Amy Churchill, director of the Lapeer District Library, is facing the possibility of criminal charges from a conservative county prosecutor in a fight over an LGBTQ-themed book. (Bridge courtesy photo)
- A Michigan county prosecutor is raising the specter of criminal charges over a controversial book
- βGender Queer: A Memoirβ is an LGBTQ-themed graphic novel
- The book will be discussed at what is expected to be a heated meeting Thursday
Lapeer County Prosecutor John Miller says he may file criminal charges against employees or officials of the Lapeer District Library if an LGBTQ-themed graphic novel isnβt removed from the shelves.
Miller told Bridge Michigan on Monday the illustrations in the book βGender Queer: A Memoirβ could rise to the level ofΒ accosting, enticing or soliciting a child for immoral purpose, a felony punishable by up to four years in prison.
βI hope that is not the outcome of this,β Miller said. βI want this to come to a conclusionβ that the community agrees on that would βremove the book from the library.β
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The threat of criminal charges against librarians is believed to be a first in the state, and is an escalation of cultural wars that have spread across public and school libraries in Michigan over the past year.
The book, an LGBTQ-themed graphic novel with illustrations of sex acts, has caused controversy in libraries in Michigan and across the country, and Millerβs threat follows a controversy over the book that has brewed since fall in this rural county in Michiganβs Thumb.Β
Miller cited the specific criminal code β 750.145a β he believed the bookβs presence in a public library could violate.Β
The law is oftenΒ associated with police sting operationsΒ of adults who prey on minors, barring enticing anyone under 16 “to commit an immoral act, to submit to an act of sexual intercourse or an act of gross indecency or to any other act of depravity or delinquency.β
Amy Churchill, director of the library, said sheβs undeterred by Millerβs threat.
βI have heard, if he could, heβd arrest me. Heβs trying to intimidate us,β she told Bridge.
βI am not hard to find,β she added. βIf Mr. Miller wishes to arrest me, I am in my office working for the patrons and staff of the Lapeer District Library Monday through Friday.β
Miller said he, βalong with other county officials,β will urge the library to remove the book at a Lapeer District Library board meeting Thursday evening. Library officials are considering a patron request to remove βGender Queerβ from the libraryβs collection.
βGender Queer: A Memoir,β was theΒ most banned book in school libraries in 2022, according to PEN America, a group that advocates for writers, and the most challenged book by theΒ American Library Association.
The graphic novel is the story of author Maia Kobabeβs coming-of-age as nonbinary, and includes illustrations of sex acts.
βGender Queerβ was one of the books that caused an uproar in Ottawa County last fall, when votersΒ defunded the Patmos Library. That library is operating on donations for now but officials do not believe they can stay open indefinitely without taxpayer support.Β
No criminal charges against librarians have been publicly contemplated there, but library officials have receivedΒ several threats of violence.Β
Keeping books some consider inappropriate away from children is drawing attention among some in Lansing as well.Β House Bill 4136, sponsored by Rep. Neil Friske, R-Charlevoix, would require public libraries to keep βobsceneβ books in an area where children do not have access.
Most public libraries are not designed in a way that would allow a restricted book area, Deb Mikula, executive director of the Michigan Library Association,Β told MLive.
Lapeer District Library serves about two-thirds of Lapeer County, east of Flint. There are seven small branch libraries in the district, with a main library in the city of Lapeer.
Churchill told Bridge that the library purchased a copy of βGender Queerβ in the fall of 2022 at the request of a patron. Soon afterward, some residents began objecting to the book.
One resident checked the book out and took it to the police, Churchill said. The police returned the book to the library.
Miller is a RepublicanΒ who won election as prosecutor in November. In January, four weeks after taking office, Miller filed a Freedom of Information Act request to the library, seeking records connected to the consideration, approval and purchase of βGender Queer,β which he misidentified as βGender Queen.β
The public records also asked for a record of βwho voted for and against the addition of the bookβ to the library.
Lapeerβs library board doesnβt approve individual book purchases, Churchill said. According to the libraryβs policies, Churchill, as director, has final approval of purchases.
Churchill said she was shocked by the FOIA, sent on official stationery of the Lapeer County prosecutorβs office, since she had never spoken to Miller or anyone in his office, and the information could have been gleaned with a phone call.
The FOIA letter stated Miller would βpay personallyβ for any charges incurred by the library in fulfilling the request.
βA FOIA is an extremely aggressive way to communicate with someone,β Churchill said. βUsually youβd try to talk to them first.β
Miller said he became involved when several county commissioners approached him with copies of books that had been checked out from the Lapeer library.
He said he dismissed concerns about two of the books β one with LGBTQ themes but no illustrations, and a second that had to do with race relations.
The third was βGender Queer,β with illustrations that Miller said shocked him, βand that takes a lot for a prosecutor,β he said.Β βIβm an attorney, Iβve studied the constitution, Iβve passed the bar exam. My job is to take a position that protects our innocent and our youth. And if this isnβt child sexual abusive material, β¦ it borders on it.β
Miller said the bookβs target audience is teenagers, and that, to him, the drawings of sex acts appeared to involve βprepubescent boys.β
To the prosecutor, the bookβs availability to youth could meet the bar for a crime in Michigan because, to him, the book βenticesβ underage teens to engage in sex acts.
βWhile I hope not to prosecute someone over this book, I feel itβs part of the communityβs decision,β Miller said. βThis isnβt about LGBTQ, this is about the exploitation of children.β
Churchill countered that Miller and other conservatives in the community are only objecting to an LGBTQ book with illustrations of sex acts, but not to books likeΒ βThe Joy of Sex,β which depict sex acts by heterosexual couples, which is alsoΒ housed at the library.
βIf anything, we have an underrepresentation of books about marginalized communities,β including LGBTQ community, Churchill said.
βGender Queer” is normally shelved in the adult section of the Lapeer library. To Miller, that doesnβt matter because teens could wander over and find it.
Miller declined to say who he would consider charging βΒ Churchill as the director, library board members or the author of the book.
βIβm waiting for the community to chime in (before deciding whether to file criminal charges), to say this is something thatΒ should or should not be in the library,β Miller said. βThe majority of the voices Iβve heard think it shouldnβt.β
Georgia is considering a bill that would allowΒ school librarians to be charged criminallyΒ for objectionable books, as isΒ Indiana,Β Texas and Wyoming.