Thousands raised in online fundraiser after Michigan library is defunded over LGBTQ+ books – By Brooke Migdon (The Hill) / Aug 11, 2022
Nearly $100,000 has been raised by more than 2,000 donors intent on keeping the library afloat.
Story at a glance:
- An online fundraising campaign has accumulated tens of thousands of dollars to keep the doors of a local Michigan library open after it was defunded earlier this month.
- More than 60 percent of Jamestown Township residents in an Aug. 2 election voted to defeat a proposal to renew a property tax millage that funds more than 80 percent of the library’s yearly budget, citing the library’s refusal to remove LGBTQ+ books.
- The library board at a Monday meeting said it would pursue another millage.
Nearly $100,000 has been raised in an online fundraising campaign for a Michigan library that was defunded earlier this month after it refused to take books featuring LGBTQ+ identities and issues off the shelves.
Residents of Jamestown Township – a conservative stronghold in western Michigan – in an Aug. 2 vote defeated a proposal to renew a property tax millage that funds most of its local library’s budget.
The president of the Patmos Library board, Larry Walton, told the Associated Press following the vote that without the millage, he expects the library to close its doors permanently before the end of next year. Patmos Library will retain its millage until the spring of 2023.
