National culture war blows through Old Lyme's town center
Jul. 29—OLD LYME — As drizzle turned to cloudy humidity at the library on the corner of Lyme Street one Friday afternoon in July, 16-year-old Leo Evans dropped into the stately brick building while his mother waited in the car.
Evans said the Old Lyme Phoebe Griffin Noyes Library's Teens & Tweens room, with books that appeal to all kinds of kids and a librarian who welcomed them, was a safe space during his middle school years.
"For me, it was a place I could express my ideas or opinions without fear of being thought of differently by the people around me," he said.
That's why he objects to calls from at least 135 people in and around Old Lyme for the library to strip the young adult shelves of two books they say are evidence of an increasing focus on sex and sexual identity in the library's young adult collection.
Evans, who identifies as a member of the LGBTQ+ community, credited young adult librarian Nike Desis with fostering an inclusive environment.
"It's a safe space," he said. "There's no other way to describe it, really."
The calls for removal are part of a national storm that has gained strength through the South and Midwest and is now blowing through the tree-lined enclave of Lyme Street, the pages of two controversial sex education books caught up in the political winds.
The Old Lyme Phoebe Griffin Noyes Library Board of Trustees earlier this month rebuffed calls to remove the books from the young adult section and to conduct "a proper review" of all materials for that age group to ensure no similar books remain on the shelves.
Among those calling for the inspection of Old Lyme materials were First Selectman Tim Griswold, Selectman Matt Ward and Finance Board Chairman David Kelsey, all Republicans. Board of Education members Mary Powell-St. Louis and Chris Staab also signed on, along with then-library board member Tara Ward.
Tara Ward submitted her resignation the day before the library board voted unanimously to keep the books on the shelves, according to library director Katie Huffman.
Griswold this week spoke to The Day at the Town Hall built in 1920 just a short walk from the library.
"I think it's fairly R-rated," he said of the books' content.
"It continues to be called book banning, but that is not accurate. Just as you want to go to the movie theater, you have to be of a certain age," he said.
Griswold was philosophical from his seat in the historic municipal building that celebrates Colonial Revival architecture with high ceilings and two grand columns on a stark white facade.
"I guess nowadays there is more tolerance for that type of material being available," he said. "But you kind of wonder: Where are the lines drawn?"
The challenged books, "You Know, Sex: Bodies, Gender, Puberty, and Other Things" by Cory Silverberg and Fiona Smyth and "Let's Talk About It: The Teen's Guide to Sex, Relationships, and Being a Human" by Erica Moen and Matthew Nolan, are comic book-style nonfiction titles listed in the catalog under the subject of sex instruction.
The books cover modern coming-of-age topics through illustrations meant to reflect diverse gender identities, races and abilities.
Those who signed onto the written objections submitted in June to the library board called out pages from "Let's Talk About It" devoted to topics like masturbation, oral and anal sex, and how to "research fantasies and kinks" safely on the internet.
But library board members in a statement announcing the July 11 decision said it's up to parents to limit their own children's access to library materials.
The calls for removal were countered by a letter signed by more than 400 people in support of the books' place on the shelves. Organizer and Democratic Town Committee member Dave Rubino said the list has since surpassed 600.
Prior to the board's vote, Desis said decisions about which books to purchase are outlined in library policies informed by industry standards.
"I think it's important for young people to have a variety of options when it comes to learning about themselves and their bodies," she said.
A librarian in Old Lyme for almost seven years, she said she couldn't remember anyone asking for a book to be considered for removal ― known in library parlance as a "request for reconsideration" ― in the young adult section.
But she did last year receive a request to reconsider a poster affixed to the back wall of the young adult section, she said. The poster affirmed the Teens & Tweens room as a welcoming place for all races, gender expressions, abilities, countries of origin, faiths, sexual preferences and beliefs.
The sign was determined by library director Katie Huffman to be in compliance with the library's policies and remains on the wall. She did not disclose who made the complaint.
Desis said a sign expressing another welcoming theme was defaced at the library more recently.
Huffman confirmed the sign, which said "Trans people belong here," was altered in April to read "Trans people don't belong here" with the image of a person crossed out.
Leo's mother, Elizabeth Evans, spoke to The Day from her car, where she was waiting for her child.
She said the books, like the library itself, are important because they are accepting of all gender identities and sexual orientations.
"Especially for children who have families that don't support how they feel, it makes them realize that maybe it's okay," she said.
She described the attempt to remove the books as an act of imposing someone's values on other people's children.
Leo Evans said the illustrations are cartoonish and not medically realistic. He said he first saw the book "Let's Talk About It" while volunteering at the library when a child he estimated at 12 years old was reading it in the young adult section.
"It did jump out at me at first," he said of images that included nude people engaging in same-sex intercourse.
"The reality is this child had already seen similar things on the internet," he said. "Why censor things that you can already see with simple access to a phone?"
The situation in Old Lyme comes amid what the American Library Association has called an unparalleled increase in censorship attempts at libraries across the country. The organization cited a record 2,571 titles targeted for censorship in 2022, representing a 38% increase over the previous year that mostly affected books by or about members of the LGBTQ+ community and people of color.
The group's definition of censorship includes moving books to other areas as well as removing them completely, a definition with which Evans' mother concurred.
If the books are not in the section for young adults, she said, "how do kids that are questioning their identity have access to them or even feel safe asking for them?"
"As soon as you start banning one book, we ban more, and we go down a slippery slope," Elizabeth Evans said.
Safe places
Also on Lyme Street on that drizzly Friday in July, 17-year-old Lyme-Old Lyme High School student Avra Montazella was working in an empty Nightingale's Acoustic Cafe. She waited out the lull in a comfortable corner of the eclectic shop in front of a chalkboard menu featuring coffee, tea and sweets.
The senior said she founded the Lyme-Old Lyme High School Banned Books Club during her freshman year when she saw many books she loved being censored across the country.
The horror aficionado said her love of that genre was spawned by Alvin Schwartz's oft-banned "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark."
"The stories can get intense but I feel like it's wrong to remove it entirely," she said. "Just because your kid is scared by some of these things doesn't mean somebody else's kids will be."
Banned books discussed in the club included "Maus," a Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel written by Art Spiegelman about his father's experience during the Holocaust. They read Ellen Hopkins' "Crank" and talked about how drugs have affected people they know in the context of the book about one girl's spiral into meth addiction.
She called the banning of books "wrong, unconstitutional and, frankly, a fascist dog whistle."
But she said she didn't believe that moving certain material out of the young adult room constitutes a ban.
"Some of the topics covered, including fetishes and online porn, makes me cringe to have so available to young kids," she said, describing herself as a feminist who believes most porn and kink is degrading toward women and can lead to sexual crimes.
"The internet isn't a safe place, and I think encouraging kids to explore sexuality online is dangerous," she said.
She admitted to being conflicted about an issue she said is not black or white.
"I advocate for free literature, and for God's sake, I run a club dedicated to tearing apart controlling bigoted losers who ban books because they don't like the content," she said.
On one hand, moving the book from a section where middle schoolers get books isn't the worst idea, according to the student.
"But it can be a slippery slope," she said.
Acts of provocation
Rubino, the attorney behind the letter in support of the books and Democratic Town Committee member, whose human rights work has taken him "off the beaten path" to places like Azerbaijan, Morocco and Tajikistan, escaped the Old Lyme humidity inside the library during an interview with The Day.
He described the calls for removal as confirmation of fears stoked among DTC members back in March after a Republican mailer went out with a list of priorities that included "standing up for parental rights."
In response, the Democrats held a "Freedom to Read" rally in April that drew about 70 people. Speakers included state Sen. Martha Marx, D-New London, Selectwoman and Board of Education member Martha Shoemaker and Board of Education candidate Marisa Calvi-Rogers.
Rubino said the reaction to the Republicans' stated priorities was "based on a fear of what we thought might be a trend toward alignment with national conservative issues in places like Florida and Texas."
Republican Town Committee Chairman Randy Nixon did not respond to multiple attempts from The Day to discuss the library controversy.
Back in March, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis cited "Let's Talk About It" during a news conference in Tampa, Fla., held to push back against allegations of book banning in his administration after he spearheaded a law to give parents more control over their children's education.
Now, parental rights are a central tenet of his bid for the White House.
DeSantis spoke at the March news event following a six-minute video presentation set to chilling music that included excerpts from "Let's Talk About It."
The voiceover described content containing "graphic depictions about how to masturbate for males and females while also including an entire section for anal sex..."
Local television news coverage of the event included blurring of the explicit content by Tampa Bay's FOX affiliate and bleeping of the word "masturbate" by the ABC affiliate.
The next day, Desantis tweeted "If news stations could not show this explicit material on air — why should it be in our schools?"
Old Lyme resident Mona Colwell, whose 2021 campaign for the Board of Education was unsuccessful, told The Day she decided to take a look at the collection in the Teens & Tweens room only after she heard the Democrats had scheduled the Freedom to Read rally in response to the local GOP's stance on parental rights.
"I felt it was important to go into the library to see what exactly is this material that we're being accused of banning, even though we haven't banned a book," she said.
She described herself as horrified by what she found, including the section that described the internet as "chockablock full of pornography: professionals and amateurs alike sharing their sexy adventures online."
Colwell characterized the book as sex marketed to teens.
"You cannot call it sex education when you are telling children to go online and find chat rooms and engage in chat rooms about their favorite fantasies," she said.
She cited dangers related to pornography including sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment.
She said she was shocked to find out from Huffman that the library has been purchasing more material focused on sex education since it established the Teens & Tweens room in 2019 than it had in prior years.
"I am very concerned parents believe libraries are safe places for children," she said.
Back outside the brick building on that hot Friday, Evans said one of his biggest concerns is that the list of people calling for the books to be removed included multiple town officials.
"These people are supposed to protect us, and protect our rights and hold certain values that we have in this country, and they aren't," he said. "They're censoring that. And that's not okay."
He said attacks on the library's safe space are taking a toll on the librarians he credits with helping him navigate his middle school years.
"They're worried," he said. "We're all worried."
