NC library cuts ties with regional services over 2023 Pride display

In a year-long dispute over a LGBTQ+ Pride display, Yancey County’s library has cut ties with other libraries in neighboring counties.

In what has been a months-long battle between opposing views over a Pride month display at a local library, The board of commissioners for Yancey County (about 45 minutes northwest of Asheville) has voted to sever their area from the larger region’s library system.

At a meeting held this past June 28, Yancey County Commission Chair Jeff Whitson directed County Manager Lynn Austin to pull the Yancey County Public Library (located in Burnsville) out of what is known as the Avery-Mitchell-Yancey (AMY) Regional Library System, which serves all three communities and the four branches within (two in Mitchell, one in each of the others).

The motion was passed unanimously while AMY Regional Library Director Amber Briggs was out of state attending a library conference in California in late June. In August, Briggs released a public statement in response to the Yancey County Commissioners;

“This past year has been a heartache, psychologically draining, and highly stressful for the employees of the AMY Regional Library System, and particularly, the employees at Yancey County Public Library. The employees at Yancey have been harassed, called pedophiles and groomers, all because of a book display.

“We are so well equipped to serve our communities, and that was made possible by directors across the state who serve on those committees, me included, and our representatives at the state level listened to and awarded funding. Why withdraw now? Why pay for what the State already provides?”

“I work with the best people, kind and giving, dedicated to competent service above self and to the adults and children they serve. To hear that the Yancey County commissioners decided to withdraw is heartbreaking to us.”

The debate over the control of the library began, as reported by Carolina Public Press (CPP), in June 2023 when Yancey County resident Sheila Poehler made a complaint to the county over that year’s display during Pride Month.

From a report carried by the publication/website Mountain Xpress: “During June 2023, three branches — Avery Morrison, Spruce Pine and Yancey (which is in Burnsville) — assembled Pride Month displays featuring books about LGBTQ+ topics and by LGBTQ+ authors. The display in Burnsville included a rainbow flag saying, ‘Everyone is Welcome Here,’ and a smaller “Everyone is Welcome Here” sign at the front desk.”

In an email sent to the Yancey Public Library to read, according to CPP, Poehler professed that, “Parents of young children should not be put in the position of having to explain LGBTQ, etc. to their kids.”

During the commissioners meeting that followed, Whitson made the first motion to explore leaving the AMY Regional System, a move that was shortly put on hold in a special July meeting in order to have the matter discussed by the commissioners, the local library board and Briggs.

Since that time, Yancey County appointed seven new members to the local library board, three of whom became a part of the regional board. Poehler was among the names that were brought on locally. Of the current membership, only two of the tenured local library board members were re-appointed by commissioners in 2023.

“It’s just very sad for them to withdraw and not give reasoning,” Briggs told CPP in August after the final vote to withdraw was confirmed. “Yet, the timeline really shows what the reasoning is.”

In light of the recent conversations over the last few months, droves of local residents who rejected the changes, staged a support walk from the Burnsville library to the county courthouse, displaying apparel and signs that read “I Love My Library” and “I love AMY.”

“I hope [the support walk] shows the commissioners that the vast majority of the community supports staying in the AMY regional system,” Landon Beaver, a Yancey County resident and one of the supporters in the walk told CPP. “Or that it convinces the community that we need new county leadership to keep us in the AMY regional system.”