JAMESTOWN CHARTER TOWNSHIP, Mich. — A group of concerned residents launched a campaign to stop a millage proposal from passing that would have funded Jamestown Township's Patmos Library.
The millage was voted on during the primary election on Tuesday, Aug. 2 and failed to pass by a rather large margin.
Voters cast 1,905 votes against the millage and 1,142 for the millage, which resulted in it being defeated.
The group that opposed the millage did so because of books that were part of a Pride display during the month of June. Among those books on display was "Gender Queer: A Memoir," a graphic novel about explaining what it means to be nonbinary and asexual.
The group claims that the book, along with a few other LGBTQ+ themed books, are "grooming children for sexual exploitation."
But although the handful of books were put behind the counter and had to be specially requested, residents demanded they be removed from the library altogether.
When the Patmos staff and elected board of directors said they wouldn't do that, a group of upset parents and community members efforted the campaign to defeat the library's millage renewal.
The failed millage strips the 2023 budget for the Patmos Library, so a closure could happen by the end of 2023 unless another millage renewal is approved before then.
The library board will talk about its financial outlook at its next meeting on Monday.
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