Is Library Display 'Hate Speech' or Just an Alternate View?

-- Library Journal, 3/2/2007

The Mesa County Public Library, CO, last year offered a photography exhibit called "Love Makes a Family," supportive of gay marriage. Now that Christians for Healthy Families, a local group, has offered a poster exhibit in response to it, a local attorney declared it "defamatory hate speech thinly disguised as religion," according to the Daily Sentinel. The attorney, Bill Hugenberg, observed that the library's disclaimer that it does not endorse the viewpoints of exhibits or exhibitors—recommended in the American Library Association's Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights applied to exhibitions—was "legally inadequate" to remove the perception of endorsement.

Hugenberg asked the library to tighten guidelines regarding exhibits. Board of Trustees President Bob Delavan told the newspaper that he seeks to maintain "appropriate free speech" while not exposing the library to a lawsuit. The next board meeting is March 29.