A West Virginia public library is trying to ban a children’s book after receiving outspoken protest from the local church.
The Upshur County Public Library in the town of Buchannon found itself in the hot seat aftera gay-themed children’s book was discovered in its possession. Prince & Knight by Daniel Haack is almost like the classic fairytale of a knight and a young royal falling in love. Only, it has the knight in shining armor falling in love with the prince and not the princess.
Related: Prince & Knight Is the New Kid’s Book We Wish We Had
Unfortunately for the Upshur County Public Library, Pastor Josh Layfield of Calvary Chapel Mountain Highlands took great offense to the existence of this book. He claims the library having the book is a “deliberate attempt to indoctrinate young children, especially boys, into the LGBTQA lifestyle.”
“This book is deliberately appealing to their imagination, creativity, and their innocence when they still think girls have ‘cooties,’” he wrote Facebook post that has since been deleted. “Unfortunately, this is an intentional leading of children into sin and parents and citizens within this community must be mindful with what is happening.”
According to 12WBOY, the library’s board received a request to review the acceptability of the book. The board could not add a discussion of the book to the agenda of their most upcoming meeting. This caused even more controversy with the community.
That controversy even includes those who support the inclusion of the book. After news of the controversy hit their ears, human rights organization the ACLU got involved. The ACLU released a statement asking the library board to put Prince & Knight’s consideration on the table so that they can argue against the book’s banning. But since the book had not yet been put on the agenda yet, the book isn’t technically banned yet and the ACLU is left hanging in the air.
During all of this controversy, two more LGBTQ books were discovered at the library, according to the Mountaineer Journal. The first is In Our Mothers’ House, which follows a lesbian couple raising a diverse group of children. The other, Julian is a Mermaid, follows a boy who becomes obsessed with mermaid mythology and starts to play with gender expression because of it.
Once the Christian and conservative community surrounding the library catch wind of this, we’re sure there will be even more pushback. But with the ACLU getting involved, perhaps they’ll have enough support to withstand this unnecessary fighting.
We will see.
Sources: 12WBOY, Pride, Mountaineer Journal
It would be so cute to make an animated movie out of this book 😉 please someone hear this and do it 😉