07/31/2026
Recently, the Daniel Boone Regional Library came under political pressure for choosing to host a Rainbow Story Time. Public officials threatened funding over the event, turning what should have been a simple story hour into a political battleground.
Here’s where we stand.
We believe libraries and bookstores exist for the same reason:
To make stories accessible.
To help people feel less alone.
To create spaces where curiosity is welcomed instead of feared.
We don’t believe every family has to make the same choices.
We do believe every family should have the freedom to make their own.
Libraries and bookstores have never existed to tell people what they must read.
They exist so people can choose.
If a program isn’t right for your family, you don’t have to attend.
If a book isn’t for you, you don’t have to check it out.
That’s the beauty of libraries.
Choice has always been built into the model.
A child seeing a family that looks like theirs shouldn’t be controversial. Neither should another child learning that families can look different from their own.
Representation doesn’t ask anyone to give up their own story.
It simply says, “There’s room on the shelf for mine, too.”
We believe that books are bridges.
Bridges don’t ask you to abandon where you came from.
They simply make it possible to understand where someone else has been.
That includes q***r readers.
Disabled readers.
Readers of different races, religions, cultures, and identities.
Readers who have spent their whole lives searching for a page that finally says, “You belong here.”
We don’t believe fear should determine what stories are allowed to exist in public spaces.
We believe parents deserve choices.
We believe libraries deserve independence.
And we believe every child deserves the chance to discover that the world is bigger, kinder, and more interesting than they imagined.
Whether that story looks like your family or someone else’s.
Because the goal has never been to make everyone the same.
The goal has always been to make sure everyone knows they belong somewhere.
Thank you State Representative Wick Thomas for using your voice. We are so grateful for you.
To the librarians at Daniel Boone Regional Library: thank you.
Thank you for continuing to do the work, even when that work becomes politicized. Thank you for creating spaces where children are welcomed, where families have choices, and where stories remain accessible to the people who need them.
Books are bridges.
We’ll keep building them.
