Christine Soyong Harley, president and CEO of SIECUS: Sex Ed for Social Change, has seen the culture wars that surround changing racial and gender dynamics play out over the past few decades. Although the right has long been fixated on sexual expression, she says that opposition to sex ed in the schools and LGBTQIA inclusion is merely one facet of the right’s overall ideology. “For years, the Christian right has been worried about what it will mean for gender-queer folks to be treated as equal to straight people. This year, we’ve seen the idea of critical race theory become popularized, and it has pushed these folks to consider what will happen if all people of color are treated as equal to whites. They basically understand that if young people are introduced to ideas about diversity and inclusion, we are creating an incubator for them to question every ‘traditional’ value.”

And that, she says, represents a threat to white supremacists — and an incredible opportunity for organizing, whether through electing people who support diversity to library boards, or mobilizing community support for inclusive programming through mass meetings, street protests, petition drives or public demonstrations.

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