Book will not be banned in Carver County

Carver County's library board voted unanimously to keep the graphic novel "Gender Queer: a Memoir" on the shelves after dozens of people condemned a request to remove the coming-of-age story from the shelves.

About 75 people packed a basement conference room Tuesday afternoon for the meeting. Board president Charles Teh joked that the turnout for the late afternoon meeting is usually not so large.

"It's been an enlightening and interesting journey for the last month," Teh said, as uproar built around the request.

More than 20 people spoke, all in favor of keeping the book.

Liya Oertel of Chaska said people are free to not read books they find objectionable.

"Just because you don't like something does not mean you get to decide for others. This is not the Soviet Union," she said.

Darcie Baumann of Waconia said she wanted to keep the book on the shelves but said she appreciated the opportunity for discussion.

"The more we bring up our objections the more we can learn about each other," she said.

The library board also received numerous emails, library director Jodi Edstrom said — all in favor of keeping "Gender Queer" in the county libraries.