The Soldotna Library Advisory Board held their first meeting of the year Monday night and spoke out about their interactions with the community regarding the Jan. 6th postponed Drag Story Hour.
According to City Librarian Rachel Nash, there was quite a bit of misinformation from a blog. Due to it not having all the correct information on it, it led to a bunch of confusion for the community.
“We started getting phone calls about a drag story our that Soldotna pride plans to host in the community room. And most of them were confused and once they realized it wasn’t a library program, they apologized and then you know, I think one of them even said they were going to tell some other people they knew and we did notice that the calls died down,” said Nash.
Not everyone agreed with the event being held in the community room, which resulted in much of the library staff being harassed by members of the public.
“And then like I said over the next couple of weeks we did continue getting phone calls and some of them were respectful, but a handful did use harassing violent and even vulgar language when talking to library staff, which violates our Code of Conduct Policy. And we did also get emails,” explains Nash. “But some of them were also from individuals that were still misinformed about the nature of the event. And again, some of them contain vulgar language.”
Nash does explain that the Soldotna Pride group did fill out an application for the community room, which was approved, since the group met the terms and conditions of the application without violating them.
She also emphasizes that this was not a library affiliated event, but rather a space that the Soldotna Pride requested and got accepted to use.
City Manager Jeanette Bower issued a letter on December 29th to remind everyone that the Soldotna Library “makes its rooms available for rental by various organizations and community groups.”
“The city is committed to promoting diversity, inclusivity, and the free exchange of ideas within our community. We respect the rights of individuals and organizations to express themselves in a peaceful and lawful manner,” read Bower’s memo.
Nash did proceed to remind everyone that this non-library afflicted event would have been considered a public forum, which would have allowed the group to practice their First Amendment rights.
“In terms of a government entity, the library telling one group sure you can do this and telling another group, we disagree with what you have to say or what you’re doing so you can’t have it. We can’t do that and my understanding,” said Nash.
However, after some discrepancy from the community, the Soldotna Pride group issued a response on Facebook on January 2nd, stating that “everyone should feel safe, secure and comfortable being their authentic selves and not live in fear of attending a public event in our community.”
The post then reads that the group had decided to postpone their Jan. 6th reading in the community room, but they plan to hold inclusive story times in the future.
But in the computer system, Nash says that Soldotna Pride didn’t ask for the event to be postponed, but rather canceled it themselves in the library software.
Jane Fuerstenau, the Vice President for the Soldotna Library and Friends, did showcase that there was a bit of light on this situation.
Fuerstenau says that they welcomed two new faces at the Soldotna Friends membership meeting and shared that they had some concerns for anger and harassment that the library staff had been receiving, especially when they ” were in no position to make any decisions about this.”
She then refers to one of the two individuals who came into the meeting on Saturday and explained that he wanted to give a helping hand to the Friends for all the work they do.
“And so, he actually donated $2,000, to the Library Friends to sit and with no strings attached and said, whatever the friends can do to support the library because he felt so strongly about all of the really great programs at the library,” said Fuerstenau.
Overall, both the City of Soldotna, the Soldotna Library, and the Library Friends will continue to work to serve the community, and all the individuals who live here, and promote diversity and self-expression in a peaceful and protected manner.
