A person wearing glasses holds up a rainbow book that says "Our Rainbow" while standing in front of a flag made of rainbow fishes.
Librarians worked together to create this mural in The Oak Park Library’s children’s section. Hallothon Patnott shares two of the selections from the LGBTQ+ book list on Sep. 7, 2022 in Chicago, Ill.

Clear backpacks lean against one another in a fallen domino formation. Inside each of the bags is a collection of curated books. Hallothon Patnott pulls out a large children’s book.

Between a caring staff and 1,718 LGBTQIA+ books and resources, Chicago’s hometown Oak Park Library supplies its community with an abundance of queer education and resources. 

The distant murmurs of a caregiver break the silence of the library’s children’s section as the top of their child’s head peaks above the top shelves.  Children’s Librarian Hallothon Patnott sits  behind a plastic barrier on the first floor of the library, across from an  aquatic themed entrance. 

Patnott greets everyone who approaches the book bag lined counter with a gentle tone. Along the side of the children’s library, a blue wall with paned windows reveals knee-high tables for young students.

Hallothon Patnott works at his desk in Oak Park Library on Sep. 7, 2022 in Chicago, Ill.

“I always knew I wanted to be a children’s librarian,” he said. As the resident children’s librarian, he specializes in working with LGBTQIA+ youth and allies.

Spaces like the one Patnott has created for Chicago’s community are likely more rare than many people realize. Around the country, states have called for bans on LGBTQIA+ centered books and articles. For Patnott, the importance of creating a safe learning environment is underlined by his own lack of resources while growing up. 

“I’m from a really small conservative town. I didn’t have access to any of the books or resources that would have told me that trans people exist. I don’t think I even really knew that trans people existed, particularly not trans men, until well into college,” Patnott said.

He grew up in Holland, Michigan. Transgender people and the possibility of other gender identities were not discussed among Patnott’s family.  

Once some of his friends started coming out, understanding of his own gender identity as a transgender man finally clicked for Patnott. 

 “I was like, ‘Oh, that’s something that I could be.’”

Patnott came to Chicago to get his master’s degree in library and information science from Dominican University.

Hallothon Patnott works at his desk in Oak Park Library on Sep. 7, 2022 in Chicago, Ill.

In states where school districts are banning LGBTQIA+  literature, proponents of those bans often argue that students are too young to learn about topics like  gender and sexuality. Ricky Hill, Ph.D, works as a research assistant professor at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, for the Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing. 

Through their work teaching courses on gender and serving as a referral for families seeking gender-affirming healthcare, they know the significance of spaces like Oak Park Library for LGBTQIA+ communities.

“I believe that currently public libraries are under attack. And anything I can do, to bring queerness into those spaces in a really visible way is very important to me,” said Hill.

Hill works directly with the Chicago LGBTQIA+ community and sees the members who are directly impacted by accessibility to queer resources.

”Libraries are one of the most important community information hubs,” they said. “Libraries aren’t just for reference materials, there are places where people just come to spend time, a lot of people who are either unhoused or transient show up in those spaces, young people show up in those spaces quite a bit,” Hill said .

A space like this has been created in the Oak Park community’s library. During after school hours, students gather outside, run in and out of the building, and seem to know the librarians well as they greet them. The building is a hub for locals to socialize and complete homework.

The library also offers kits for parents and guardians of children visiting the library, as they come in to find resources to understand a child who may have just come out to them. 

He takes a beat after describing the caregiver kits he creates that provide them with tools to open up conversations about gender identity in an age appropriate way. 

A detail of a few of the LGBTQ+ book selections from the children’s section of Oak Park Library on Sep. 7, 2022 in Chicago, Ill. 

“There are ways that explore your identity, it can be playful, beautiful and fun,” he said. The resource kits aim to help caregivers facilitate conversations about gender identity with their children in an age-appropriate way. Some kits are designed to be used with a group of kids in a classroom setting, or used at home, Patnott said. 

One book,  “From the Stars in the Sky to the Fish in the Sea” which is not among the list of banned books in states around the country, is especially important to Patnott.  He uses it as a tool in his gender workshops.

“It’s this really beautiful story about a genderfluid child who is a shapeshifter and their mom… they are starting school for the first time and they’re excited and really nervous,” Patnott said. The story focuses on showing kids how to celebrate themselves — and also serves as a good example of a parent supporting their child as they explore their gender. During gender workshops, he pairs the book with locally made costumes, puppets, and masks that let the children become shapeshifters themselves.

A person wearing glasses stands next to a book.
Hallothon Patnott with Oak Park Library’s copy of “From the Stars in the Sky to the Fish in the Sea” by Kai Cheng Thom taken on Sep. 7, 2022 in Chicago, Ill.

Having programs like this can significantly change the lives of LGBTQIA+ children and build  the foundation of their support systems, Hill said. Aster Gilbert, who works as the Manager of Training and Public Education with the Center of Halsted in Chicago, often speaks at schools and other organizations about the importance of supporting LGBTQIA+ youth and members of the community in the workplace. 

LGBTQ+ students experience much higher rates of discrimination and bullying than other students, although they are a smaller fraction of the population, Gilbert said. 

“They experience lower rates of feeling safe in the classroom, but also they experience higher rates of punishment, which includes being punished for being bullied. So if someone bullies a child for being LGBTQ, the LGBTQ youth is often punished as much or more than the bully,” he said. 

With the amount of students who gather at Oak Park Library after school, having a space like the one Patnott has built could be the difference between life and death for LGBTQIA+ individuals, said Gilbert.

“These experiences of LGBTQ youth lead to higher rates of truancy, higher rates of homelessness,” Gilbert said. Among homeless people, LGBTQ+ youth are overrepresented, he added — which can lead to higher rates of substance abuse and drug use. 

In many situations, caregivers don’t know how to react when their children question their gender identity or sexuality. But the more that guardians and other adults support exploring that identity, and mirror the language that child is using to explore their identity, then the more likely that child is to feel like they can live a fulfilled life as an adult, Gilbert said. The potential for suicide is lowered, as well as the potential for substance abuse.  

“The stakes could not be higher when it comes to supporting LGBTQ youth,” they said.