FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
News from Progress Michigan
March 16, 2023
Contact: Lonnie Scott, Lonnie@progressmichigan.org
Lapeer County Prosecutor Takes Anti-LGBTQ+ Book Banning Efforts to New Heights
Prosecutor John Miller has threatened criminal charges against employees or officials of the Lapeer District Library for refusing to remove an LGBTQ+ book from shelves
MICHIGAN – Lapeer County Prosecutor John Miller is reportedly weighing filing criminal charges against employees or officials of the Lapeer District library if they continue to refuse to remove the graphic novel “Gender Queer: A Memoir” from shelves. Miller then attempted to walk back his statements, claiming he was intending only to educate the public.
Progress Michigan has submitted a Freedom of Information Act to the Lapeer County Prosecutor’s Office to determine the amount of public resources being spent on what is thus far the first indication that Michigan’s criminal justice system may be used by zealous prosecutors in an effort to ban books featuring LGBTQ+ stories from public and school libraries.
“Using the criminal justice system to threaten librarians into complying with a prosecutor’s personal beliefs on what is or is not acceptable on library shelves is not only a new low for Republicans, it’s an abuse of office,” said Lonnie Scott, executive director of Progress Michigan. “Right-wing extremists are continuing to spread dangerous disinformation about the LGBTQ+ community in an effort to sow division between parents and schools, and libraries and the communities they serve. These disgusting attacks on an already vulnerable and marginalized community are nothing less than bigotry in action. We should demand better from our elected officials. Miller must not have spent much time reading or in the library growing up, or he would have learned like the rest of us, that you don’t mess with the librarian.”
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