Keith Bell, the librarian responsible for the planned, then scuttled, for political reasons, June 16 Pride event at the Augusta County Library, and now has the MAGAs on the Board of Supervisors wanting his head to put on a pike, gotta give the guy credit, he’s got no fear.
We need more people like this Keith Bell fella.
“I have put myself in harm’s way by making this statement, because they’re already mad at me, but I just want to provide some context for you guys,” Bell said, at the conclusion of a lengthy video statement he posted to his personal Facebook page last week, in which he offered granular detail on the planning that went into the event, which, as you know, the BOS decided to cancel, citing nebulous concerns about a movie that was to be shown as part of the event, and concerns that a MAGA lunatic from out of town might drive to Fishersville to shoot the place up.
Video: Keith Bell on the Pride event
Bell’s story makes it clear that it wasn’t actually the movie or safety that was at the root of the decision by the Board of Supervisors to cancel the event.
What it was – c’mon, I need to spell it out for you?
“I explicitly made the concession to County Administrator Timothy Fitzgerald, that if there was an issue with the film, I would be willing to cancel that movie. If the event could go on, I’d be willing to scrap it, I’d be willing to show a different film,” said Bell, giving us, for the first time, the name of the movie in question, “Love Lies Bleeding,” a 2024 film starring Kristen Stewart and Katy O’Brian, which follows the relationship between a gym manager estranged from her father, a businessman with a criminal history, and an ambitious bodybuilder who gets wrapped up in the father’s web of violence and coverups.
The movie premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and was named one of the Top Ten Independent Films of 2024 by the National Board of Review.
This is the movie that Gerald Garber, the chair of the Board of Supervisors, couldn’t remember much about when he chatted with reporters after a BOS meeting last week, except that the title contained the word “blood,” and that the movie’s description referred to “drug use.”
The “drug use” in question, turns out, is the bodybuilder character using steroids.
We’re not talking a blood-and-gore-and-drugs movie here.
It’s a critic’s choice, arthouse-type thing.
But anyway, so, they didn’t like the movie, and Bell was willing to scrap it.
Problem solved, right?
On the safety thing, Bell explained that he had worked with AnhThu Nguyen, the executive director of the Shenandoah LGBTQ Center, a trained conflict resolution and de-escalation specialist, in the planning of the event, and in talking with her about security, “we discussed that a lot of times at these events, when you have a police presence from the outset, it generates a fear that isn’t there, it creates a perception that something is going to happen, and we didn’t want that.”
“We felt that given the smaller scale of the event, it was not going to be the scale of something like Staunton Pride,” Bell said. “This is our first time doing this event, where the library, a lot of people are still adjusting to us as some more, something that offers more than books. So, you know, I didn’t expect thousands of people at this event, so we thought that it would be appropriate just to proceed with conflict resolution and de-escalation in mind. And then, of course, if things escalated, if a police presence was needed, we would immediately call them.”
The meeting with Bell and the county administrator was the morning of June 12, hours after members of the Board of Supervisors called each other, one on one, to discuss their concerns about the Pride event, which had been on the library’s public calendar for several weeks, but all now claim to have not been aware of until June 11.
“I was under the expectation that after this meeting that I had with them, they would communicate with the Board of Supervisors, the Board of Supervisors would be apprised of the context the event and everything that I told them, and I would be communicated with further before any actions would be taken,” Bell said.
Instead, he got word that afternoon “that the event had been canceled, by direction of the Board of Supervisors.”
ICYMI
- Augusta County: Pride Day at county library cancelled by Board of Supervisors
- ‘Not outside of their purview’: Augusta County defends move to cancel library’s Pride Day
Bell immediately tried to call and email county leaders to see if he could do anything to address their concerns in a way that would save the event, and he said in the Facebook video that he has made repeated efforts since to make contact with members of the Board of Supervisors, specifically, with no luck.
“Every single comment that was made in the media, every justification and reason for canceling the event, the library found out through that media and through that news article. Still to this day, there has been no communication from the Board of Supervisors to the Augusta County Library or to myself,” Bell said.
“There is probably plenty more that I could say about this,” Bell said. “I just wanted to get on here and provide a statement, because the library has not been allowed to communicate with the media or even provide our side of the story. The only narrative that’s out there right now is what the Board of Supervisors has put out there, and what people can piece together from the documents that have been released.
“I want to remind you guys that I’m a human being. I deserve respect and dignity, just as you guys do, and the golden rule is important, treat others how you want to be treated, OK? Please remember that when you interact with anybody in your life,” Bell said. “No matter what you believe in, or whether you agree or disagree with that person, and I strongly disagree with the Board of Supervisors, and yet I’ve still opened my heart to them to meet with them. I’ve offered to go to their house. I’ve offered to have dinner with them, to have coffee with them. I’ve offered to meet wherever they want to meet. OK?”
I called the Board of Supervisors “cowards” in a column on this whole fiasco, and one of them emailed and called to take issue with the use of that adjective.
To reiterate, and if it isn’t already obvious, they’re cowards, each and every one of them.
ICYMI
Share
Chris Graham
