Every Human Being Deserves to be Educated in the Truth

(Writer’s Note: I originally shared this text as a statement to the Warren County Board of Supervisors during a public comment session last night (July 18). I wasn’t able to attend in person, so it was read on my behalf by Kelsey Lawrence.)

My name is Bridget Randolph. I lived in Front Royal, VA, from the ages of 5-22, and my father is still a resident. While I lived here, my family were parishioners at St. John’s Catholic Church. I also attended Christendom College, graduating summa cum laude in 2009 with a degree in History. As an early and avid young reader, I received a lot of benefit from my access to the programs and collections of Samuels’ Public Library – from the “Book It!” summer reading challenges (I always earned that personal pan pizza!) to the annual creative writing contest, the kind librarians, and of course – the books. All of these still serve me today as a professional actor, writer, business consultant, entrepreneur, and leadership coach.

But that’s not the main reason I’m sharing today. In 2017, I lost my youngest sister, Rose, when she took her own life at the age of 19. She had recently graduated at the top of her high school class and was about to begin her undergraduate program at UVA on a full scholarship. She planned to go to medical school afterward. While we can never know all the factors that lead up to such a decision, we do know that one of those factors was her diagnosed PTSD, which she struggled with as a result of growing up as a gay teen in the toxic culture of the Front Royal Catholic home-school/St John’s church community, and the bullying and abuse she was subjected to by that community.

Rose gave a speech at her school a year and a half before she passed. In that speech, she shared this story, which I’ve edited slightly here for length.

“I had so many questions and doubts, and no way to answer them; but when I was about 10, … my chance to educate myself had finally come, and during the 45 minutes that my mother was gone each day [at church…I] biked a mile and a half to the library to take out forbidden books, which I hid under my mattress to read later. I read everything from Harry Potter to the Qu’ran and found my worldview infinitely expanded. … As the inconsistencies I had questioned my whole life were resolved, I felt as though I had woken up from a bad dream. …Treasure the education you receive here; it’s so easy to take for granted. …Every human being deserves to be educated in the truth.”

You can read her whole speech online if you Google her name (Rose Randolph) and school (Portsmouth Abbey). But the point is that there are so many others in this town like her, for whom this library is a source of safety, truth, comfort, and community in an environment that hates them and wants them not to exist. And I truly believe that is why these people want to remove these specific books. Not because they are “pornographic” (a ludicrous claim, and that’s coming from someone who at the age of 12 actually did complain to the librarian that I had checked out a Madeleine L’Engle book from the teen section that included a lesbian character – she was very gracious about it). But because they know that if we have access to safety and truth, their lies and oppression will not hold.

To the people who want to ban free speech in the name of protecting kids: you claim to care about “the children.” Spoiler: some of your children are already gay. They are non-binary and trans. They are queer. They are questioning. They are doubting. They are seeking truth. Preventing them from accessing information and community won’t change that. It will, however, put them at grave risk of mental and physical harm. Some of them, like me, whether LGBTQ+ or not, will cut you out of their lives when they’re old enough to get away from you. And some of them, like my sister, will be lost to this culture war that wants them dead. It’s up to you if you are going to be one of the people who stays in your children’s lives, helps to keep them alive, and shows them they are loved, or if you will lose them forever. Choose wisely.

Bridget Randolph
Brooklyn, New York
(longtime resident of Front Royal, VA)

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