LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – Across the nation and in the state of Michigan, parents have been objecting to inappropriate materials that they have found in their community and school libraries. Back in 2022, Michigan’s Jamestown Township got national attention when the residents voted to defund the Patmos Library after they refused to pull LGBTQ+ books from the library shelves.

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The books in question at the Patmos Library included the largely controversial “Gender Queer: A Memoir,” a book which the Los Angeles Times says “covers topics guaranteed to be explosive in certain quarters: confusion about gender and sexual identity, unsettling sexual encounters, sexual fantasies, masturbation, and menstrual blood.”

The Times describe the book as “explicit” and reports on a reviewer of the book posting on Amazon saying, “This is pornography! The images and language in this book have no place on a bookshelf or anywhere near children, which is the target audience for this book. It shows oral sex, homosexual sex, etc. Please do not think this is teaching material. It is intended for grooming.”

In Dearborn, a school board meeting drew approximately 600 people in October of last year with a packed room of residents objecting to LGBTQ+ themed books being available in the school library. The largely Muslim crowd spoke passionately about protecting their kids from the “pornography” and “filth” available to the school district’s high school students.

As parents in Michigan are actively working to get these books off the shelves of libraries across the country, they are receiving pushback from others who call it “book banning” and “censorship.”

One of the groups pushing back against the concerned parents is the Michigan Library Association (MLA), who has launched a new six-month campaign called “MI Right to Read.” The website for the group says, “It is the responsibility of libraries to guarantee and facilitate access to all expressions of knowledge and intellectual activity, including those which some individuals in our society may consider to be unconventional, unpopular, or unacceptable.”

In their press release, Debbie Mikula, executive director of the Michigan Library Association says, “The majority of Michiganders support the work our public libraries do and want to see various perspectives portrayed in the content available at their local libraries. Michigan’s public libraries are centers for community, and we want to ensure that librarians across Michigan can do their jobs and serve the needs of all individuals.”

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MLA goes on to say, “Public libraries are being targeted at an alarming rate by individuals and extremist groups to remove books that discuss topics such as racism, sexuality, gender, and history – censoring different perspectives.”

MLA considers the new form of book banning by parents to be censorship and a violation of First Amendment rights. The group hopes to raise awareness of the communities who are trying to ban books and infringe upon what they call the public’s “right to read.”

In order to facilitate that awareness, the MI Right to Read website provides a news media link to keep their supporters updated on book banning around the state and they ask Michigan parents to join their coalition to speak out against what they consider to be censorship happening in the state.

Their website also gives information on how their supporters can submit letters to the editor to their local papers and offers graphics to post on social media websites. They even offer “MI Right to Read” t-shirts and have currently sold about 250 of them.

The MLA describes on their website that their association is a group of “champions of access and believe that libraries are the heart and soul of every community and campus throughout Michigan.” To help their champions and supporters with their cause, they provide a tip sheet on how students can fight book bans in their schools.

The goals of the MLA are to protect Michiganders’ “right to read,” oppose attempts to ban books from Michigan libraries, educate the public about the right to read, and oppose any legislation that infringes upon Michigan citizens’ First Amendment rights. They also want to ensure that librarians across the state are entrusted to continue to do their jobs and serve and needs of all individuals and communities.

In June, The Michigan Department of Civil Rights sent a letter to Democratic Attorney General Dana Nessel asking for a clarifying opinion on whether “book bans” specifically targeting LGBTQ+ subjects are discriminatory in nature.

Lamont Satchel, general counsel for the Michigan Department of Civil Rights, wrote in the request for AG Nessel to rule on opinion on “whether banning and censorship of content and materials, prohibition of paraphernalia, and prevention of affiliate groups and safe spaces in educational institutions constitutes a violation of the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act.”

The group gave  the AG a deadline of July 24th to respond in time for their next public meeting however, according to Vicki Levengood, Communications Director at the Michigan Department of Civil Rights, she said, “We submitted the question to the Attorney General’s office, and they responded inviting us to clarify and narrow the inquiry, which we are in the process of doing now.”