‘Prayer circle’ outside Crandall Library protested teen materials

By Ben Westcott, Chronicle Staff Writer

Local mom Asia Craft’s video posted on Facebook decrying what she describes as materials “targeting our kids” with “trans and gay ideologies” in the Crandall Library Teen Center has caused a stir and led to a prayer circle with about 15 participants in City Park outside the library Monday.

Ms. Craft said in the video that she entered the Teen Center with her son to help him print out sources for a project he’s working on. She said a worker told her that staff usually doesn’t let adults in the Teen Center, but told her it was fine this one time.

Library Director Kathy Naftaly told The Chronicle, “As a whole, adults are not part of the Teen Center, but they are allowed in if they are browsing the materials in there, and a parent can come in with their child if they’re helping with homework and stuff.”

She said, “We discourage parents coming in when there’s a teen group happening. We want to encourage the teens to have their own sense of space and a safe place, and strange adults in the room perhaps would curtail that sense.”

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Ms. Craft said the Teen Center had “Pride flyers and stickers everywhere.” She said other “red flags” were “books they have out” and “these booklets they have right next to the computers.”

“I just could not believe the things I was seeing there,” she said. “I don’t know how many other libraries are pushing this agenda and these ideas on kids. I have been feeling so troubled ever since I went to the library today. My spirit has been grieving, I am not joking.”

In the video she shows booklets she said she took home with her. Called ‘zines,’ short for “fanzine” or magazine, they are “a self-published, small-circulation booklet, often produced using a photocopier, that combines original text and images.”

One is titled “Tools to care for your queer self this holiday season.”

Another: “Times up. Time to come out and come to terms with your lesbianism.”

“First come to the mild realization that you like women,” it said. “I recommend watching female Disney villains, my favorite being Mother Gothel.

“Second, have your first gay crush, preferably in your tween years with acne ridden skin and social anxiety, and make sure it’s on a girl out of your league and straight.

“Third, have a homoerotic relationship with your best friend,” it says. “Say you’re just friends yet love each other so deeply you’d die for one another. Plus one bonus point if you dedicate all lesbian love songs to her.

“Four, experience the biggest heartbreak in your life because of her.

“Five, realize you don’t like men, surprisingly harder than realizing you like women. Preferably by reading fan fiction about men and being horrified.

“Six, take ‘Am I gay?’ quizzes just to make sure. Take multiple just to be sure.”

Another zine Ms. Craft showed was called “5 things you can say if you ask someone to have sex and they say no.” The back says, “This little zine was made with love and lust by Pleasure Pie,” and it directs readers to pleasurepie.org.

“This is the stuff they have all over there,” Ms. Craft said. “Little pamphlets. Hand-written little things. Teenagers do not need this in the library. Teenagers do not need their agendas shoved in their faces.”

She said, “I’m blown away. I am just baffled. I was shaking because I feel so upset. My spirit has been grieving ever since I saw this. I’m calling on everybody else, all my prayer warriors out there, to pray about this situation, that this kind of garbage is removed from our kids, removed from libraries and anywhere else where this is happening,” she said.

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Library Director Naftaly told The Chronicle the zines which Ms. Craft took issue with “were curated by our staff as something informative.”

“We’re a public library,” Ms. Naftaly said. “We provide information to people of all ages. People are welcome to read or experience what they want, and parents are welcome to monitor what their children are looking at.”

Ms. Naftaly said the zines in the Teen Center cover a wide range of topics.

“In that collection we have something on lantern flies all the way to AI and everything in between,” she said.

She said zines are “very common,” adding that “Prior to the internet, zines were one way of quick communication.”

Ms. Naftaly said that in response to Ms. Craft reaching out to the library, “We have given her our collection development policies and a form, which is a formal request to review a magazine in the collection, and we will continue to work with the process we have in hand.”

“We have not received a response to those materials,” she said.

Ms. Naftaly said Ms. Craft “has every right to post her opinions.”

“We respect the parents’ rights to control what their children can read or view,” Ms. Naftaly said, but added, “One parent does not speak for every other parent.”

She said in deciding what items the library has in its collection, “We do have a process. It’s not like one person makes a decision. It’s widely reviewed.”

Asked her thought of the reaction Ms. Craft’s post got on Facebook, Ms. Naftaly said, “I was pleased the majority of the responses were in full support of the library.”

A participant at the prayer circle Monday said the zines go beyond freedom of speech. “It goes to grooming,” she said.

Ms. Naftaly firmly disavowed this take when asked about it. “We are not grooming children,” she said.

Prayer circle participants said they plan to meet again next week.

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