Jacksonville Public Library Director Tim Rogers has avoided, and or outright refused, all comment since cancelling the Storybook Pride Prom. The Prom was for LGTBQ Youth and was to be held this Friday at Willowbranch Library.
All information from him has been posted on JPL’s facebook or delivered by spokesman Chris Boivin.
Rumours had circulated throughout the Riverside Avondale Historic District, that Willowbarnch Library staff were infuriated by his decision and that he would be sneaking into the branch library to have a closed door sit down with the staff.
Whether that was indeed the reason for the meeting held earlier this afternoon can not be verified as of yet. Most of the Willowbranch Library staff we spoke to declined comment. The only one who did comment said “I’m not allowed to discuss the meeting.”
Jax Examiner is trying to obtain a copy of the minutes of the meeting. At the moment the jury is still out on whether Director Rogers will violate the Florida Sunshine Law as he has already, according to many, violated Jacksonville’s HRO (Human Rights Ordinance).
Director Rogers remained inside the room long after others had left.
Perhaps he was trying to wait out the Library Patrons who had gathered to demonstrate against his decision to cancel the Storybook Pride Prom, as well as against his overall job performance, or lack thereof, since becoming JPL director.
Under his predecessor’s (Barbara Gubbin) leadership JPL was named Florida’s 2017 Library of the year by the Florida Library Association and Gubbin was chosen by the American Library Association to receive the 2017 Ernest A. DiMattia, Jr. Award for Innovation and Service to Community and Profession. The JPL has not been the recipient of any such awards since Gubbin retired and Rogers took over.
Back to the events at Willowbranch. Rogers was cornered in the library’s basement.
On the other side of the door BeBe Deluxe led those gathered in a heart warming rendition of Cyndi Lauper’s, True Colors, which she live streamed on facebook.
Rogers finally had no choice but to face the group.
He left the meeting room and walked into the gathering to chants of “We demand space!”
He then gave one of the lamest, hollowest apologies in the history of lame and hollow apologies;
“I apologize to Jacksonville for letting down the folks who really could have used the event. The decision I made — I wish I would have had some of the information that I now have,” Rogers said. “But I did not have it.”
~Tim Rogers fake apology
Sure, he said and implied some other things ; learn to do better, blah-blah-blah (not really my fault) blah-blah-blah (scary people) blah-blah-blah…welcome conversation…blah-blah-blah, and then he left.
What upset the LGBTQ Community more than anything Director Rogers said or implied was what he couldn’t bring himself to say.
“I apologize to Jacksonville’s LGTBQ Community for letting down the LGTBQ Teens who really deserved to have their Storybook Pride Prom at Willowbranch. The decision I made to “allow” the event in the first place— I wish I would have had the backbone to stand by that decision and to support our LGTBQ Teens.” Rogers said. “But I did not have it.”
Now that, that is the apology Jacksonville’ LGTBQ Teens deserved to receive from JPL Director Rogers.
As Bebe Deluxe put it;
“We need a better apology, a clear plan of how he intends to make amends, & actual follow through. Tim Rogers would not be making a statement if we hadn’t demonstrated. Keep speaking out everyone.”
