A Mississippi Friends of the Library group has launched a crowdfunding campaign after their town’s mayor said he is withholding $110,000 in library funds unless LGBTQ books are removed from the shelves.
When Tonja Johnson, executive director for the Madison County Library System, didn’t receive the City of Ridgeland’s first quarterly payment of 2022, she reached out to Ridgeland Mayor Gene McGee. “He explained his opposition to what he called ‘homosexual materials’ in the library, that it went against his Christian beliefs, and that he would not release the money as the long as the materials were there,” Johnson told the Mississippi Free Press on January 25.
McGee confirmed to the newspaper that he was withholding funds because of citizen complaints “about displays of sexual, whatever you want to call it, content.”
Johnson characterized the books differently. WLBT reported that according to Johnson, the mayor had received complaints “about 3 children’s books and one adult book that depicted members of the LGBTQ+ community or had titles that involved the group.” One of the books is apparently The Queer Bible, a collection of essays by famous LGBTQ people, said the Free Press. A children’s book that had received previous complaints from library patrons is Grandad’s Camper, by Harry Woodgate, about a little girl and her grandfather, which just won a Stonewall Award from the American Library Association. It is unknown if that is one of the books on the mayor’s list.
The situation is transpiring at a time when books with LGBTQ and other marginalized characters are under attack in many parts of the country. These books, however, can transform lives for the better. As CJ Winship, a gay Ridgeland High School alum and current law student at the University of Mississippi, wrote in an op-ed for the Free Press, “For a long time, the books in the public library were the only friends to whom I could tell my secrets. They were certainly the only ones who talked back to me and told me it would be OK—that I would be OK.”
The money being held is intended for daily operation of the library, Johnson told the Jackson Free Press. It represents roughly 5 percent of the annual budget of the entire Madison County Library System.
An attorney for the Ridgeland Board of Aldermen told WLBT Tuesday that the library funds were included in this year’s budget and that they can only be given out by the Board. While none has been given out yet, “none of it is due to the library at this time” and “the city plans to fulfill all obligations to the library and not wrongfully withhold any of the money.”
Library lovers aren’t waiting around, however. Friends of the Ridgeland Library, a nonprofit group dedicated to supporting the library, has launched a crowdfunding campaign in response to the mayor’s actions. As of this writing, they have raised $67,000 of their $75,000 goal, still short of the full $110,000 being withheld. [Update, 2/6/2022, 9:00 a.m.: They have met and exceeded their initial goal of $75,000, with a little help from some furry friends, and are now aiming to raise the full $110,000.]