A candidate for Missouri’s Secretary of State Office burned books in a video shortly after she visited a Springfield library, but the Springfield-Greene County Library District will not say if it was its property that was destroyed.
Valentina Gomez, a Republican candidate, appeared at a Brave Books reading event Friday, Feb. 2, at the Library Center. The event, which was not sponsored by the library, featured athletes and authors Bethany Hamilton and Riley Gaines reading from their books — Hamilton’s “Surfing Past Fear” and Gaines’ “Happy No Snakes Day.”
On Monday, Gomez posted a video to her pages on Facebook and X, formerly known as Twitter. In the video she uses a flamethrower to burn what appear to be copies of “Queer: The Ultimate LGBTQ Guide for Teens” by Kathy Belgs and Marke Bieschke, and “Naked: Not Your Average Sex Encyclopedia” by Myriam Daguzan Bernier.
“When I am in office, they will burn,” Gomez said in the video.
Brittany Dyer, an LGBTQ activist, organized a silent protest before the event, and sat in the audience during it. She said that Hamilton introduced Gomez and Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, a gubernatorial candidate, at the event. The two candidates were given opportunities to speak in front of a crowd of about 200 people, many of whom were children, Dyer said.
The books, Gomez claims, are from a Missouri library. In photographs of her at the Springfield event, she is holding books that appear to be those titles.
Springfield-Greene County Library officials declined to comment on Gomez's videos, when asked to confirm whether library employees believe those burned books were library district property.
“We wanted to be respectful, quiet and peaceful,” Dyer said. “We just wanted to have a presence. Both of those athletes are strong anti-trans activists.”
Dyer said flyers for the Brave Books event made no mention of the candidates' appearance.
The campaign video is in connection with promises to review library funding and defending against a “transgender agenda.” It aligns with culture war issues used by Republicans over the last few election cycles, and with Republican efforts in the Missouri General Assembly to restrict or block certain medical procedures for transgender people.
Ashcroft used administrative rules to prevent libraries from receiving state funding if they do not follow certain guidelines about material selection.
Brave Books is a recently established publisher of children’s books with a conservative, Christian perspective. Hamilton’s and Gaines’ books were published by the company, and it has held “Story Hour” events.
The story hour was held as a community event under the library’s policies for using community rooms.
The Hauxeda has requested comment from Gomez's campaign , and will update this report if responses are received. This report was edited on Feb. 7 to include information and responses from a protestor at the event.
