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A public library in rural Michigan risks closing after the community voted to defund it following an outcry over its LGBT-themed books.
Township residents voted against a public funding measure for the Patmos Library in Jamestown Township, Michigan, earlier this month after it declined to remove certain books that detractors alleged were inappropriate for children, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Without the measure, which would have funded the library with local property taxes, it is slated to lose 85% of its annual $250,000 budget in 2023.
Jamestown Conservatives, a group leading the initiative to pull Patmos' funding, reportedly distributed fliers locally that claimed it was stocked with books replete with LGBT subject matter and "pornographic sexually graphic material" intended for "very young and impressionable kids."
Patmos Library in Hudsonville, Michigan. (CREDIT: Google Maps)
The flier also criticized a Pride display at the library and urged readers to pray for changes that would make it "a safe and neutral place for our children."
Among the books that drew the ire of some parents was "Gender Queer: A Memoir," an award-winning 2014 graphic novel by Maia Kobabe, an author who uses e/em/eir pronouns.
According to an online listing for the book, "Gender Queer" is a "cathartic autobiography [that] charts eir journey of self-identity, which includes the mortification and confusion of adolescent crushes, grappling with how to come out to family and society, bonding with friends over erotic gay fan fiction, and facing the trauma and fundamental violation of pap smears."
"Started as a way to explain to eir family what it means to be nonbinary and asexual, Gender Queer is more than a personal story: It is a useful and touching guide on gender identity—what it means and how to think about it—for advocates, friends, and humans everywhere," the listing adds.
Drag queens Athena Kills (C) and Scalene Onixxx arrive to awaiting adults and children for Drag Queen Story Hour at Cellar Door Books in Riverside, California on June 22, 2019. (FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images)
Other books that parents asked to have removed included "Spinning" and "Kiss Number 8," young adult graphic novels about teenage girls coming to terms with their burgeoning lesbianism.
Amanda Ensing, one of the organizers of Jamestown Conservatives, said she hoped the funding measure's defeat would serve as a "wake-up call," according to Bridge Michigan.
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Larry Walton, who serves as president of the library's board, said that Patmos Library may have to shutter after being stripped of its funding.
Teens gather around a laptop while enjoying beverages from the Hoover Library café. Hoover, Alabama. (Hoover Library/Lance Shores)
"A wake-up call to what?" Walton asked in response to Ensing. "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.
The Patmos Library Board met following the Aug. 2 vote and plans to have another funding initiative on the ballot for the general election in November, when board members expect more people to vote, according to Fox 17.
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A GoFundMe has since been set up to save the library, which has raised more than $150,000 as of Monday.
Patmos Library did not immediately respond to request for comment.
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