Pride Programming at the Library

By: Marisa Montesino

The Palm Beach County Library System has worked hard and strived to make sure that our programming, collection and outreach are as diverse as the community we serve. We have different Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility committees to make sure those needs are met, and to make the environment here a welcoming one for people from all walks of life; but not everyone knows about the things we do behind the scenes and for the public. The Library has walked in the Pride Parade, hosted Sensory Friendly Browsing Hours monthly across the system and worked with the immigrant population to help them with getting citizenship, learning English and more. This blog post will focus on our LGBTQ+ programming.

LGBTQ+ activities can be found all over the System, not just during Pride Month, ranging in age from children to adults. The types of programming that can be found include storytimes, crafts, book and movie discussions, health, legal help and more. In the past, we’ve had a portion of the AIDs Quilt come to the library and had Compass do a talk about the AIDs Epidemic for World AIDs Day.

Other events have included:

Painting and crafting classes featuring famous LGBTQ+ artists, like Keith Haring and Hulleah Tsinhnahjinnie.
Book discussions, both in-person and virtually, for all ages
Virtual discussion with some kings and queens
Don We Now Our Gay Apparel, an ugly sweater contest
Cat Cora and cooking games
Marsha P Johnson and flower crowns
Teen LGBTQ+ resources class
Learning the history of drag while doing drag make-up
Storytimes based around LGBT families
LGBTQ+ NaNoWriMo programs
Author talks and more!