Voters in a Michigan township defunded its library after it refused to remove a display of sexually explicit LGBT books.
In an August 2 vote, Jamestown Township, Michigan voted not to renew a property tax millage for Patmos Library, which is a public library. Without the millage, which funds most of its budget, the library will lose more than 80% of its funding, according to the president of the library board.
The AP reports a "small group of conservative residents" wanted to defund the library, but the vote counts say otherwise. More than 60% of voters said no to the proposed renewal of the millage while only about 37% said yes. Those against the millage renewal sought to defund the library because the board refused to remove LGBT books that were age inappropriate and sexually explicit.
When LGBT books are in a public library, anyone of any age can check them out, even if they are restricted to the adult section. The library board saw the requests to remove books dealing with sexuality as an attempt to "ban books." What parents in the community wanted, however, was the removal of age inappropriate sexual content from a space heavily patronized by children.
Initially, the push to remove LGBT books came from local pushback to the book "Gender Queer: A Memoir" which is a graphic novel about being "nonbinary." It includes multiple explicit drawings of sexual acts. The former library director, Amber McLain, resigned because of the push to remove the book from the library. Here's what she said to Bridge Michigan:
Libraries are for everyone, not just the majority. When I was director at Patmos, there were just under 67,000 books. The removal of one may not seem like much, but when you consider that there are maybe 50 books with LGBT representation in that 67,000, each one counts. The beauty of a public library is that you don’t have to read everything you find. There is something for everyone, and there’s likely something to offend everyone. Additionally, it is important to remember that the library having a book does not equal the library endorsing that book — it just means the library is attempting to have a balanced collection.
While some parents were concerned with the presence of LGBT material in the library, others were more concerned with the presence of explicit sexual imagery, both of which are included in "Gender Queer" and other similar books.
Without the funding, Patmos Library could shut down by this fall. Members of the library board hope to put another proposal for a millage renewal on the November ballot.
Townhall has reported on many instances of wokeness seeping into children's books, school curricula, and even clothes.