Pastor at center of LGBTQ+ book debate says he never wanted to ban books, just remove displays

The Rev. Blair Bradley says his position on whether LGBTQ+ books should be in Coast libraries has been misrepresented.

“I have been labeled as something I’m not,” Bradley told the Sun Herald on Tuesday.

Multiple Coast media outlets reported on Bradley speaking out against the books last week to the Biloxi City Council.

But Bradley says his message was not clearly interpreted, which he attributes to being on a time limit to speak.

Bradley said Tuesday he only cares about the LGBTQ+, specifically transgender books, being on display at some Coast libraries, that was done as part of Pride Month in June. He says he does not and never wanted the books removed entirely.

“I’m not about books being banned, I am about children being shielded,” he said. “There are advocates out there in some of these movements that want to indoctrinate children.”

“A display is a promotion,” he said.

And within that display he took specific issue with books that he claimed pushed children to be transgender, which he says promote irreversible surgeries and hormones. “People should not be promoting what is at best a challenged science,” he said. “I don’t want the public library to promote transgenderism to children.”

Bradley also wants the library to carry books that he sees as being on the other side of the debate. He cited one book called “Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters.”

A group of librarians will decide later this year what to do, if anything, about the LGBTQ+ books.