A staff member of the state agency that organizes public library services in Massachusetts called two conservative organizations “white nationalist” during a public meeting last week.
Andrea Bono-Bunker, a library building specialist at the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners, called out Massachusetts Informed Parents and Moms for Liberty during a board of selectmen meeting in Burlington.
During the meeting Tuesday, June 13, Bono-Bunker read a letter she sent to the town’s selectmen on Saturday, June 3 in response to an incident that occurred on Friday, June 2 — when, according to school officials, several students at Marshall Simons Middle School disrupted a Pride-theme day by tearing down posters, wearing red, white, and blue clothing, and chanting “U.S.A. are my pronouns.”
“How many children had a seed of homophobia planted in them?” Bono-Bunker said June 3. “How many children now feel worse about themselves because of what they witnessed or experienced? How many children now think that being part of or supportive of the LGBTQIA+ community is un-American? Allowing these ideas to flourish unfettered and unaddressed is exactly how nationalism takes root.”
“When you look at footage from the 1960s civil rights movement,” she asked, “who do you empathize with? Who do you cheer on? Who do you look at with disdain? That tells a lot about someone’s ideals.”
“How do you want to be seen when your grandchildren and great-grandchildren look back on the 2020s and this culture war?” she continued. “Do you want to be seen as someone they feel proud of for standing up or someone they look at with disdain? I ask you to support the most vulnerable in our town, in our human family.”
Bono-Bunker took aim at two groups, Moms for Liberty and Massachusetts Informed Parents, for “spearheading coordinated actions that have at their backbone intimidation, intolerance, and a white nationalist agenda that they hope results in censorship of ideas, stories, and people.”
Moms for Liberty is a national non-profit organization that promotes parents’ rights in education. A spokesman for the organization could not immediately be reached for comment Monday, June 19.
Massachusetts Informed Parents is a non-profit organization that alerts parents about what the group considers inappropriate sexual material in school curricula and public library books.
NewBostonPost requested clarification from Bono-Bunker as to what prompted her to say these groups have a “white nationalist agenda.” She could not immediately be reached for comment.
Jess Richardson, an administrator at Massachusetts Informed Parents and a communications and research assistant at Massachusetts Family Institute, responded to Bono-Bunker’s comments.
“Organizations like the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners try to gaslight people about the mission of Massachusetts Informed Parents because they don’t want the public to know the truth, that is, that we represent a racially and ethnically diverse group of parents who share a concern for protecting minors from sexualization and harm,” Richardson said in an email message to New Boston Post.
Richardson took aim at some of the content found in public schools and public libraries, “such as teaching kids how to use sex toys for anal pleasure or telling them that a woman can have a penis. The fact that these concerns cross party lines is very inconvenient for organizations like the MBLC, which could be why they seem committed to misrepresenting our positions.”
One of the books Massachusetts Informed Parents has identified as inappropriate for children is Let’s Talk About It, a book the group describes as containing graphic content of sex acts. The group has found the book in public schools and libraries throughout Massachusetts.
“We challenge the MBLC, and similar organizations, to tell the whole story. The next time they make a public case against our mission, they should also read out loud from this book,” Richardson told NewBostonPost.
NewBostonPost provided Richardson’s comments to Bono-Bunker but did not receive a response by deadline.
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