The voters of Jamestown Township in Michigan voted to defund their library because it contained books with a LGBT theme. The library needed to raise $245,000 to keep its doors open for another year. Many donations arrived but the biggest surprise was a $50,000 check from Nora Robert, a fabulously successful romance novelist. She sent a check for $50,000, which put the library over the top in their goal. The library has more books by Roberts than books about gay themes. She has written more than 225 books and sold more than 500 million books.
It could make a great final chapter of a book: A doomed library is saved by the small checks of book lovers, and one huge donation from an internationally known author whose novels are among the most popular on the library’s shelves.
Romance novelist Nora Roberts donated $50,000 Sunday to help keep the doors open at a Michigan library that was defunded in early August in a spat over LGBTQ-themed books.
The famous author’s donation pushed the cumulative total raised by two GoFundMe campaigns over $245,000, the amount the Patmos Library was expected to lose in 2023 because of the loss of taxpayer funding in Jamestown Township, in Ottawa County. The outpouring of donations followed Bridge Michigan’s account of the taxpayer revolt.
In a comment left Sunday on the GoFundMe page which she contributed to, Roberts wrote that she would have donated more, but “50k is the limit GoFundMe allows for donations. If you’re short of your goal, please contact me. I’ll make up the rest.”
Donations made so far by more than 4,000 people from as far away as Australia should be enough to pay utilities and staff salaries at least into 2024..
On Aug. 2, an operating millage to support the township library was defeated 62 percent to 37 percent. That millage — a tax on property owners — provides 84 percent of the Patmos Library’s annual budget. Without the $245,000 that millage provides annually, the library was expected to have to close by the fall of 2023.
A “vote no” campaign was organized by community members upset by LGBTQ-themed graphic novels in the library. One, “Gender Queer: A Memoir,” is the story of the author’s coming of age as nonbinary, and includes illustrations of sex acts. Several other books community members protested against, including “Kiss Number 8” and “Spinning,” are stories of teens in same-sex relationships, but do not include illustrations of sex acts.
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Diane Ravitch's blog 
Who elected the right wing to censor other people’s lives and opinions? Who appointed them the moral authority over everyone?
Attacking libraries is another attack on democracy. Libraries like public schools are community assets that serve all members of the community. People read to be entertained, to learn, to appreciate, and to empathize with and understand others. Reading stories about gay people will not change people’s sexuality, but it may lead to better understanding of other people. Nobody is forced to read particular books in a library. If parents are concerned with what their child reads, the parent should accompany the child to the library. There is no valid reason to censor books or deny them to others, and there is certainly no logical reason to shut down such a valuable community resource. Kudos to Nora Roberts for her donation.
Did you say “gay”?!
Oh my gosh and gee whillikers! [falls back into chair] Mother, bring me my fan!!!
Don’t say gay”
Don’t say gay!
And don’t say trans!!
Don’t delay!!!
and bring the fans!!!!
Don’t say queer!
And don’t say bi!!
Ice cold beer!
Or I will die!!!
Bless you, Ms. Roberts! and
Curses upon the enemies of this library who made this necessary.
Those enemies are the faces of the current instantiation of the Repugnican Party, which is made up of stunted, fearful, prudish, hypocritical, nescient, breathtakingly uptight and unhappy and BACKWARD rubes, confused by a world, a culture, that has–whoosh–passed them by, people who are still living by the slogans on Burma Shave signs or, reaching even further back, are nostalgic for the good old days when the magistrates burned books and apostates.
Stand up to these people, every time.
Surely I am not the only one who notes the contrast between yesterday’s post concerning a 1.6 billion dollar investment by a wealthy man intent on electing conservatives and the celebration of a $50,000 donation by someone who thinks it OK to be kind to the gay.
Yup. We rejoice in our small victories.
Well observed, Roy.
Do people who voted No on Library deserve a library? Maybe not, but they need one.
key ending point: BUT THEY NEED ONE.
This is another Pyrrhic victory. The underlying policymaking that allowed this has not been addressed.
Yes, philanthropy should not be required to fund a public library.
A simpler solution might have been to require parental approval for minors to check out the books that the theofascist want to censor. That way the parents are the ones making the decision and not a theofascist group of lunatics.
The extreme right wants choice when it comes to firearms, voucher schools, and charter schools. But they don’t want anyone to have a choice when they disapprove of something like abortion or books with LGBT themes.
Short people.