Discursive Placemaking Practices and White Christian Nationalism: Analyzing LGBTQIA+ Censorship Debates in a Southern, Small Town Library

Ryan Schey; Rebekah Adams

doi:10.14288/ce.v17i1.187138

Discursive Placemaking Practices and White Christian Nationalism

Analyzing LGBTQIA+ Censorship Debates in a Southern, Small Town Library

Authors

Ryan Schey University of Georgia
Rebekah J. Adams University of Georgia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14288/ce.v17i1.187138

Keywords:

public libraries, LGBTQIA censorship, discourse analysis, white Christian nationalism, place, queer theory

Abstract

This article examines a public library board meeting in a small Southern U.S. town with the goal of understanding local discourses about sexual and gender diversity amid increased challenges to LGBTQIA+ and BIPoC-themed books. Drawing on theories intertwining place, power, and identity, we analyze how arguments for and against censoring LGBTQIA+ materials are insidiously imbued with discursive practices part of, but not exclusive to, white Christian nationalism. Our analysis identifies three key discursive placemaking practices of white Christian nationalism that community members used: instilling fear, enforcing exclusions, and narrating temporalities (pasts, presents, and futures). Findings reveal that speakers—despite opposing ideological positions about LGBTQIA+ life—constructed a vision of their community influenced by whiteness and Christian nationalist ideologies. This analysis offers new pathways for understanding how public spaces become sites of contestation where multiple trajectories of power and identity converge, with implications for advocacy toward more inclusive and just library spaces.

Author Biographies

Ryan Schey, University of Georgia

Ryan Schey is Associate Professor of English Education in the Department of Language and Literacy Education at the University of Georgia. His research examines literacy and language practices and social change in schools, focusing on LGBTQIA+ youth and their teachers.

Rebekah J. Adams, University of Georgia

Rebekah J. Adams is a doctoral student of English Education in the Department of Language and Literacy Education at the University of Georgia. Her research considers the impact of space and affect in secondary classrooms.

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Published

2026-02-17

Issue

Vol. 17 No. 1 (2026)

Section

Articles

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