ALA Presidential Candidate Roberta Stevens responds to Karen Schneider’s question on enforcing ALA policy on GLBT rights. More ALA videos available at alfocus.ala.org.
Question: Karen Schneider: Hi, Im Karen Schneider. I blog at freerangelibrarian.com. Ive been an ALA member since 1992. I served on ALA Council three times. And Ive served on numerous task forces, committees, interest groups, yada yada. My question to the candidates for ALA office is on policies about equal opportunity in employment.
There are at least five ALA policies that deal directly with gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered issues. Policy 54.3 on equal opportunity states that, ALA is committed to the equality of opportunity for all library employees or applicants for employment regardless of race, color, creed, sex, sexual orientation, age, disability, individual life-style or national origin.
Here is my question: How far will you go to enforce these policies, and how will you explain the shortfalls between policy and implementation? While I dont expect ALA to send out a policy-compliant S.W.A.T. team, I have noticed that American Libraries accepts job ads for libraries that do not offer equal benefits to GLBT employees, nor does American Libraries distinguish among libraries that do or do not offer benefits.
Furthermore, policy 7.1.1 says that, ALA will enter into conference site contracts only with organizations and legal bodies and cities, counties, or states that do not by law discriminate against lesbian, gay, and bisexual people. Yet, there are only two states that have full GLBT rights.
Okay, balls in your court, Robert and Kent. Thanks for the opportunity to share, and I look forward to seeing your response.
Response Transcript: Roberta Stevens: Hi, Karen. Its Roberta Stevens here: candidate for ALA president and a staff member from the Library of Congress. I want to respond to your question about how far I would personally go to enforce the ALA policies for equal employment opportunities and how I would explain the shortfalls between policies and implementation. I read through all of the policies that you talked about in your YouTube question, and I want to address those.
Karen, I personally have a stake in this question and answering it because I had a very, very close friend a member of ALA who died unexpectedly. And his partner did not have any rights to the property, or even to items that were of sentimental value to the two of them. So, I am equally concerned with seeing the laws changed; however, I want to state ALA is committed to equality of opportunity, regardless of race, color, creed, and sexual orientation. And the ALA policy encourages libraries to do the same.
You talked about two states that are the only two that allow same-sex marriage. And those, of course, are Massachusetts and Connecticut. And I guess my question to you is: are you asking that we limit conferences division, Annual, Midwinter Meetings strictly to those two states? I think you would have to agree that that would be too confining.
On the other hand, there are 20 states and D.C. as well that ban sexual orientation discrimination. And there are 13 that outlaw discrimination based on gender, identity, or expression. I think we all just have to do the best we can and work together to see the laws change, so there is not only equal employment opportunity, but there is an opportunity for the sharing of property as well. So, thank you for your question.