Posted in: Comics, Comics Publishers, Current News, Oni Press | Tagged: gender queer, Maia Kobabe

Another American Librarian Fired For Refusing To Remove Gender Queer

Campbell County Public Library director Terri Lesley in Wyoming has been fired after 27 years after she refused to remove Gender Queer.

In March 2023, Suzette Baker, a librarian at the Kingsland Branch Library in Llano County, Texas was fired for refusing to comply with her manager's order to take certain books down from the library's shelves. While the books were unnamed, one was described as being about a "transgender teenager's life experiences", which was going to be Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe.

Now the Campbell County Public Library director Terri Lesley in Wyoming has been fired after 27 years after she refused to remove LGBTQ+ books from library shelves, including Gender Queer.

In 2022, Lesley was honoured with the 2022 John Phillip Immroth Memorial Award from the American Library Association, which rewards notable contributions to intellectual freedom and demonstrations of personal courage in defense of freedom of expression,

This came after Campbell County Public Library was the recipient of unprecedented challenges and protests after the Library ran a Pride Month promotion in 2021. This included two residents attempting to use the Campbell County Sheriff's Office to prosecute library staff, including Lesley, for distributing obscene materials, naming Gender Queer. No charges were made. She told CNN, "there's nothing in the library that could be classified as pornography in any way, shape or form. We do have some sex education books and biology books,things like that, that are important for youth to have access to in case they have questions. The LGBTQ part of that was a big part of what the complaints from the public were about".

However, the Campbell County Library Board first chose to disassociate itself from the ALA, and then to fire Terri Lesley. A Campbell County meeting saw residents speaking up for Lesley, with one resident Nick Jessen, being widely cited for saying "When you start outlawing books because of your personal, religious and moral beliefs in this country, you're going against the Constitution; you're going against what we were founded for… This is a sh-t show, and I'm embarrassed for this board" and compared the library board's anti-obscenity efforts to the Nazis' book-burning crusades.

The Cowboy State Daily interviewed Sage Bear, Campbell County Public Library Board member  who told them "It wasn't a decision I wanted to make. I didn't want to go in there and 'clean house.' We really tried to work with the director and it just came down to this. I'm sad that it did" but declined to say why the board let Terri Lesley go, stating that Wyoming is "an at-will state and she's an at-will employee."

Earlier in June, the board implemented a new curation policy to weed the children's section for "stuff that's sexually explicit," said Bear. But Lesley states that "There are no books in our collection that violate the policy. And I think the board sees that differently than I do. There's nothing in our collection that was obscene" and that it put her in danger of violating the First Amendment by weeding out books that may not be obscene by the legal definition. Gender Queer was one of the targeted books.

Bleeding Cool has spent months covering, repeatedly, the rise of New Puritan book bans in American libraries, and the politics that surround them, that focus on books involving sexual orientation, gender identity and race relations. And more often than not, the graphic novel Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe and published by Oni Press is the declared bullseye of many of them and has been used by politicians to both win local elections – and also to lose them.

Initially, Gender Queer was marketed toward older audiences, but winning an American Library Association Award in 2020 to "books written for adults that have special appeal to young adults ages 12 through 18" saw copies ordered by school libraries and public libraries in the USA, while political campaigns have found it an easy touch for "what about the children" style rabble-rousing.

The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund's current Interim Director, Jeff Trexler stated that challenges to this comic had become a hot talking point in local politics and were being weaponised for political gain. He told ICV2; "I mentioned the parent in Virginia who went viral after talking about this. Then, that became the heart of the Youngkin campaign. One could say that the protest of Gender Queer became the hub or the foundation of a movement that ended up getting the Republican Governor of Virginia elected". Since then, obscenity lawsuits against Oni Press and Maia Kobabe have been filed by lawyer Republican Virginia assembly delegate Tim Anderson on behalf of himself and Republican congressional candidate Tommy Altman citing an obscure state obscenity law, though were dismissed.

And while some attention is now moving on to the higher profile Heartstopper series, Gender Queer remains a red-button topic for many. And, conversely, one of the best-selling titles from Oni Press, owned by the conservative right-supporting Steward family. Which must make for some entertaining dinner conversations.

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