Okay…I’m pissed right now. My friend Kirsten just tipped me off to an article in todays Anchorage Daily News. In case the link dies, the basic gist is that there was a display put up at the Loussac library dealing with gay pride issues on Monday evening. Before the library opened on Tuesday morning, though, Mayor Weurch had ordered the library to pull the exhibit. The reason?
“I just said ‘no,'” Wuerch said. “This is a fundamental responsibility of the mayor, to make decisions. Once in a while, you have to say no.”
Ugh…this is so aggravating. The fact that we’ve got such a backwoods, predjudiced, homophobic mayor in office is downright depressing. From the accounts in the newspaper story, the display was fairly low-key, nothing overly controversial at all, a display case that had gay-themed books and videos couldn’t be seen unless you were right at it, and the library has hosted displays dealing with controversial issues in the past. However, because this dealt with gay issues, Mayor Weurch decided to effectively pull rank — after the display had been approved by the library administration and set up, mind you — and had it taken down, before more than a very few members of the public ever got a chance to see it and make their own judgements.
Argh. I’m just going to stop there, before this post goes any further downhill.