Residents of Michigan town vote to defund library over refusal to ban LGBTQ books
A library in western Michigan will likely have to close its doors after a group of residents voted against the renewal of a property tax millage that funds most of its budget.
On Tuesday, Jamestown Township residents voted to effectively defund the Patmos Library over its refusal to remove LGBTQ material from its shelves.
With 1,905 residents voting against the millage, and 1,142 residents voting yes, the library will now lose 84% of its $245,000 budget.
I'm running for County Commission in the fastest growing county in Michigan, and my opponent is proud she helped get an entire library defunded over a comic book because it had women loving women in it.https://t.co/O6XXvM0SQs
— Joe F Spaulding 🦉 (@beyond_process) August 4, 2022
Larry Walton, the library’s board president, said that without the millage, Patmos will likely run out of money late next year.
“I wasn’t expecting anything like this,” Walton told Bridge Michigan earlier this week. “The library is the center of the community. For individuals to be short-sighted to close that down over opposing LGBTQ is very disappointing.”
The Ottawa County township is a politically conservative community that voted for Donald Trump for president in 2020 by a margin of 76-21 percent.
Before Tuesday’s vote, a group of conservative residents campaigned against the renewal, urging people to vote “no” on the library millage.
The group, the Jamestown Conservatives, singled out a book that is often criticized by fellow conservatives around the country and it was the most challenged book in the U.S. in 2021, according to the American Library Association.
“Gender Queer: A Memoir,” an award-winning graphic novel written by Maia Kobabe, a nonbinary and queer author and illustrator from California, was described by a starred review in the School Library Journal as “a great resource for those who identify as nonbinary or asexual as well as for those who know someone who identifies that way and wish to better understand.”
Amanda Darrow, director of youth, family and education programs at the Utah Pride Center, poses with books on Dec. 16, 2021, that have been the subject of complaints from parents in Salt Lake City. (Rick Bowmer/)
Over the Memorial Day holiday, the group passed out flyers saying that the book — which was displayed at the library in honor of Pride Month — “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, according to Bridge Michigan.
Prior to Tuesday’s vote, some residents displayed signs on their lawns telling people to vote against the proposal.
One large sign read, “50 percent increase to GROOM our kids? Vote NO on Library!”
Walton told The Associated Press that he doesn’t know when exactly the funds will dry up, but he’s hopeful that the board can come up with a solution — which could include seeking a new millage in a future election.
“I am optimistic that we will work through the hurdle the conservative group has thrown our way,” he said.
