A local church is urging its members to permanently remove books from the Shelby County Public Library by checking them out and never returning them. The books portray gay characters and historical figures or explore LGBTQ+ themes.
Pamela Wilson Federspiel, who has been director of the library in downtown Shelbyville for 34 years, says the action is tantamount to “stealing.”
But three leaders of the Reformation Church of Shelbyville defend what they call an “act of civil disobedience.”
I hear you. And honestly we need to be better about using the hate crime enhancer for violent crimes generally.
But, I’d prefer to live in a society that doesn’t tolerate hateful criminal behavior. If someone wants to call me a trans slur that sucks, but if someone spray painted hateful slurs on my property, I’d like that to be prosecuted with a more serious consequence than simple vandalism.
And, I have no idea how to frame it so that more violent offenses aren’t watered down. But, as I mentioned at the outset, we don’t use the enhancer often enough as it is. And maybe if we used it for less violent offenses, with smaller enhancers, we’d normalize using it more generally.