For the third time in less than a month, someone was caught on video Sunday morning stealing LGBTQ+ books from The Little Queer Library in Waltham, Massachusetts.
"Came up to the book box, grabbed an arm full of books after rifling through it. Went back to his car and then did it again," Krysta Petrie said.
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Petrie and Katie Cohen built the library in 2020 and placed it on the lawn of their home.
"We would really like for this type of stuff to stop," Cohen said
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The couple believes the acts are targeted, in part due to the ongoing Waltham School District debate about whether to ban two library books with LGBTQ+ themes.
"There's a lot of people that are up in arms and riled up about these queer books being available for the community and their children," Petrie said.
The library is intended to lift those who need it most.
"LGBT kids have a high rate of suicide attempts and mental health problems in general," Cohen said.
In addition to their frontyard flag, front door and window signage, the books are their way of showing support.
"They need to feel like they have someone in their corner," Cohen said.
They want the man in the video and others like him to hear their message.
"You can't stop LGBT voices from being heard even if you take a few of our books, so please just stop," Petrie said.
