Description
Petition, memoranda, press releases, interdepartmental correspondence, articles, organizational statements, reports, and other
material documenting controversy over "issues of equity, censorship, and discrimination" with regard to gay and lesbian patrons
and employees by the Los Angeles Public Library (LAPL), circa 1989-1994. According to a complaint filed in 1994 by library
employees, in 1991 the City Librarian of the LAPL "censored and ordered destroyed Lesbian and Gay History Month materials."
Background
According to a complaint filed in 1994 with the City of Los Angeles by library employees, in 1991 the City Librarian of the
Los Angeles Public Library (LAPL) "censored and ordered destroyed Lesbian and Gay History Month materials (a poster and a
bibliography) which this public institution had already officially approved and distributed ... to local branch libraries
and... to the public." The action came in response to a patron's complaint over the use of a quote by Langston Hughes on the
poster in question. The issue became a flash point for already simmering tensions between LAPL administrators and gay and
lesbian library employees over services provided to the gay and lesbian community.