Novelist Donates $50k To Library Defunded Over Books With LGBTQ+ Content

Bestselling novelist Nora Roberts has donated $50,000 (£43,000) to support the library of Jamestown Township after its community voted to defund it following a row over LGBTQ+ books.

In August, voters rejected to continue most of the library’s funding because the library refused to take LGBTQ+ books off their shelve. According to the staff, LGBTQ+-focused books amount to about 90 pieces of material in a collection of 67,000. That was enough, however, for a small group to carry the vote and to deprive thousands of people of all the resources a public library has to offer. 

To stay open long enough to reach another vote and try again to secure their funding, the Patmos Library opened a GoFundMe, seeking $245,000 (approximately £212,000), or their operating costs for a year, as Philanthropic People writes. 

Nora Roberts, a bestselling romance novelist with over 255 novels and a combined 861 weeks on the New York Times Best Seller List, donated $50,000 because that is as much as GoFundMe allows in a single donation. Her donation helped push the library’s campaign over the finish line, with donations totaling just under $250,000.  

The library board said that the donations from all over the country, including Roberts’, “reinforces our Board's position of not pulling LGBTQ books from our shelves.” 

The library will try again in November to get their budget renewed.  

“We are confident we will have a record number of Yes voters turnout November 8th, thus sending a message to the Jamestown Conservatives that our Community want our Patmos Library doors to remain open and ALL books to remain on our Shelves; not removed or hidden,” the board stated.

Read related myGwork articles here:

Michigan Town Raises $100,000 For Library Which Lost Funding Over LGBTQ+ Books

Video Captures Vandal Removing LGBTQ+ Books From Roadside Library

Texas Library Will Close For 3 Days As Librarians Forced To Hunt For Kids’ Books About LGBTQ+ Issues

South Carolina Governor Calls For LGBTQ+ Book To Be Banned In Schools