🪡: Karen England has been affiliated with the far right for years. Here's a tidbit about her connections to the far right political machine to read while we wait for the meeting to start;

🪡: The room is filling up fast The theater fits 300, and it's already getting cozy in here. We saw this sign, which is done in the same design as Chad Williams' "protect our kids from 🌽" sign. People are MAD.

🪡: As the meeting begins, the Calvary Chapel crowd who have gathered here are passing around "protect our kids, vote no" signs. During the pledge of allegiance, the "under GOD" is yelled loudly by some, and "liberty and justice for ALL" yelled loudly by others.

🪡: Chad begins by discussing the way teens are allowed to get a library card without parental involvement. Burns calls out a man who yelled out during Chad's comment, threatening to have him removed. "..anybody who disrupts a meeting may be guilty of a misdemeanor". Ooohs and snickers are heard.

🪡: There are 94 people signed up for public comment. Burns continues, "...and if you, uh, wanna use foul language or something, I've got this little red button that can mute you" It's worth noting that Burns has sworn at the dais a LOT, including calling his fellow Councilmembers "pieces of shit"

🪡: Pastor Joe Pedick, lead pastor at Calvary Chapel at Huntington Harbor (and Chad Williams' boss) and the aforementioned Karen England are amongst the first speakers called to the podium.

🪡: A woman in a wheelchair speaks first from the top of the room, calling out the total lack of ADA compliance for this meeting. Burns interrupts her to say, "I can see you perfectly fine". She calls out the book banning efforts of the council.

🪡: Pastor Joe Pedick speaks next while Chad looks on with a giant grin. Another speaker comes next, claiming that books in the Children's library are so foul they can't even be in the CA prison system. It's just blatantly untrue.

🪡: Dominic McGee, a frequent flyer from the far right in HB. He misspeaks, saying 'felatious' when he means 'salatious', and the laughter from the audience drowns out his next line.

🪡: Another woman comes next, starting "There is NO porn in the library." She gets raucous applause. Another woman talks about how a woman came up to her while she was campaigning for a Yes on A&B and "shoved dick pics in my face and claimed Gracey said they were in the library".

🪡: People gasp, and she continues, calling out the Bible-heavy councils on their lies, 'you shall not give false witness against your neighbor! Pretty sure you can go to hell for that...' A man in the audience yells at her, "Pretty sure you can go to hell for voting yes on A&B!"

🪡: Another woman goes up, reading from a sex-ed book. She says "If you vote Yes on A&B you're either a groomer, a pedophile, or both". The Calvary Chapel crowd jumps to their feet and cheer.

🪡: Another speaker makes comment about some of the actions individual members of the council. Pat claims she's not allowed to do this - he's wrong. She tries to continue, and he mutes her, to great outrage. This is a massive violation, and a sign that Burns is afraid of his constituents.

🪡: Another speaker references a picture of Gracey from years ago, where she held a sign that said "I will not coparent with the government". She turns that statement around, saying that Gracey is now the government trying to parent. "I will not coparent with the govt. Vote Yes". Wild cheers.

🪡: A number of people reference Chad Williams and his "porn" signs. No matter which way this goes, Chad Williams is unlikely to ever shed the attachment to "porn" in the eyes of the public.

🪡: A speaker accuses the council of telling parents that they can't be trusted to parent their own children, calling them a "nanny state". He concludes, "your actions have convinced this libertarian to vote yes!"

🪡: Chad Williams' campaign mgr goes up to speak, calling out "woke agendas, DEI, fraudulent spending, antifa, open borders, BLM, men playing in women's sports" - we didn't capture it all. He's attempting to equate A&B to these things - which is kind of undercut by the libertarian who spoke before.

🪡: The next speaker; "I'd like to thank Chad for inspiring so many community members to come out tonight, the parking lot is packed. I'd also like to thank Chad for uniting the left and right" She receives a standing ovation.

🪡: An older woman comes up and speaks about how she was raised with prayer in school, and it didn't prevent her from being raped by her pastor. She wishes she'd had books to teach her about what she was experiencing.

🪡: A particularly fiery speaker was wearing this amazing shirt -

🪡: Another person in line ahead of our reporter is holding a copy of "Perks of Being a Wallflower", from Karen England's private collection. As a reminder, this book features a protagonist who learns to deal with the trauma of being SAd by his aunt. It's being passed off as "porn".

🪡: Another speaker brings up the point that all the church members go to the same church. "If you want to control what happens in the library, build your own library".

🪡: We now have people reading from the books that Karen England provided. A woman goes up to say that the things being said tonight are 'vile and evil', claiming that anybody laughing tonight is mocking abuse victims. "What are you, if not evil?"

🪡: Another person begins to read from A Court of Mist and Fury", suggesting that this is the 🌽 in the library. It's an adult romance novel. An argument starts in the audience over this, and Burns knocks the gavel, giving a warning.

🪡: A woman goes up to read an excerpt of a novel with an adult sex scene. She claims it's in the children's section but neglects to actually tell the name of the book for anyone to fact check it.

🪡: More people read from Karen England's personal collection of books - again, none of these people are giving titles. Brian Vea goes up to speak next - he's a notorious anti-LGBTQ activist. He says "If you're MAGA, you'll join me in voting No on A&B". The politicization is clear as day.

🪡: Another frequent flyer says that body positivity has been hi-jacked to promote obesity. It's a strange foul ball in this space. We're not really sure what this has to do with the library. He also advocates for a No on A&B.

🪡: The space is beginning to thin out somewhat, as folks on both sides are losing their stamina for the chaos. Proud Boy Luke Dennis goes up... "The Marxist librarians are stealing our children's minds". He says, "Vote no on A&B to protect our children from groomers, and uh.... pedophiles".

🪡: Dennis' girlfriend Valentina Bankhead goes up and claims that while a woman spoke about her assault, a librarian behind her suggested that the woman should just kill herself. It's an outlandish story, and someone in the audience yells "citation needed".

🪡: A "No on A&B" family that was sitting behind our reporter left after the reading of A Court of Mist and Thorns, commenting as they left how it was so great that "TWO brown guys!" spoke on their side.

🪡: Another man says, "shame on (the council) for the demonization of the library". He chastises them for the toxic conversation, saying, "should you be flushed with pride or just flushed out?"

🪡: Another resident, with an Australian accent calls the council out for not looking at speakers, asking them to look at her while she speaks. Only Gruel and McKeon actually look at her during the comments. An audience member derisively yells out 'g'day' to mock her.

🪡: A speaker comments about how most of the books Karen England gave the Calvary Chapel crowd are about LGBTQ books. Another talks about the experience and education of the librarians, and someone behind us says "..that's the problem"

🪡: Chris Rini goes up and calls out the fact the books being read are provided by Karen England, and that they're all books in the adult stacks of the library. He also shames Chad for his bastardization of Christian scripture to promote his lies.

🪡: Another woman goes up to read another of Karen England's books right after - this is the book she's claiming is 'porn' in the children's library. On either count, it's not.

🪡: Another woman goes up, calling out some of the members of the council for their attacks on constituents on social media. Pat Burns interrupts her, telling her that she can't do this, just like earlier in the day. He argues with her, not letting her speak, and does not give her back her time.

🪡: To reiterate, this is a MASSIVE Brown Act violation. He is violating the Freedom of Speech and silencing his constituents who he disagrees with. We'd recommend anyone experiencing this, in HB or elsewhere, to reach out to the @aclu.org

🪡: Another speaker goes so far as to say that authors are pedophilic and that there's a 'Satanic' influence. He goes on to reference the fall of Rome and says that boys are being prevented from becoming men.

🪡: Someone who is watching the recorded livestream of this meeting has informed us that, while we can't hear it here in person, Burns can be heard on the livestream mumbling and mocking speakers and community members. When we have an opportunity to do so, we will work to go screen record these.

🪡: A speaker yells 'vote no, vote no on pedophilia!" to cheers. Another says that while nobody seems to agree on what porn is, "nobody knows porn better than this city council" to laughter and applause. He calls them 'porn peddlers' and references their friendship with Matt Gaetz.

🪡: We're 75 minutes into the meeting, and the audience has gone from fully packed (300 seats) to 50-60 seats filled. To the council, a speaker says "YOU'RE the ones making it weird!"

🪡: Another speaker suggests that the book, "It's Perfectly Normal" is telling 10 year olds to 'choose a sexual lifestyle'. The book is an educational book about puberty written by medical professionals that includes minor references to LGBTQ+ people.