By Ann Symons
I have been a public library user and a school library user longer than I have been anything else in my life.  I am a wife, a mother, a sister, an ALA member, a PFLAG member, an ally, a traveler, a seeker, and Chair of ALA’s Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Round Table, but nothing has been more constant in my life than the library.
Although I love what libraries provides me – access to information, reading materials, reference services, and a place – the libraries in our country do not provide equitable services to all who live in our communities.  We state that we value equity, diversity, access, intellectual freedom.  Let’s prove it.
I contend that we underserve the GLBT community and, with few exceptions,  always have. It should not be our responsibility to remind librarians that libraries are to be welcoming places to all, and it should not be our sole responsibility to have to be advocate for services and collections.
As a librarian, a past ALA president and chair of GLBTRT, I take these responsibilities seriously because I believe that together we can drive change. We can work to end discrimination both for patrons and for library employees.
Change does not occur quickly but change does not occur at all if we, as ALA, the RT and as individuals, do not initiate the changes we want to see.
