Tell Ridgeland, MS, MayorWithholding library funds over LGBTQ books is not Christian

Posted: Feb. 1, 2022

A small-town Mississippi library is facing tremendous financial pressure after putting up a display featuring pro-LGBTQ books -- including several with LGBTQ Christian themes.

The display includes memoirs by a transgender pastor and a survivor of gay conversion therapy, as well as a collection of essays titled "The Queer Bible."

Now, Ridgeland Mayor Gene McGee is using his personal religious beliefs to justify withholding $110,000 from the library, and says he won't release the badly needed funds until the library agrees to remove the books.

Madison County library director Tonja Johnson says the mayor told her the books "went against his Christian beliefs, and that he would not release the money as the long as the materials were there." The mayor even told Johnson, "the library can serve whoever we wanted, but that he only serves the great Lord above."

McGee's anti-LGBTQ bigotry doesn't reflect the Christian values of love, dignity, and equality. Let's make sure he hears from a nationwide movement of Christians who are sick of seeing our faith hijacked to censor books and exclude LGBTQ people.

Sign the petition:

Dear Mayor McGee:

As your fellow Christians, we object to your decision to withhold taxpayer funding from the Madison County Library System over its display of books that tell LGBTQ stories, including books by Christian authors.

Reading about LGBTQ issues is not a threat to Christianity nor to patrons of a public, secular library. All people, including our LGBTQ neighbors, are made in the image of God, and we are to love and include them just as Jesus did. Moreover, as a public servant, you make our faith look mean and short-sighted -- pushing people further away from Christ -- when you claim that serving God means you cannot join the library in serving all Ridgeland residents as mayor.

We ask you to both love your neighbors and to do your civic duty by releasing the library funds and dropping your effort to censor LGBTQ books. Thank you.

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