves to be used as a platform to spread harmful misinformation about the transgender community. The library now knows that this event will violate their own policies to create a safe and inclusive environment.
We call on the Cranston Public Library to acknowledge that they made a mistake in approving the event and immediately cancel it to prevent further harm to the transgender community.
The Cranston Library posted the following statement on their website this morning, regarding the event:
“The Cranston Public Library has a longstanding practice of allowing private groups to book and use library meeting spaces. According to the American Library Association, ‘publicly funded libraries are not obligated to provide meeting room space to the public. If libraries choose to do so, such spaces are considered designated public forums, and legal precedent holds that libraries may not exclude any group based on the subject matter to be discussed or the ideas for which the group advocates.
“As stated in our Meeting Room Policy, “meeting rooms are available to civic, cultural, and educational organizations and are available regardless of the beliefs and affiliations of their members. The use of a meeting room does not in any way constitute an endorsement of the group’s policies or beliefs by the Cranston Public Library.”
“The Independent Women’s Network paid to use meeting space for a private event to be held on September 19th at the William Hall Library. This meeting is not sponsored or endorsed by the Cranston Public Library or the City of Cranston. As the meeting is not a library-initiated program but rather a private room booking, the library had no part in the content or featured speakers, nor were we informed about the speakers for this event. The library did not promote this meeting in any way.
“A thorough review of the event and library policies and procedures was undertaken by the Cranston Public Library administration and Board of Trustees in coordination with the city’s legal counsel.
“We deeply understand and appreciate the concerns and strong sentiments of all those in the community who have reached out to the library about this event.“
