Not every meeting of the Enterprise City Council plays to a standing-room-only crowd.

Similarly, not every meeting of the council’s Library Committee draws onlookers — not to mention dozens of comments.

But that was the case as the community reacted to a controversy regarding a sex-education pamphlet that the Enterprise Public Library had available in its foyer.

The 44-page “zine”-style pamphlet, produced by three graduate students at Portland State University, is geared toward LGBTQ+ teenagers. In the pamphlet, the students say they wanted to “provide accurate, unbiased, shame-free sex and gender information to LGBTQ+ youth.”

Representatives of Christ Covenant Church in Lostine objected to the placement of the pamphlet in the library; a mother told the council at its Nov. 13 meeting that her young children were able to look at the pamphlets on a low table in the library’s foyer. At the same meeting, a pastor read passages from the pamphlet and argued that some of its explicit language was not suitable for young children.

But young children are not the intended audience for the pamphlet. And, as others spoke during the Nov. 13 meeting, it became clear that the pamphlet provides potentially lifesaving information for LGBTQ+ youth, who often feel marginalized and can be vulnerable. For some of those youths — and this includes youths in Wallowa County — the pamphlet might be their only source of accurate information about sexuality.

In addition, talk about restricting or eliminating access to the pamphlet raised the specter of banning books and other materials from the library; that’s a road that leads to big trouble, as many other residents noted. The council wisely chose not to go down that road: Councilor David Elliott said he was uncomfortable setting rules for what material is not acceptable at the library — “that’s not what a library’s all about.”

Exactly.

The pamphlet remains in the library, but it’s been moved to another area, where it won’t be apparent to very young eyes. (Nevertheless, it should be in a spot where patrons can get a copy without asking for it; the idea is to ensure ready access to its target audience without forcing them into what might feel like an embarrassing situation.)

Overall, the conversation surrounding this controversy was spirited but civil. These sorts of issues can tear communities apart, so the respectful way in which residents spoke to the council, and the council’s insistence that the conversation stay civil, were good to see.

A couple of loose ends about this remain troublesome: Near the start of the controversy, someone removed all the copies of the pamphlet from the library. That’s unacceptable, and it’s useless to boot, especially with a publication that is designed to be printed as many times as possible. The only people this action is hurting are those youths who need the information the pamphlet contains.

And we remain troubled by the action of whoever slashed a tire on librarian Liz Cedarbrook’s car while she was at work on Nov. 29. Cedarbrook is unsure whether the action was related to the controversy — as are we — but in any case, it’s reprehensible. It’s not a reflection of the values that Wallowa County stands for — values that were, gratifyingly, on display throughout this controversy.