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This story is part of a documentary project on Gender Queer and the Culture Wars in Michigans Libraries. To watch the video, click here.

Nobody could predict a little library in Ottawa County, just southwest of Grand Rapids, would ignite a literary culture war across Michigan when it chose not to pull a handful of LGBTQ books from its shelves in 2022.

At the heart of the issue was Gender Queer: A Memoir, by Maia Kobabe, which made waves within the community serviced by Patmos Library in west Michigan. At library board meetings, whether to keep or ditch the book, and others like it was characterized as outright war a battle of good versus evil.

The story centers on Kobabes journey coming out as a non-binary, asexual person and the internal and external struggles e faced as a result. Part of that story, though, involves Kobabe who uses the pronouns e/em/eir recounting sexual experiences or fantasies via illustration, leaving little to the imagination.

Its led to a divide in communities across Michigan. At public and school libraries, books like Gender Queer have sparked outrage on whether the materials should be available at all and what roles libraries play in preventing children from viewing materials on sex, gender and sexuality.

As a graphic novel, some feel the medium inherently caters to children and take offense to the sex and imagery within. Others, however, say simply because the book contains pictures does not mean it is marketed to young children, meaning those claiming the book is meant to introduce sex acts to children are doing so in bad faith.

For Kobabe, the memoir is not meant for young children, with the audience for Gender Queer considered to be high school level and above.

It would have meant the world to me to find a book like Gender Queer as a teen reader ... it would have saved me like 10 years of questioning and confusion and uncertainty about who I was, Kobabe told MLive. I could have known sooner more about who I am as a person and, because of that, moved on to different questions, different learning, different experiences earlier if I had been able to read this kind of book and have some of these questions answered.

But despite what Kobabe thinks, some parents and community members arent mollified and believe the book should be kept away from where children could have access to it.

I think theres definitely a danger in children opening the book and maybe being encouraged to do things that theyre not ready for and that they should not be responsible for, said Laura Parkes, a mother of five who is in favor of the Lapeer Library removing Gender Queer from its shelves.

I dont believe we should give that burden or responsibility to our children to embrace so many sexualities at such a young age. They need context, they need time. ... Too much information is confusing.

Others, however, see the books as no different than any other item referencing sex or sexuality. And given many of the challenged books focus LGBTQ subjects, proponents here are quick to argue this isnt about protecting children but minimizing or erasing queer stories from public view.

I think its a slippery slope, and it sets a precedent for us to pull other books that are deemed not safe ... We start banning books like Gender Queer, then we start silencing other voices and having more of a monolith shown in our libraries, said Erin Cavanaugh, a mother of three and clinical social worker in Lapeer whos in favor of keeping the book on shelves. Its just not something we can do.

And in the middle? Libraries and their staff, who bear the brunt of this rage and the consequences of these efforts.

Challenging library books isnt new, but it is one that has steadily gained public attention over the last several years, topping out in 2022 at 359 books challenged across Michigans libraries.

Thats compared to just eight books challenged in 2017, according to the American Library Association, a nonprofit promoting libraries and library education internationally.

Clare Membiela, library law consultant for the Library of Michigan, said libraries frequently prune their collections to best serve their communities needs.

But challenging libraries to remove a book from their system comes with a high bar, she said. Simply demanding a book be removed because of its subject matter regardless if a person or group thinks the topic is obscene isnt enough to warrant taking it off shelves.

A public librarys mission is to permit the exercise of the First Amendment right to information and children also have those same rights. ... Its not up to the library to police what the children check out, Membiela said. Thats a job for their parents.

Thats especially true considering obscenity has a legal definition, with a test to determine it created by the U.S. Supreme Court as part of the 1973 ruling in Miller v. California.

A work as a whole must fail to meet contemporary community standards, describe or depict sexual conduct in a patently offensive way and lack serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value to be truly considered obscene.

Simply depicting a sex scene or containing nudity, such as in the case of Gender Queer, is not enough to warrant a book obscene.

And because Michigan recently amended its civil rights act to explicitly include protections for LGBTQ residents, Membiela said libraries are in a precarious situation when it comes to removing like-issue books from shelves.

If you have a library thats removing all of their LGBTQ-themed materials, and a library is supposed to reflect its community, then is there a discrimination issue here now? ... Theres some other facets to this that go beyond just the intellectual freedom question, she said.

Its something Kobabe echoed, saying the criticism of the work isnt personal, but removing the book completely from a library is.

I think that an attack on libraries, an attack on free speech, is an attack on every single American citizen, myself included, Kobabe said. So, I take it very personally in the sense that I feel like I am seeing the freedoms of our country being degraded. But I do not take it personally in that I think that I have written a bad book.

For Parkes, the parent who would like to see the book removed, it isnt a question of all LGBTQ narratives, but rather what to do with Gender Queer.

I dont believe that removing the book from the library is going to suppress an entire community ... I dont believe thats a valid argument, she said. I know we can get very emotional talking about these things, but were talking about one book. And I cant believe, in that community in the LGBTQ community that your identity lies in a single book. How can that be true?

But for parents like Cavanaugh and her wife, Lisa, keeping these types of stories available in the library means providing a safe environment for a person who sees themselves reflected in the pages of Gender Queer.

Imagine if you were that kid, and you were trying to sort through these feelings by yourself, and you didnt have any resources and all you had were maybe parents that werent supportive and telling you that you were wrong, Cavanaugh said. This books helps you to be seen, and have a light out of that darkness.

The American Library Association noted 1,269 demands to censor library books and resources in 2022. Its the highest number since the association began tracking those numbers more than 20 years ago.

Of the top 10 most challenged books, Gender Queer came in at No. 1 nationwide, and seven of the 13 novels three novels tied for 10th place as the most challenged were specifically challenged for containing LGBTQIA+ subject matter.

In Lapeer, Library Director Amy Churchill accused the county prosecutor of publicly trying to intimidate the library into removing the book after receiving a FOIA with an official Lapeer County Prosecutors Office letterhead earlier this year.

The book is currently under review, with County Prosecutor John Miller telling Bridge Michigan in March that the memoir could rise to the level of accosting, enticing or soliciting a child for immoral purpose. In Michigan, that charge carries a felony punishment of up to four years in prison.

The story is the same at Kalamazoo Countys Galesburg-Augusta high School and Bear Creek Townships Petoskey Public Library, where complaints of the books sexual imagery has caused residents particularly parents of school-aged children to push back against the contents of the graphic novel.

And for Patmos, its own community defunded the library after staff made the decision not to remove Kobabes memoir from shelves. Barring new funding, the library is slated to close in mid-2024 after two operating millage proposals failed in the midst of fervor surrounding the book.

Cierra Bakovka, a former adult services librarian for the Patmos Library, said the book was kept on the shelves out of a need for patrons to have all the choices they could ever need.

For her, to hear that libraries were potentially in legal hot water over simply stocking books was frightening. To see Patmos at risk of closing over it was heartbreaking especially considering that, to Bakovka, there was never a real question over whether to pull the book.

A lot of people like to read books that they relate to, that are about them, but its super important to know that not every community is made up of the same people, she said. Some people might have a majority, some people might have a minority in their community, but that doesnt make their experience any less valid or any less important to be represented and seen. ... You do your best to make sure everyone is represented. Not just whos the loudest.

With the library clamor growing, its garnered the attention of lawmakers in Lansing. Its whats prompted state Rep. Neil Friske, R-Charlevoix, to come up with his own solution to keep both sides happy: make an age restricted, 18-and-up section of the library.

Friske introduced a bill earlier this year which would require the governing body of a library to create and enforce a policy addressing obscene or sexually explicit matter, which could be potentially available to children.

What constitutes as obscene isnt defined under the bill, and Michigans oldest library association has already indicated that, legally, no library in-state carries obscene books.

When confronted with that statement, Friske pointed to a graphic novel on sex education hed checked out from a Michigan library and questioned how someone could defend a 10-year-old being able to pick up the book and leaf through detailed drawings of sex and genitalia.

Im not trying to remove the material, thats not what this bill is about. Its just to limit the access to it, Friske said.

For Membiela, the Michigan Library law consultant, rehoming books considered obscene to an age-restricted section of a library creates more problems than it solves, including determining what a child can and cant read, effectively overruling their own First Amendment rights.

There is also a concern for space and whether it would even be physically possible for a library to create a secluded, monitored 18+ section.

How do I delicately put this? Just from a public access standpoint ... putting all of the more adult materials in back, in a room thats sequestered, is kind of inviting some problems of another kind, Membiela said.

As Democrats oversee both the state House and Senate, theres little hope of the bill even receiving a committee hearing.

Still, Friske sees it as a matter of principal, keeping adult-level books away from children, and said arguments to the contrary like debating what constitutes obscene materials and whether libraries have the space to enact his bill are weak in his eyes.

Im not at all targeting LGBT community people, necessarily. Im not really targeting anybody, he said. Im just trying to protect kids.

And thats what it seems to boil down to: At the heart of the matter, those for and those against keeping books like Gender Queer on library shelves viewed themselves as having the best interest of children, and the broader community, top of mind.

The book is currently stocked at more than 100 public libraries across Michigan, with even more likely to have LGBTQ-related novels on their shelves as well. With the fervor surrounding book challenges, its unlikely the issue will simmer any time soon.

Its not something Kobabe ever thought would be an outcome when e published Gender Queer in 2019 mostly, e said, because initial reception to the graphic novel was overwhelmingly positive.

Even when pushback began to mount in 2021, and into the last two years, e admitted the positive feedback still outweighs the negative five-to-one.

When I wrote this book, I didnt know if anyone would relate to it. I also didnt know if anyone, aside from the people who knew me personally, would read it, Kobabe said. It has really been amazing to see this book find readers outside of my own sort of small circle of community.

And anyone who read it: I am in community with you. I see you, I support you, and I hope you can understand that these attacks on this book, and the attacks on other queer books, are not a reflection of your identity, or the validity of your identity.

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Outright war: Gender Queer and the attack on Michigan libraries - MLive.com