In 2022, the Campbell County Public Library board voted to withdraw from the American Library Association (ALA) and its affiliate, the Wyoming Library Association (WLA).
It’s time for the rest of Wyoming’s libraries to do the same. In Wyoming, a state where registered Republicans outnumber Democrats nearly 10-1, the WLA serves as the ALA’s local propagandist. They explicitly promote DEI, critical race theory, anti-police progressive activism, and opposition to capitalism. All things that go against the clear preference for conservatism in Wyoming.
The Wyoming Library Association does not develop these priorities on its own. It follows the direction set by the ALA, which was founded in 1876 with the commendable mission of promoting libraries and librarians.Over time, however, the ALA’s focus has shifted and it has been overtaken by ideological activism. Rather than focusing on the core mission of libraries—education, intellectual development, and the preservation of cultural heritage—the ALA increasingly devotes its energy to political advocacy. In practice, that has meant prioritizing the defense of explicit LGBTQ-themed materials for minors over the legitimate concerns of parents and communities, reinforcing the very agenda Wyoming voters have consistently rejected.
Libraries have long played an important role serving Wyoming communities, but like so many once-revered institutions, they now champion values at odds with the communities in which they reside and serve.
The WLA rallies against commonsense laws
Here in Wyoming, lawmakers are debating a bill that would allow community members to sue libraries that allow sexually explicit material in sections of the library open to kids.
The WLA has come out swinging against the bill, apparently convinced that it is, in fact, the duty of libraries to make porn and other inappropriate content easily accessible to kids. WLA president Cristine Braddy argues that restricting minors’ access to inappropriate material constitutes a “ban,” as if banning children from inappropriate material is a bad thing.
You might wonder how we got to the point at which Wyoming’s association of librarians would fight a bill that seeks to protect children’s innocence.
The answer lies in the WLA’s close association with the ALA.
The ALA isn’t hiding the ball
At the October 2022 Campbell County Public Library board meeting when residents debated staying affiliated with the ALA and the WLA, one resident declared that the ALA exists to “to promote reading, libraries, library professionalism. They’re not a political entity.”
State and community libraries in Alabama, Florida, Montana, Missouri, Texas, and elsewhere would beg to differ. These states cut ties with the ALA starting in 2022 over its explicit support for age-inappropriate books for kids, DEI, and other progressive values. In 2023, the Florida Department of State, which manages the state’s public libraries, prohibited libraries from accepting grants from the ALA. In other words, a growing number of states have concluded that the ALA’s activities extend well beyond promoting libraries and reading.
The ALA has not attempted to conceal its ideological orientation, a fact illustrated by its recent leadership. In June 2022, shortly after being elected ALA president, Emily Drabinski tweeted, “I just cannot believe that a Marxist lesbian who believes that collective power is possible to build and can be wielded for a better world is the president-elect of @ALALibrary.”
It is difficult to imagine the organization extending the same enthusiasm to a president who publicly identified as a conservative Christian in support of capitalism. The contrast highlights the narrow range of viewpoints that appear acceptable within the ALA’s leadership culture.
Drabinski led the organization until July 2024. Her public framing of the role reflects an understanding of the ALA presidency as a vehicle for advancing a particular political worldview, rather than as a neutral professional position.
The ALA’s current president is Sam Helmick, a “nonbinary, aromantic, asexual” who uses “they/them” pronouns. As with prior leadership, these self-descriptions are accompanied by a public embrace of contemporary progressive identity frameworks that increasingly shape the organization’s culture and priorities.
The WLA’s woke values
The name “Wyoming Library Association” suggests a neutral, professional organization that represents staunchly conservative WY. Yet a review of its public record and website shows that it consistently promotes progressive ideological positions more commonly associated with national advocacy groups than with a statewide library association
Would an organization that sought to reflect Wyoming’s conservative values and love of country adopt an “Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion” statement that trashes America as a fundamentally racist nation, finds nothing redeeming in its history, and pushes critical race theory as a solution?
The statement is worth quoting at length:
“The Wyoming Library Association acknowledges that systemic racism and discrimination has harmed people in our communities, across our state, our country, and internationally…With this knowledge, we will dismantle these structures and build equitable, diverse, and inclusive systems…The nation’s history of settler colonialism and slavery, along with its capitalistic structures and beliefs in rugged individualism imposed on the land, serve as the foundations to Wyoming’s vast and textured human landscapes.”
The WLA’s “EDI” (which is just DEI with the letters re-arranged) committee page includes resources on “microaggressions”, “critical race theory,” links to writings by arch-race hustler Ibrim Kendi (who spoke at the ALA’s 2023 annual conference), an endorsement of the 1619 Project, which places slavery at the center of the American founding, and resources for those wishing to “confront race, policing, and mass incarceration.”
If ideological activism is truly waning, as some have claimed, the WLA hasn’t gotten the memo.
Whatever claims are being made about the decline of ideological activism in public institutions, the WLA’s own materials make clear that it remains fully committed to it.
In search of banned books
The WLA’s opposition to the bill that would force libraries to keep inappropriate material far from children makes sense in the context of the ALA’s favorite cause—”banned” books.
Each year, the ALA releases reports claiming that books are being banned across the country, prompting widespread media coverage. Portraying these disputes as censorship has become a powerful tool for generating attention and influence.
The ALA presents itself as a defender of public access to books, warning that efforts to limit certain materials are part of a broader push to restrict what Americans can read. If widespread government censorship truly existed, opposing it would be a cause most Americans could agree on. Governments should not be in the business of suppressing books, and efforts to ban ideas outright would raise serious First Amendment concerns.
But that is not what is happening.
One concern is how the ALA defines the term “ban.” When someone files a complaint against a book, the ALA counts that in its statistics, even if the challenge is unsuccessful and the book stays on shelves. In the event that the library does remove a book from circulation in response to a complaint, it’s still not clear that “ban” is the most apt word. If the book is widely available in brick-and-mortar bookstores, online sellers like Amazon, and other library systems, is it accurate to say the book is banned?
Historically, banned books were truly inaccessible. When a book was banned in the Soviet Union, you risked imprisonment—or worse—if you tried to get your hands on it.That is not the situation in the United States today.
A bigger problem with the ALA’s methodology is that, as its own data indicates, the majority of the so-called censorship efforts involve books marketed to children or teens. Several of the ALA’s top 10 “most challenged books of 2024” are, for example, young adult books thick with LGBTQ themes. Gender Queer the second most challenged book of the year, is a graphic novel that includes explicit sexual imagery, references to sex acts, and detailed discussions of masturbation and other adult topics.
The ALA wants to make the debate over books like Gender Queer about censorship, but it’s really about whether kids should have access to sexually explicit material. The answer is obviously no, and libraries have a duty to protect kids from inappropriate material.
By opposing even basic restrictions on sexually explicit content in youth sections, the Wyoming Library Association aligns itself with national advocacy positions blatantly opposing the values of many Wyoming families. Libraries should be safe, welcoming spaces for children and should prioritize education and literacy over ideological messaging.
Our librarians are experts at reading books—now they need to read the room and close the chapter on the WLA and ALA.