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Consequences: Voters Defund Library Over Graphic LGBT Books

(Washington Stand) At 12 miles southwest of Grand Rapids, it would lie at about 7 o’clock if a clock face were interposed on the famous “palm” map. It’s about a mile, as the crow flies, from Sunrise Acres Egg Farm. It’s a mile-and-a-half from the nearest Meijer grocery. Jamestown Township, population 9,630, is deep in Michigan’s Dutch Reformed farm country.

The Township’s local library, named Patmos, is deep in something else: trouble. The library will lose 84% of its annual $245,000 budget after voters refused to approve an annual millage renewal for 2023. A millage is a percentage tax on property at its assessed value, and it seems Michigan localities employ annual, voter-approved millages to fund a variety of local enterprises.

The vote wasn’t particularly close, either. It failed 1,142 votes “yes” (37.5%) to 1,905 votes “no” (62.5%). Other tax items on the ballot succeeded, including funding for the fire department and secondary road improvements. “This was such a great story to see,” FRC’s senior fellow for Education Studies Meg Kilgannon told The Washington Stand. “It captures the determination of citizens who are awake.”

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Parents mobilized against the library after it featured sexually explicit LGBT books such as “Gender Queer: A Memoir” in a June Pride display, and library staff subsequently refused to remove them from the library. “Since meetings with the library staff and board had no effect, concerned citizens mounted a campaign to stop funding the library with taxpayer money. And their effort passed overwhelmingly.”