Posted in: Comics, Oni Press | Tagged: gender queer, graphic novel, michigan, oni press

$249,000 Raised As Michigan Library Defunded Over Gender Queer

Yesterday, Bleeding Cool reported that courts in Virginia, USA had thrown out the obscenity case which alleged that the graphic novel Gender Queer, written and drawn by Maia Kobabe, coloured by Phoebe Kobabe and published by Lion Forge/Oni Press was "obscene for unrestricted viewing by minors." The criminal lawsuits were filed by lawyer Republican Virginia assembly delegate Tim Anderson on behalf of himself and Republican congressional candidate Tommy Altman who lost in the recent primary for Congress, citing an obscure state obscenity law.

But that wasn't the only story in the past week regarding this graphic novel. There are many, but this is just one. On the 24th of August, the Washington Post reported that the electorate of Jamestown in Michigan had voted to defund their local library so that the Patmos Public Library would lose 84% of its operating budget. This was entirely after an uproar over LGBTQ-themed books that specified Gender Queer: A Memoir. Parents had complained the books were "pornographic" and accused librarians of being "groomers".  The vote leaves the library with enough funding until next year when board President Larry Walton said it would probably have to close. In the wake of the vote, two librarians quit, including youth services librarian Kaitlin McLaughlin who was quoted as saying, while gathering children's books for a lunchtime story hour, "I'm not a groomer. I'm not a paedophile. I'm afraid of what people see when they look at me… The loss would be enormous. We have something for every single person — from every walk of life." Library director Amber McLain was targeted including one woman who entered the library filming, shouting "Where is she? Where is the pink-haired freak? Where is the paedophile librarian?" After she quit, her replacement also quit after being members of the public demanded to know if he was gay. And an every-decade meeting that voted on renewing the Patmos Library's public funding and its budget, a group called the Jamestown Conservatives issued fliers saying that the library peddled "LGBTQ CONTENT" and "PORNOGRAPHIC MATERIALS", and that the community must address "these evils" and yard signs alleged that "tax dollars" were being spent to "GROOM our kids."

Since then, a GoFundMe has launched aiming to raise the budget of $245,000 that had been withdrawn from the library. They have now reached that figure, with $249,000. This came from 4,000 individual donations including a $50,000 donation by Nora Roberts, a romantic fiction writer who writes as J. D. Robb for the In Death series.  She was the first author to be inducted into the Romance Writers of America Hall of Fame. There were also large donations from video game designer Adam Saltsman, and Rebekah Saltsman, founders of video game company Finji. The EveryLibrary Institute have promised to help Patmos Library use the raised funds in the most efficient way possible.

Gender Queer is up for FOC this week in a new edition from Oni Press, so retailers can up their orders in the knowledge that the Virginian state isn't going to stop them from getting their copies. It's a well-timed judgment, if only for publicity's sake. Here is the court ruling so you can check my maths.

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