New LAB member vows to fight for kids
Rev. Justin Strickland, executive pastor at Crystal River Church of God, was sworn in on Feb. 28 at the LAB's first meeting since the county's elected leaders appointed him to fill a vacancy on the board in a bid to appease critics of their epic mishandling of the hot-button issue.
The once little-noticed LAB found itself in the spotlight after the library system's infamous June 2021 celebration of "LGBT Pride Month." In a 7-2 vote last year, the LAB rejected a petition signed by more than 1,000 residents to ban LGBT propaganda displays after county commissioners punted the issue to the unelected board. Despite the vote, library administrators decided to put "LGBT Pride" displays on hold in June 2022 and recently announced there will be no "Pride" display this June either.
On Tuesday, well over a dozen residents showed up at the early morning meeting to urge Strickland and the rest of the LAB to keep LGBT propaganda displays out of the libraries permanently.
"We want a safe place for our children. We don't want the agenda. We just want kids to be able to come to the library without displays that are adverse," said Margie Eller of Beverly Hills.
Only two residents – both of them retired Citrus County public school teachers – came to defend LGBT grooming displays in the libraries. Deborah Daniels, a failed 2022 school board candidate, viciously attacked local parental rights advocates as "a small group of radical extremists." She claimed to speak for the majority of Citrus County residents despite getting only 25 percent of the vote last year.
Daniels' hateful and arrogant remarks drew an angry reaction from the crowd.
"I don't appreciate being called an extremist because my views are different than hers. When she says the majority, I think she is totally wrong, because everybody I know, none of them stand for this," said Les Lovejoy of Beverly Hills. "If someone wants to go in and research this material, they're free to do so, but we are against it being put right where our children come through the front door. That should be left to me, not a schoolteacher. I don't remember her being part of my family. I don't remember her even asking me my opinion of what my children and grandchildren are being taught."
Strickland, whose Citrus County roots go back generations, thanked conservative residents for their months of advocacy and "for being so passionate and not allowing the community that I've enjoyed and my family has enjoyed since the 1830s to go by the wayside." As a LAB member, he promised that "my eyes will be on this," and he encouraged residents to contact him if they see anything that's "out of line."
"As a father of three very young children, you better believe I'm going to fight that places like libraries are safe for them," Strickland said, but he added he wasn't ready to make a motion to address the issue at his first meeting because he saw "no sense of urgency currently."
In a sign of the challenge ahead, the still-overwhelmingly liberal LAB voted to keep April McLaughlin and Neale Brennan (both outspoken defenders of LGBT propaganda displays) as the board's chairwoman and vice chairwoman, respectively, rejecting a motion by conservative LAB member Elaine Kleid to name Strickland as chairman.
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