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Real pushback: Montana’s library withdraws from ALA because it elected a Marxist/Queer leader

Emily Drabinski, now president of the ALA, proudly Marxist and queer
Emily Drabinski, president of the ALA and proudly
Marxist and queer

Bring a gun to a knife fight: Upon learning that the American Library Association (ALA) had voted as its new president, Emily Drabinski, a woman who is not only proudly queer (in her own words), she also is proudly Marxist, the commission for Montana’s state library yesterday voted to withdraw from ALA.

The Montana State Library Commission’s decision came in response to a 2022 tweet posted by current ALA President Emily Drabinski describing herself as a “Marxist Lesbian,” which quickly drew the attention of conservative media outlets nationwide. In his motion to “immediately withdraw” the state library from the association, commissioner Tom Burnett directed that a letter be sent to the ALA explaining that “our oath of office and resulting duty to the Constitution forbids association with an organization led by a Marxist.”

Burnett was joined by five other members of the commission in supporting the motion, among them state Superintendent Elsie Arntzen. Newly seated commissioner Brian Rossmann, who works as an associate professor at the Montana State University Library, cast the sole opposing vote. Commission Chair Peggy Taylor abstained.


The reaction of the Montana commission was not simply a response against Drabinski and her single tweet. In winning her election Drabinski — who made no secret of her political leanings — received 54% of the votes, suggesting that the membership of the ALA was strongly in favor of her desire to strengthen and extend its long-standing policies in favor of Marxist and queer advocacy, including drag queen story hours for little kids. There is also ample evidence that ALA itself supports the censorship of conservative thought.

The decision means that the ALA will no longer receive Montana’s $1000 membership fee, an amount that seems inconsequential. However, if more local library organizations followed through as Montana has, the ALA might finally feel the pinch and rethink its policies. Or if it didn’t, it would justify these libraries leaving its fold, as it does not represent them. As noted during public comment before the vote in Montana:

“Instead of pursuing the long-term viability of future libraries and supporting the traditional role of acquisition, preservation and circulation, ALA desires to inject the library into the vanguard of the culture wars,” said Ingram, whose local library’s recent struggles with such issues were the subject of an April article in the New Yorker. Fellow ImagineIF trustee Carmen Cuthbertson, who sits on the Montana State Library Commission, spoke in favor of and voted for the ALA withdrawal.

Similar points were raised by other individuals who alleged that the association is responsible for making objectionable materials available to minors, has advocated in support of conversations about gender identity among children, and is actively seeking to promote a Marxist ideology. Two commenters in the meeting’s Zoom chat wrote that they’d attended in the hope of initiating similar efforts to withdraw from ALA in Georgia and Kentucky.

The ALA is perfectly free to push libraries to include queer materials and leftist propaganda on their stacks. Similarly, no state or local library is required to belong to such an organization.

Until recently, the response to leftists inserting their politics into such non-partisan organizations as the ALA has been weak and ineffective, usually manifesting itself merely in letters of complaint or public disagreement, with no real pushback. As a result, the left had no reason to stop, and thus succeeded in transforming such organizations into a form of political action committee, working exclusively for the left.

Montana’s action however is real, and illustrates doing something with real impact. It is also something we need much more of.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 

The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

19 comments

  • Cotour

    She looks the part.

    Looks like a fool and thinks like a fool.

  • Col Beausabre

    Let’s do what Herr Doktor One Stone called a thought experiment. Let’s assume they elected someone who described themselves as a “fascist member of NAMBLA”, how would the press react? (NAMBLA = North American Man -Boy Love Alliance, yes it exists)

  • John

    Nice glasses Emily. I’d never hit a man with glasses on.

  • pzatchok

    Proudly gay is fine.

    Proudly Marxist is just stupid.

  • “Pride.” The left and the queer crowd seem very obsessed with it. I seem to remember something about the seven deadly sins, and how pride comes before the fall.

  • James Street

    Emily Drabinski wins the Mike Rothschild lookalike contest.
    https://www.hachette.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/contributor-mike-rothschild-103.jpg

    I thought it was odd when the swamp started infiltrating librarians. It’s just one more way these sick evil monsters are perverting our children. The corruption of the best is the worst.

  • DJ

    The ALA has been heavily Leftist for years. Seek out and analyze the speakers from their previous annual conventions if you need proof. At least half of the states (red/reddest ones) should drop them immediately.

  • Jeff Wright

    I remember hearing how Greens protested a Pride parade..

  • Rosco

    After more than 100,000,000 murders committed by Marxist regimes, anyone who claims to be a Marxist or a “trained Marxist” (the BLM bint who bought all the mansions) is admitting they know and understand that they support an ideology of mass murder. Anyone bold enough to publicly state their support for Marxism should be taken at their word and dealt with appropriately.

  • wayne

    James Street–
    –without my glasses, she sorta looks like Bill Gates…

    Not much here, but this is her.
    https://www.emilydrabinski.com/

  • Milt

    To Col Beausabre —

    To answer your question, first, in the alternate universe of the radical left, *only* conservatives can be described as fascist. Marxists, by definition (however much their thoughts and actions may mimic all the the behaviors of fascists), therefore cannot be labeled as such. (Cf, George Orwell on the uses of language to shape and limit logical thought.)

    Second, you are way behind the times. NAMBLA and its agenda of normalizing sexual relations between adults and children is the new cause célèbre of the radical left — their agenda endorsed by such luminaries as sundry UN working groups and affiliates of the World Economic Forum — and this is the end goal of the entire movement. When the radical LGBTQ+ protestors* announce that they are “coming for your children,” this is *exactly* what they are talking about, and they are using schools, libraries, and every other institution that they have infiltrated to normalize this abhorrent nonsense.

    *Seconding pzatchok’s comment, please note that most LGBTQ people do not endorse NAMBLA’s agenda and are as repelled by it as anyone else.

    The short answer to your thought experiment is that the leftist Kool-Aid-drinking media would *celebrate* the news and put out glowing accounts of the “good work” that NAMBLA is doing in communities across the nation. (Listen for heartrending stories on National Public Radio about adult “victims” of laws against having sex with children. Again, they are the new victim class needing government protection from the “haters” in our society.)

  • Andi

    Especially since they are not pedos anymore, but “minor attracted persons”

    Hard to read without gagging: https://www.mapcommunity.org/

  • James Street

    Another recent win for our side is the July 4th release of the movie “Sound of Freedom” by a Christian group about child sex trafficking. It’s making a killing in the box office and red pilling the normies on what our ruling elite are like. There are more people enslaved in the world now than any time in history, and once again the Democrats are on the wrong side, supporting the pedophilic psychopaths.

    I saw the movie and thought it was good, much more tame than I expected. I actually more enjoyed this interview between Jordan Peterson and the real life main character of the movie Tim Alder and Jim Caviezel, the actor who played him:

    The Fight Against Worldwide Child Slavery & the Sex Trade | Jim Caviezel and Tim Ballard | EP 372
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTBGNEliczc
    1:36:26

    If you see the movie skip the after credits special feature at the end. It’s just Jim Caviezel pleading for support for the movie. The problem with Christian movies is they always have to do something goofy like that.

  • Cotour

    Related: GOOD, BAD OR OTHERWISE: WHY IS OUR SYSTEM SO SUCCESSFUL?

    https://www.sigma3ioc.com/post/good-bad-or-otherwise-why-is-our-american-system-so-successful

    I encourage you to share this with a confused friend.

  • Edward

    Milt wrote: “please note that most LGBTQ people do not endorse NAMBLA’s agenda and are as repelled by it as anyone else.

    I don’t know about that. The nebulous “+” that they keep putting on the end of their moniker is hiding something. Andi pointed out that they are no longer called by their historic term but have a newer, kinder-sounding descriptor. It could be that “minor attracted persons” is about to be the most recent protected class of persons. It used to be that we could think that kids were cute, but these days we might be mistaken for being a person who is “attracted” to them. We might be mistaken for a “+” person.

  • pzatchok

    I know its a stupid question but why do so many gay women try to look like men?

  • markedup2

    More “stupid” questions:

    Why do so many gay men try to look (or act) like women?
    Why do lesbians want to go to male gay bars? It infuriates them to be excluded.
    Why do gay men (or anyone really) like drag shows?

    As an old gay man, these questions have baffled me for decades.

  • markedup2

    most LGBTQ people
    “+” that they keep putting

    Category error alert! People who fall into a labeled group are not the same people who create the labels. For example, “Latinx”.

  • pzatchok

    markedup2

    Thank you.

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