On the morning of Mar. 21, Mayor of Ozark, Ala. Mark Blankenship sent a private text that would jeopardize the presence of queer books on library shelves at the Ozark Dale County Library. Now, the fate of LGBTQ books is in turmoil.

Blankenship’s message was directed to Karen Speck, the Library Director and the Board of Trustee member Monica Carroll. His message to the two included a photo and a text that read: “What do I need to do to have these 61 books removed from our library?” The photo attached was a series of Young Adult (YA) books from the library, labeled with LGBTQ stickers on the spine.

Carroll joined in on Blankenship’s sentiment over wanting to remove LGBTQ books, adding in the group chat, “I’ll bring a match,” implying that she would burn the books herself.

Of the 1,600 books being banned in the U.S., 4 in 10 are LGBTQ-related, according to a 2022 study by PEN America. In an interview with the 19th, CEO of LGBTQ+ political advocacy organization Equality Texas noted that “Book bans internalize a sense of shame and isolation within young LGBTQ+ people, especially as many struggle to find self-acceptance and self-love.”

Last Friday, a motion was raised for the LGBTQ books from the YA section to be moved to the adult section of the library. Because it did not get a second, the motion failed to pass.

In an interview with Alabama Political Reporter, Blankenship admitted to not having “studied the books” he seeks to ban but has looked through the “general nature of the books,” adding that “I think they’re inappropriate based on what I know about them just from looking at them,” he said.

When asked what made the LGBTQ book inappropriate, he said, “I don’t want children exposed to it in our library. Any kind of sexual content at the young age of 12.” Although he admits that not all the LGBTQ-labeled books are sexual and that even the non-LGBTQ ones might be sexual, he feels strongly about the removal regardless.

In another text message to Speck and Carroll, Mayor Blankenship implied that it would be best to remove LGBTQ books for the sake of his city council. He said, “In Ozark, Alabama the large majority of the people don’t want to see this in our library. 100% of my city council will agree. I hate to see the library lose funding over this mess!”

Adam Kamerer tells Reckon that he had an issue with Blankenship’s usage of the phrase “100% of my city council” because it was used “as leverage to try to force the library board to comply with his requests,” he said. Kamerer is a resident of Dale County, in which Ozark is located. He is also the person who filed a FOIA request for Mayor Blankenship’s texts to be shared publicly.

Kamerer adds that the library has been in operation since the 1950s. This year, the library moved into a new facility after being located on James Street for four decades, where the building was in such bad repair that it was not able to be renovated.

“There was a lot of public appreciation and a lot of really good sentiment in the community [over the fact that] we had just opened this brand new library earlier this year,” said Kamerer, who recently started a Facebook group as a way to organize with other residents of Ozark and the Dale County at large.

Kamerer, who is a straight white male and has voted Republican in the past has been having a change of heart. He tells Reckon that he hopes at the end of this battle, young, marginalized people will know that they have allies in Dale County.

“There’s been a lot of times in my life when I haven’t spoken up and I should have,” he said. “I wouldn’t want people to marginalize me for some aspect of my life in the way that they marginalize others.”

On Wednesday, the Ozark Dale County Library Board called for a Special Board Meeting regarding Mayor Blankenship’s request for the removal of the library’s LGBTQ Books. Prior to the meeting, 130 comments had been submitted by the public. The Ozark Dale County Library’s Facebook page livestreamed the meeting, where people who submitted comments were able to speak on the mic directly to the committee. Because each reader was limited to three minutes, not everyone got to speak.

However, one teenager took the comment section by storm with her powerful speech. Shayla Bobin opened up about relying on the library as a young queer child who moved to Ozark County when she was 12 years old. She went on to share that realizing she liked women at age 13 brought upon shame, and that reading books at the Ozark Dale County Library widened her perspective as a person coming to terms with herself.

“One of these books is just a girl talking to her mom about maybe liking a girl,” she said. “Maybe if I would have been able to find things like that when I was younger, I wouldn’t have tried to kill myself at 15.”

At the end of her speech, she said, “Don’t say you’re protecting the kids unless you’re willing to protect all of us, including the next 16-year-old who felt like I did.”

Another attendee of the special meeting was Jubal Mathis, who has been living in Ozark for five years. Mathis tells Reckon that Alabama it was “disturbing” to see even members of the board at the library speak up in favor of Blankenship’s efforts. Aside from Carroll, whom the mayor was privately messaging, Mathis names the Board of Trustees’ Secretary Christina Faulkner.

“I think there should be a process in those regards to get people removed from the board,” Mathis said. “They shouldn’t be in charge of overseeing what happens at the library if their view of books is [aligns with] right wing fascism.”

Mathis adds that he feels saddened by the mayor’s dishonesty in working behind the scenes to push his agenda forward regarding the book bans and the private texts, despite there being a formal process to book removals.

“That’s what everybody in Alabama is fighting against right now for their libraries—the ones that are under attack, and the ones that aren’t under attack will be.”

There is a City Council meeting on Sept. 15, which Kamerer says will be crucial for citizens to turn out at the meeting. Just this Monday, three Ozark City Council members spoke up against Mayor Blankenship’s efforts.

The Council President Brenda Simechak was the first of the three councilmembers to speak up. When the mayor urged residents to contact their council members to defund the Ozark Dale County Library, Simechak visited the library the next day. In a statement following her visit, she made her message to Blankenship clear: “I will not be seeking to, nor will I ever vote to defund our Ozark-Dale County public library. The government has no business censoring content in a public library.”

Following Simechak’s statements were council members Leah Harlow and Les Perault. In his statement, Councilman Perault denounced Blankenship’s idea to defund the library.

“The library serves people of all socioeconomic backgrounds, yet the people who would be hurt by this defunding of the library’s budget will be children, the elderly, and individuals who are experiencing poverty,” said Perault. “Upon my election to the City Council, I pledged to uphold the constitution. That is why It is crucial the library provides literature representing diverse experiences in our community.”

Similar efforts have been in motion in other parts of Alabama, such as the city of Prattville and Autauga County at large.

Nevertheless, Mathis feels “buoyed by the community response.” For him, seeing his community galvanize around this has sparked his desire to continue activist efforts in the city.

“Some of the best speeches were from people of color who are older, and they can remember when the library had no books that represented their race,” said Mathis, who added that on the other hand, having a mayor and a couple of supporting council members behind him who definitely are not in favor of LGBTQ being in the children’s or young adult section is more reason to act up. “Having them at the wheels behind the mechanization of power within the city, it can prove to be very dangerous. It’s a very dicey time right now. And I think the battle has really just begun.”