Voters in a small Iowa city will decide in November whether to give their City Council more say over what books the public library can and can't offer. A ballot proposition in Pella, a community of about 10,500 residents in central Iowa, asks voters if they support changing the structure of the Pella Public Library Board of Trustees. The change would limit the board's authority over the library and give the City Council more control over library policies and decisions. The effort follows attempts by some community members two years ago to ban or restrict access to Maia Kobabe's LGBTQ+ memoir Gender Queer at the library. The library board had voted to keep the book. The present referendum would make the library board an advisory committee that makes recommendations to the City Council, with no formal authority. The referendum comes amid a push in conservative-led states and communities to ban books. Such efforts have largely focused on keeping certain types of books out of school libraries, but the American Library Association said they now extend just as much to public libraries. Referendum supporters say the changes would give taxpayers more say in how public money is spent. They frame the proposal as a way to keep material they view as pornographic and harmful away from children. #Queer Up Education