Libraries were my refuge from the world when I wasn’t sure I even wanted to be in it, let alone my place. The books were microscopes and telescopes that let me look inwards as well as out. The walls and stacks felt safe, the staff accepting. All that mattered was that we cared about what was inside the library, what it meant and what it stood for. But as I said, I was lucky. Plenty of kids aren’t: libraries aren’t just a refuge from the world for them, they’re a refuge from abuse. They’re not just somewhere for them to expand their reading, they’re the only somewhere they can access LGBT resources without being found out by people who would try to correct them or harm them. They’re somewhere where anyone should be able to freely educate themselves about the struggles people have overcome and still face, where places and times like The Stonewall Inn in 1969 can live on perpetually on a bookshelf or at an e-resource. So please, tell me that libraries are decrepit, archaic and not fit for purpose when even now there are scores of people, lost and disenfranchised, who need them just as much as they always have, even if they don’t know it yet.
Go read the full blog post, it's wonderful. This is what I've tried to say a few times, only phrased about a million times better. Also, Happy Canada Day!
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