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| -Great Cultural Revolution |
| Michigan township votes to defund library over LGBTQXYZ books |
| 2022-08-05 |
| [BridgeMI] What started as a fight over an LGBTQ-themed graphic novel may end with the closure of a west Michigan public library. Voters in Jamestown Township, a politically conservative community in Ottawa County, rejected renewal Tuesday of a millage that would support the Patmos Library. That vote guts the library’s operating budget in 2023 — 84 percent of the library’s $245,000 budget comes from property taxes collected through a millage. Without a millage, the library is likely to run out of money sometime late next year, said Larry Walton, library board president. “I wasn’t expecting anything like this,” Walton told Bridge Michigan Tuesday. “The library is the center of the community. For individuals to be short sighted to close that down over opposing LGBTQ is very disappointing.” There have been protests at other Michigan public libraries and at school board meetings about books with LGBTQ themes. But Tuesday may be the first time a community voted, in effect, to close its library rather than have it remain open with books some consider to be “indoctrinating” children. Voters on Tuesday rejected the millage renewal by a 25-point margin — 62 percent to 37 percent — on the same day voters approved millages for road improvements and the fire department. Ten years earlier, a library millage at a slightly lower rate was approved by 37 percentage points. For the average home with a market value of $250,000, the new millage, if approved, would have increased taxes about $24. Debbie Mikula, executive director of the Michigan Library Association, said Wednesday there were about 40 public library millages on ballots across the state Tuesday, and all but a handful passed. No others that failed appeared to be due to cultural issues like with the Patmos millage, she said. The difference, according to voters who spoke to Bridge Tuesday: Books in the adult and young adult section of the Patmos Library that depict, in some cases in detail, same-sex relationships. Earlier this year, a parent raised concerns about the graphic novel “Gender Queer: A Memoir,” located in the adult graphic novel section. The book tells the story of the author’s coming of age as nonbinary, and includes illustrations of sex acts. As many as 50 people attended several library board meetings this spring, meetings that typically draw only a handful of residents. At those meetings, residents demanded the book be pulled from the shelves. The library board moved the book behind the counter, where children couldn’t happen upon it by accident. Complaints were filed about several other books, including “Spinning,” a graphic novel about a teen girl and her attraction to other girls, and “Kiss Number 8,” a graphic novel with similar themes. Those books remain on the shelves of the young adult (high-school age) graphic novels section. Library Director Amber McLain resigned this spring, telling Bridge she had been harassed online and accused of indoctrinating children. Interim director Matthew Lawrence resigned later. Hey Groomers! When the Patmos staff and elected board of directors declined to remove the books from the library’s collection, some upset residents organized an effort to defeat the library’s millage renewal. The group, called Jamestown Conservatives, passed out flyers at the town’s Memorial Day parade that referenced “Gender Queer: a Memoir,” a Pride Month display at the library and a director who, in the group’s words, “promoted the LGBTQ ideology.” “Pray that we can make changes and make the Patmos Library a safe and neutral place for our children,” the flyer said. Jamestown Township, population just under 10,000, is politically conservative even for conservative Ottawa County. The township voted for Donald Trump for president by a margin of 76-21 percent in 2020. About 92 percent of residents are white, and the median income of $81,000 is 37 percent higher than that of the state median household income of $59,000. Ensing, who helped organize the no campaign, said she hoped the millage rejection would be a “wake-up call” that would encourage library officials to remove books from shelves that community members find objectionable. If that’s done, “they can ask for a millage again,” she said. But Walton didn’t appear ready to compromise Tuesday. He said he didn’t believe the library needed a wake-up call and shouldn’t remove books. “A wake-up call to what? To take LGBTQ books off the shelf and then they will give us money? What do you call that? Ransom? “We stand behind the fact that our community is made up of a very diverse group of individuals, and we as a library cater to the diversity of our community,” he said. Walton could not be reached Wednesday. Mikula of the library association said the Patmos Library could still get a millage on the November ballot, if ballot language is given to the Ottawa County clerk’s office by Aug. 16. But after having just lost by 25 points, turning around public sentiment in less than three months might be difficult without concessions by the library, which Mikula said is difficult because public libraries must follow its “collection development policies. If patrons have challenged (books) and the library board has made a decision to keep them, then … the First Amendment protects the process.” |
| Posted by:Sniling Omelet8298 |
| #7 My mother worked in a library for 30 years. The last librarian she worked for was against having books in the library as opposed to on-line research material. I don't think that librarian was a deep thinker. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2022-08-05 15:35 |
| #6 Well there you go. PeeAye is very damaged. Ohio is just barely better. |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2022-08-05 11:18 |
| #5 The libraries all said, "We don't have someone to take them in and evaluate them." The public libraries here happily accept donations — not to put on shelves but to sell at the twice yearly sale that is their major fundraiser. No evaluation required, and people come to buy bags of books at a dollar each, both the thousands donated and those books from library stocks that have become too worn to keep on the shelves. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2022-08-05 11:05 |
| #4 When I moved from PeeAye, I had a whole spare bedroom with actual stacks in it. Several thousand books. I could not give them away to libraries let alone sell them. Nobody was interested. The libraries all said, "We don't have someone to take them in and evaluate them." In other words, they cried poor. Don't tell me about the noble mission of the community library. |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2022-08-05 07:41 |
| #3 It's not a FREE speech 1st Amendment issue if its taxpayer funded. Somehow the usual suspects forget who works for who. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2022-08-05 07:26 |
| #2 Look. My degree is English Lit. I have spent a lot of time in libraries. Small community libraries are obsolete now, and if they are going to make grooming materials the hill they wish to die on, then die they must. The money would be better spent on upgrading water lines and sewers. |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2022-08-05 07:24 |
| #1 That's the way it's done! |
| Posted by: The Walking Unvaxed 2022-08-05 07:19 |