Third Time's the Charm: West Michigan library defunded over LGBTQ books wins tax support 63/37 in election

[essentialsaltes]

Voters in Ottawa County’s Jamestown Township approved an operating millage Tuesday for the Patmos Library by a 63 percent to 37 percent margin, with all votes counted, ending one of Michigan’s most contentious culture wars over books.

About 84 percent of the library’s $250,000 budget comes from township property taxes. The library has managed to stay open since its first millage defeat in August 2022 by dipping into $300,000 in donations that were raised through GoFundMe campaigns, but was still expected to run out of money by the fall of 2024 if it lost Tuesday’s vote.

The book battle began in Jamestown village and surrounding Jamestown Township in the spring of 2022 over three books shelved in the library’s young adult graphic novel section. The most controversial of the three, Gender Queer: A Memoir,” includes drawings that depict sex acts. That book has since been moved behind the circulation desk, where patrons wishing to check it out must request it.

In August 2022, the library’s millage vote lost by 25 percentage points after some community members claimed the library was exposing children to inappropriate contentography. Three months later, a second vote lost by 12 points.

That new board, evenly split between members who supported and opposed the LGBTQ-themed books, reached a compromise — no books would be removed from the library, but all books would get descriptions of their contents placed on their inside covers. The labels will be copied from book descriptions from the Library of Congress or book-selling websites like Amazon.

 

[Bradskii]

Hey, the people have spoken. Democracy, eh?

 

[JustOneWay]

Hey, the people have spoken. Democracy, eh?

While 37% say if this is democracy, we don't want it.

 

[The IbanezerScrooge]

While 37% say if this is democracy, we don't want it.

About a third of this country has collectively gone insane.

 

[Bradskii]

While 37% say if this is democracy, we don't want it.

They are free to propose an alternative.

 

[Desk trauma]

They are free to propose an alternative.

They have, ignore or scream fraud when elections don't go their way.

 

[DaisyDay]

They are free to propose an alternative.

King Donald?

 

[CRAZY_CAT_WOMAN]

I'm glad they got funding back. I think all this book banning is foolish. And makes kids, teens and grown ups want to read these books more.

 

[driewerf]

While 37% say if this is democracy, we don't want it.

They are free to elaborate good arguments and win over 14% of the electorate.
That is how "We the people" decide. That is how democracies work.

 

[RestoreTheJoy]

Voters in Ottawa County’s Jamestown Township approved an operating millage Tuesday for the Patmos Library by a 63 percent to 37 percent margin, with all votes counted, ending one of Michigan’s most contentious culture wars over books.

About 84 percent of the library’s $250,000 budget comes from township property taxes. The library has managed to stay open since its first millage defeat in August 2022 by dipping into $300,000 in donations that were raised through GoFundMe campaigns, but was still expected to run out of money by the fall of 2024 if it lost Tuesday’s vote.

The book battle began in Jamestown village and surrounding Jamestown Township in the spring of 2022 over three books shelved in the library’s young adult graphic novel section. The most controversial of the three, Gender Queer: A Memoir,” includes drawings that depict sex acts. That book has since been moved behind the circulation desk, where patrons wishing to check it out must request it.

In August 2022, the library’s millage vote lost by 25 percentage points after some community members claimed the library was exposing children to inappropriate contentography. Three months later, a second vote lost by 12 points.

That new board, evenly split between members who supported and opposed the LGBTQ-themed books, reached a compromise — no books would be removed from the library, but all books would get descriptions of their contents placed on their inside covers. The labels will be copied from book descriptions from the Library of Congress or book-selling websites like Amazon.

Get those books about sexuality back in school libraries RIGHT NOW. It's so much more important than academic achievement, as our schools have demonstrated for the past few years with their failing scores. Out of curiosity, I took a look at the SAT scores in that township:

It won't allow me to cut and paste the graph, which you can see here: College Readiness

28.2% met the total benchmark scores. UNDER 30%! 52.5% with reading/writing, and 29.9% met the math benchmark.

Schools, get back to fixing academic failures, your entire reason for existence.

 

[Pommer]

Get those books about sexuality back in school libraries RIGHT NOW. It's so much more important than academic achievement, as our schools have demonstrated for the past few years with their failing scores. Out of curiosity, I took a look at the SAT scores in that township:

It won't allow me to cut and paste the graph, which you can see here: College Readiness

28.2% met the total benchmark scores. UNDER 30%! 52.5% with reading/writing, and 29.9% met the math benchmark.

Schools, get back to fixing academic failures, your entire reason for existence.

What are you going on about?
This isn’t a “school library” but a public library.

 

[essentialsaltes]

Get those books about sexuality back in school libraries RIGHT NOW.

And... the thread is not about putting books back in any library.

 

[RestoreTheJoy]

What are you going on about?
This isn’t a “school library” but a public library.

You are correct. This Patmos Library is the public library. Mea culpa. Parents have complained vehemently in various Michigan towns about school libraries, and I must have conflated one of those reports with this one. I think I was thinking of this one a couple hours away. Dearborn parents assail LGBTQ books with sexual themes at school hearing | Bridge Michigan

 

[RestoreTheJoy]

And... the thread is not about putting books back in any library.

That was sarcasm. This is an issue all over the country, but this particular library is public and the people have decided they want this stuff in the library.

 

[essentialsaltes]

That was sarcasm. This is an issue all over the country, but this particular library is public and the people have decided they want this stuff in the library.

The people were mollified by a compromise that involves pasting book descriptions into every book so people have a better idea of the content. This helped flip the vote from anti-library funding to pro-library funding.

 

[Bradskii]

Get those books about sexuality back in school libraries RIGHT NOW. It's so much more important than academic achievement, as our schools have demonstrated for the past few years with their failing scores.

Yeah, I checked that as well. It seems the entire education department in that area has done nothing in the last couple of years but concentrate on getting a couple of books into a library.

Edit: Oops, my bad. I just realised that the complaints were about books in a public library. And had literally nothing to do with the education department, schools, teachers or SAT scores.

 

[RileyG]

I'm glad they got funding back. I think all this book banning is foolish. And makes kids, teens and grown ups want to read these books more.

Yes, I agree.

And yes, I have read LGBT books- believe it or not.

 

[rjs330]

This is how it should be done. The people have spoken. They want something done about it all, a compromise was reached and the library got the tax money. Democracy in Acton.

I hope the library leaders learned a valuable lesson here. When the taxpayers speak they need to listen. This should not have taken this long.

 

[Bradskii]

This is how it should be done. The people have spoken. They want something done about it all, a compromise was reached and the library got the tax money. Democracy in Acton.

I hope the library leaders learned a valuable lesson here. When the taxpayers speak they need to listen.

It was so successful, we should extend this to other matters and let the people decide. What do you think?

 

[rjs330]

It was so successful, we should extend this to other matters and let the people decide. What do you think?

Yes we should. Nice plan.