Fast Company: “Libraries are increasingly being targeted by local and state legislators and protestors trying to ban books and block LGBTQ content. How is that affecting the people who work in them? Scratch nearly any kind of story—political, social, economic, cultural, and so on—and you’ll find a labor story. No matter what’s happening, whether it’s an environmental disaster, an art opening, or a contentious school board meeting, it’s taking place in someone’s workplace, involves the fruits of someone’s labor, or someone is being called in to clean up afterward. Public libraries are no exception, and Republicans’ current headline-grabbing obsession with what goes on inside them is very much a labor issue. By targeting public libraries, Republicans and other far-right groups have not only launched an attack on the principles of free speech, diversity, inclusion, and access to knowledge, they’ve also taken direct aim at library workers themselves. Whether they’re pushing for increasingly draconian book bans on queer and trans authors and authors of color, violently protesting drag queen story hours, or directly threatening library workers, far-right activists are creating a hostile work environment for the nation’s librarians, administrators, and other workers who keep the public library system running. LGBTQ+ library workers are particularly vulnerable. “The rise in anti-LGBTQ+ incidents in our libraries tracks with the national increase in hate incidents, and they’re not limited to states with different political majorities or geographic location,” says Nicholas A. Brown, COO of Communication and Outreach for the Prince George’s County Memorial Library System in Maryland. “LGBTQ+ staff [including those in leadership roles] and allies are increasingly feeling threatened and unsafe because of these incidents, which are increasing in frequency.” The conservative-manufactured culture war that’s swirling around education and public libraries not only harms the communities—including children—who rely on those systems, it also places a heavy burden on the workers themselves. Brown’s library system has suffered multiple instances of vandalism over the past several years, including during Pride Week, as well as the disruption of a discussion of LGBTQ+ literature by a self-identified “anti-LGBT” activist. In addition, he says that library staffers have received threats, complaints, and harassment on social media as well as in person; some have even been doxxed, and had their photos posted publicly to invite further abuse. “These threats are happening in every state, and they’re intensifying,” Brown says…”