| By Gale Staff |
According to UCLA’s Williams Institute, 4 percent of America’s population identifies as gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender. That is approximately thirteen million people—a minority far too large to ignore—and this vast community is at risk. The need for libraries to provide safe havens for LGBTQ persons is made clear by these statistics showing that they face discrimination at home, in the workplace, and in public.
根据2015年Glsen（同性恋，女同性恋和直教网络）国家学校气候调查的这些统计数据，LGBTQ青年的情况可能更令人不安。LGBTQ儿童和年轻人，占美国学生人口的5.6％，在最脆弱的生活中面临令人沮丧的敌对环境。
All of these people are, in one way or another, victims of ignorance. If knowledge is power—a claim publicly embraced by Chicago’s Gerber/Hart Library and Archives, the Midwest’s largest LGBTQ circulating library—librarians can become important allies who empower the LGBTQ community with information and resources (in the form of print and digital books and media) and provide them with a welcoming, inclusive environment.
Fortunately,图书馆是独特的，以满足这种人口的需求，具有尊严和尊重。That’s why we partnered with Booklist to produce a piece on the library being more than a safe space. Our new white paper highlights the ways libraries can acquire, provide, and promote the appropriate services and resources needed to support LGBTQ persons while providing safe spaces and effecting change in their broader communities.Download the full white paper >>
作为Ann K. Symons和John“Mack”Freeman于2015年6月24日在2015年6月24日写作，美国图书馆发出：
“我们必须为每个人的社区生活，工作和学习的人提供服务，所有图书馆员应该是LGBTQ盟友。这需要努力为所有人提供平等的服务，无论您的顾客是谁 - 或者他们所爱的人。“