Moms for Liberty goes ballistic on librarian for planned reading of book about girl with two dads

In Tennessee, near Chattanooga, a local librarian planned a special Mother’s Day reading for young children, and got called a “groomer” in the bargain.

Then her boss caved by canceling the event quicker than a Tennessee auctioneer.

Related:

Anti-LGBTQ+ Libs of TikTok reportedly “inspired” Texas gunman’s pro-Hitler screed

Authorities are examining a social media profile believed to belong to the man responsible for the mass shooting at a Texas mall.

Caroline Mickey, the librarian at Alpine Crest Elementary School, planned a Mother’s Day lesson that would be “sensitive to the fact that not all students live with a mother,” celebrating people who aren’t moms, but “fill the motherly roles in our lives.”

Never Miss a Beat

Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights.

Daily

Weekly

Good News

In a note to parents sent home with their kids — kindergarten through second graders — Mickey said the two books to be read aloud included Mother Bruce, about a papa bear who adopts a brood of goslings, and Stella Brings the Family, the story of a girl with two dads and some questions about Mother’s Day.

Both books are rated age-appropriate for two- to five-year-olds.

In accordance with school policy, Mickey wrote that parents could opt out of the lesson and she’d provide an alternative.

Enter Moms for Liberty.

The reaction was “overwhelming,” Mickey told the Washington Post. “I didn’t realize it was going to be quite this intense.”

The hectoring collection of conservative moms — Hamilton County, Tennessee chapter — took to social media blasting Mickey for the planned reading.

They faulted her for sending a note home with young children. They questioned the alternative lesson plan. They implied non-traditional families should be the ones forced to opt-out. And they asked, “Aren’t these children too young for this?”

In the local paper, the screeching got louder, under a banner headline reading, “County Schools Librarian Aims To Erase Motherhood On Mother’s Day.”

“Men are not mothers. Men are fathers. Fathers are men. Mothers are women. If the primary caregiver is a man, he is a father.”

Fictional male bears can’t be moms, they argued.

Rebecca Day, the Moms for Liberty chapter member who posted her attack to Facebook, brought scripture to bear in her editorial and pile-on in the Chattanoogan: “Let the little children come to me,” she quotes Mark, before adding, “The schools are coming after their hearts.”

Others warned Mickey was pedaling Leninist indoctrination, and anti-Christian values and was a threat to Western civilization.

And that was just the public flogging.

In private emails, M4L reviled Mickey as a “groomer” and an enemy of birth mothers.

School officials did not have Mickey’s back.

Taylor Lyons, head of the local Moms for Social Justice chapter, told the Post: “We were deeply disheartened by our district leadership’s reactionary response to a few complaints from far-right puritanical extremists.”

An email to Hamilton Schools Superintendent Dr. Justin Robertson from one M4L member, published by progressive local news site The Tennessee Holler, earned a stuttering response.

“Ms. Perkins,” Robertson begins, unintentionally insulting the conservative complainant with a woke honorific. “Thanks for the email. I was made aware of this situation this morning and we are actively working with the school administration to address this.”

“I apologize and it will be addressed. JR”

The event was canceled soon after.

“It threw me,” Mickey said after her boss gave in so quickly. “I think I had higher expectations.”