Riley Gaines Appointed to the Sumner County Library Board

Thanks to Executive Committee member Brooklynn White for this write-up. This is an editorial piece and does not reflect the views or opinions of the Sumner County Democratic Party.

For those who missed the 6.5-hour Sumner County Commission meeting Monday the 20th - Tuesday the 21st, I will not relive the entire thing or subject you to that. Instead, I will try to summarize the Riley Gaines appointment of it all, how we got to it, and why I believe it was improper. Then I will share an email response I sent to Commissioner Matt Shoaf as I address some information about the literacy crisis, the trans book ban, and some questions I have.

Background on the Library Board Controversy

For those who have not been following the Library Board situation or who do not know all the details, former Chair Joanna Daniels has been pushing a collections policy and agenda since April that would ban trans identities and “gender confusion ideology” from our libraries. It started as “protecting kids” and has morphed into attempting to remove these books from the library entirely.

A number of us have been speaking up, fighting back, and attending meetings since then. Joanna has brought that collections policy up for a vote twice and it failed both times. She has tried to add the policy to the agenda and reschedule meetings for that purpose three times in October to cram it through before her term ended, but all of those three meetings have had a lack of quorum.

Gaines Appointed to the Board

Recently, the Legislation Committee of the County Commission put forth legislation to attempt to reduce the Library Board from 9 members down to 7 members as allowed by state law. This idea has been controversial, but it was posted in the agenda for the Sumner County Commission and available for public comment. Joanna Daniels and her friends rallied and attended the commission meeting just two and a half hours after the start time of another attempted Library Board meeting set by Joanna Daniels- again, it did not have quorum.

Members of the public who spoke against reducing the board made accusations of political intent, but mainly they just preached scripture and their agenda for banning transgender and “gender confusion” topics from the library. Overall, they seem to have a misunderstanding of the books in our libraries or the status of vacancies on the library board.

When the time came for discussion on the resolution to reduce the library board from 9 to 7, Shannon Burgdorf made an amendment clarifying that the spots to fall off would be the abdicated spot made by Kayleigh Wilson months back and the spot of Joanna Daniels who had already reached the end of the term for that spot. In part, this was necessary because it added clarity to the legislation and because Erika Grammar, who is on the library board, felt she was being reduced off and had given that information inaccurately to a number of people. Prior to this legislation, the library board already had one vacancy. It would not make logical sense that the next two spots to roll off would include Erika, but I digress.

What followed was a series of actions and discussion points aimed at creating confusion about the lengths of library terms and disregarding library board bylaws, attempting to get other individuals that vote against their agenda removed from the board instead, and ultimately attempting to appoint Riley Gaines and Steve Wasilowski to the library board. Steve Wasilowski was a previously considered candidate. Riley Gaines has never gone through any discussion for consideration.

Ultimately, it was deemed improper to amend an amendment in this way, but it was allowed to be proposed as an amendment to the legislation at large. The amendment made by Burgdorf failed at the vote but it was allowed and voted on to add an amendment keeping the library board at 9 and adding Riley Gaines and Steve Wasilowski to the open seats.

Procedural Issues

Now this is where I disagree vehemently with the procedure that was followed. I have attended Tennessee Intercollegiate State Legislature more than once and I also have a fairly comprehensive understanding of Robert’s Rules of Order and Parliamentary Procedure for which the County Commission is required to follow. Everything I know about procedure says that the title of a resolution cannot be changed and that an amendment cannot take a bill outside its scope. I cannot write a piece of legislation titled that it is about reducing the library board but then write an amendment that says “oh actually, just add these people instead.” If the intent was to stay at 9, the legislation should have been voted down. Then a separate motion (order of business) could have been had about who to appoint to fill vacancies.

Secondly, by Robert’s Rules, amendments have to be very specific. You can add something, remove something, or substitute something. But as it was stated and voted on, there was no specification for what language in the resolution itself was altered. This would rule the amendment out of order and the entire motion/legislation out of order.

Now here is where things get worse as it pertains to procedure. First, I went and asked the Chair and Law Director after the meeting adjourned to clarify what the vote was about and they affirmed it was amended to stay at 9 and added those two names. On Wednesday October 23rd, I emailed the law director requesting the legislation and was told copies of legislation can be requested at the county clerk. At around 4:00 pm, I went and requested a copy and was told they were working through signing everything right then and they would get me a copy. I personally found it odd that they were just signing after I emailed asking for a copy when it could have been signed Tuesday, but it was a late meeting so it could entirely be a coincidence.

The problem is– the resolution I was given had the exact legislation number of the agenda item to reduce the library board, but they did not amend the legislation as it was presented. They rewrote it entirely. When I questioned this and explained that amendments amend specific text but not the whole thing and title and asked for the intermediary copy, I was told that this is what they were sent by the law director and that I would need to ask him. As far as wanting the initial legislation, I was told to go to the meeting attachments and it was implied that it was a draft rather than the approved legislation that passed through committee.

So in plain terms, rather than specifying exactly what was being changed in the legislation the public was presented and commented on, the law director sent over a completely different version rewritten to make what was discussed as the amendment happen, and then he had the county clerk sign it as if that was the resolution.

Exchange with Commissioner Shoaf

Where we stand now: I have since emailed Matt Shoaf who made the amendment to add Riley Gaines to the library board. I addressed concerns that he acted as if there was no opposition to staying at 9 when he ignored many of us speaking that night and noted that he was trying to pull one over on me by trying to sell Riley Gaines as qualified. I told him that if he has an agenda he should own it, but to not try to pander to others as he does it.

I received a response with a lot of biblical and political ideology, accusations that the pharmaceutical companies are peddling gender confusion and the statistically insignificant and manipulated stories of individuals detransitioning– plus some more rhetoric about books that are supposedly in the library. I never received a response with substantive information about Riley Gaines’ qualifications or the names of books that meet his narrative that can actually be found in the library.

I will spare you the back and forth, but I want to share my very long-winded but research-based response because I address literacy, information about reading comprehension, and the many logical fallacies to the arguments and talking points I received. Following my response, I was only given more accusations about the pharmaceutical industry and his personal phone number. He quoted a statement I made about him giving me books about children pretending to be an animal before unloading accusations about pharmaceutical companies and their zeitgeist that is honestly too strange to explain without me giving context, but he essential believes it is only true that kids pretending to be animals is not detrimental because the pharmaceutical companies are not yet putting money into getting kids to try to become animals. I have no interest in speaking to him off record and I have again asked for those qualifications and books. I do not anticipate further replies. My response to Shoaf is below:

Mr. Shoaf,

Firstly, I in no way have ever insinuated that books about transness should be in the Children's section or available to minors. Secondly, if you can believe that the stories of rape, incest, and murder in the Bible are in no way condoning or promoting those things, then you can understand there is a nuance in literature.

As to your opinion about child mutilation, I agree with you 100%. I encourage you to do research about intersex individuals and families having gender conforming surgery on their children. I believe if we are to address some of these dangerous practices, we need to direct our energy to the right places. I am so glad that it was banned in Tennessee in recent years. I can tell you that the person who pushed for that legislation is intersex and her parents chose to have an elective surgery performed on her at birth and picked which gender/sex they wanted of the two. Please also understand that things such as puberty blockers are not prescribed lightly and have real uses for children who are not transgender. There are parents of children with disabilities who utilize puberty blockers to help delay early puberty until they are at a more appropriate age or until they are able to explain body changes to a more self-aware and cognitively aware individual. Children with intellectual disabilities often end up on these types of therapies until they are old enough to learn self care skills.

Do you believe women born without a uterus or other reproductive organs are not women? Do you believe men with gynocomastia are not men? Do you have a research-based suggestion for how we might classify individuals with Turner syndrome? I really do not believe you do as like you said, you will respect people as people regardless. I think you can respect and agree that human bodies as we know them are complex and that one piece of legislation can never capture some of these diversities.

If a character has fragile X syndrome and autism, do we remove them from children's books so that other children with similar disabilities will not see themselves represented. Fragile X has a connection to both autism and genital abnormalities. Again, I am not suggesting these complex issues be explained to children in any way. Much like having a book with a character with alcoholism does not make a child predisposed to be an alcoholic but may help them feel less alone or see someone like a family member be represented, a book who just happens to have a trans character does not make a child predisposed to be transgender. But frankly, those books are not even the books we are talking about.

I am curious if you could tell me the books that currently meet the criteria you are telling me about that are on our library shelves so that I can check them out myself. I would like to better understand what I am missing.

In no way is asking not to remove books about an entire category of people from the library requiring you to participate in any worldview. You could walk into our library and find a book with a hindu, buddhist, or Jewish character or explaining those things and in no way does it require you to subscribe to their worldview.

While you say you disagree with aspects of the collection policy, you cannot give me any particular qualifying reasons why Riley Gaines is an ideal candidate for the library board, and based on your Conservative Christian rant the other night, I am inclined to believe that you actually did appoint her for the agenda of removing books involving trans individuals from the library as a whole. I want to understand what qualifications she will be bringing to the library, but so far I have nothing. She has not been engaged with meetings. She has seemingly no library experience. She has no board experience. There seem to be no goals of improving the realities of our library beyond pushing personal agendas. Neither putting library directors at risk and running them off, nor pulling books from our library give me any indication that there is true merit to her nomination that will benefit our libraries.

There are so many ideas and groups of people that I do not believe are positive but I also do not believe in removing information or else we are at greater risk to repeat what we do not understand. The thing about literacy is that as you have a greater background knowledge and understanding of individual words, you have a greater ability to comprehend. Cognitive development also plays a role. A 1st grader could be assessed on their ability to read a passage alone and they may read on a "5th grade level", but there is a reason we also assess for comprehension. That same 1st grader will not be able to answer open ended comprehension questions or critical thinking questions for 5th grade. If they do, they likely have a significantly higher understanding of the world than their average 1st grade peers. If someone wanders into the adult or young adult section and finds a book but they read at a 3rd grade level, they are not able to access that book. These hypotheticals you speak of are not based in any evidence of a foundational understanding of reading. It is detrimental to the reading crisis we are seeing. Just some more education: writing and oral language is an innate skill but reading is a taught one. You can do MRIs on children learning to read and you will not find any one specific part of the brain activate on its own. Put a child in an MRI that is learning to talk or write/draw things and you will see their brains activate in consistent and innate ways. Children will never be able to read and comprehend the books you allude to unless they are explicitly taught. So again, please provide me these books that you say are accessible to children and covering the topics you are worried about and I would love to read them. I genuinely am interested.

We talked a lot about the reading crisis at the commission meeting but I am concerned that we are still at a lack of understanding of what reading actually involves and what different reading levels actually are. Most medical information/consent paperwork requires at least an 11th grade-12th grade reading level. Election information generally requires an 18th level- a bachelor's degree. Most versions of the Bible require an 11th and 12th grade reading level, which is why even the illustrated and age appropriate children's Bible stories still require an adult to explain them. I could find a 3rd grader with no knowledge of Christianity, give them a children's illustrated Bible story that they can read the words of and even comprehend, and they could be convinced it was a fairy tale if I did not give them the true context. I could give them a book with a talking cat and have some of them convinced it is a real story. 3rd graders think their teachers live at school and that a fairy gives them money for teeth if they hear that somewhere or think it up on their own. Parenting is what fills in the gaps and makes the difference. I will not insinuate that a 3rd grader should or would ever find a book in our libraries that would teach them about trans identity or "gender confusing ideology".

If you are going to give me a book that has a girl or boy dressing up in clothes of another gender or playing with toys from another gender and their parents assuring them, I'll find you a book with a kid pretending to be an animal and the parent allowing it. By the way, imaginative play is an important developmental stage and so is playing with identity and expression. When I play peek-a-boo with a toddler, I am not trying to get them to actually think I cannot see them. If I let my kid read a book in which a little boy has a parent with alcoholism, I am not telling them that is an ok choice to make. If I let them play with a barbie doll or baby I am not setting them up to be anything other than a compassionate human and caretaker some day. Again, if we are to tackle any of the very real issues, let's understand nuance.

I really am interested in some of these books you are concerned about as well as some more information about Gaines' qualifications for the library board. You told me about Steve but never about Riley. I appreciate you getting back to me and for taking the time to construct a personal response,

Brooklynn White

If you disagree with the ongoing attempts to ban books in our public library system, sign our petition opposing book bans in Sumner County Libraries.