The Patmos Library in Jamestown, Michigan, was Chavala Ymkers refuge for years.

We didnt have the internet, and the library was the only place I had access to books and a space outside of my home, said Ymker, 23, who was home-schooled while growing up in the small town.

But within a couple of years, that place of escape will probably not exist.

Last year, residents of Jamestown, a township made up of nearly 10,000 people, voted to defund the public library following a push from conservatives to remove the book Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe from shelves.

Conservatives across the country have targeted the memoir in fact, its been banned in more states than any other book in America about Kobabes journey to figuring out their own gender identity. They mainly take issue with a passage on consent that contains a page about sex toys, and they falsely claim that just reading the book can make a child change their gender identity or sexual orientation.

The library is a disaster because of one book, Ymker said.

The Patmos Library has historically relied on the public funding of a tax called a millage and a millage renewal to keep the library operational was on the primary ballot in August 2021. Conservatives claims about the library having books with LGBTQ themes picked up steam, and some residents erected signs in their yards about how the tax money was going to be used to groom kids .