screenshot of court documents: The contentious display at the Sterling Free Public Library in Kansas
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Two former librarians of the Sterling Free Public Library in Sterling, Kansas have filed a lawsuit claiming they were fired over a June library display featuring a rainbow symbol that was mistaken for a Pride Month display.
The library’s board fired library director Kari Wheeler and assistant librarian Brandy Lancaster on July 5 after library employee Ruth Splitter complained to the board about the display. Lancaster created the display as part of a national summer reading program with the theme of “All Together Now,” The Topeka Capital-Journal reported.
The display featured a rainbow infinity symbol, a logo often used by neurodivergent and autism rights advocates, along with a heart and the words, “We all think differently.” The display also featured a rainbow image of a child in a wheelchair and a quote from Black writer Maya Angelou that said, “In diversity there is beauty and strength.”
The display also included the books Emma & Mommy Talk to God, The Color Purple, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Separate is Never Equal, Wonder, and To Kill a Mockingbird. Of the books, only The Color Purple contains any LGBTQ+ content.
On June 22, Splitter, a temporary summer library employee, complained about the display to Lancaster, saying she found the “gay Pride” symbol offensive and going into “an anti-LGBT diatribe” even though Lancaster explained that the infinity symbol represented neurodiversity and autism.
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