Ousted Librarian Sues Campbell County After Pride Month, Books Controversies

Campbell County’s former public library director on Monday sued the county and six county leaders and employees – adding a second lawsuit to the 2024 action in which she accused a local family of waging a discriminatory hate campaign against her.

Filed Monday in the federal U.S. District Court of Wyoming, former Campbell County Public Library System director Terri Lesley’s new lawsuit is against the county, its board of commissioners, its library board, and six people in their individual capacities.

Those six are:

• Former Campbell County Commission Chair Del Shelstad
• Former Campbell County Commission Chair Colleen Faber
• Library Board member Sage Bear
• Library Board member Charles Butler
• Library Board member Chelsie Collier,
• And former Library Board member Darcie Lyon.

Lesley’s complaint, submitted via her attorneys Qusair Mohamedbhai, Iris Halpern, Azra Taslimi and Stephanie Wise, accuses the county boards of violating federal employment discrimination laws. It claims the county and all the individuals listed retaliated against Lesley for her alliance with LGBTQ causes and for voicing protected free speech and favored Christianity in their governance.

The complaint claims the individuals sued essentially bullied Lesley, cheating her of equal treatment, for her LGBTQ advocacy.

Loud Few Years

Lesley was fired in July of 2023 after years of sparring with Campbell County officials and residents over sexual-themed and/or LGBTQ-themed books in the children’s and young adult sections of the library. She resisted calls to move or remove books, warning of constitutional concerns.

In 2023 she sued Hugh, Susan and Kevin Bennett, a local family that formed some of her loudest opposition. That lawsuit is ongoing, after U.S. District Court Judge Alan Johnson last week ruled that half of Lesley’s claims are based on enough good legal logic to advance to the evidence-exchange phase.

Now, after following the required extra steps people have to trace to sue the government, Lesley may sue the county as well.

She’s worked for the local library system since 1996 and directed the system for about 11 years before she was fired, her complaint says.

The controversy started when the library showcased LGBTQ resources during June 2021, and deemed it “Pride Month and Rainbow Book Month,” the complaint says.

Then Commission-member Del Shelstad commented under the post, “I don’t think the County has designated Pride Month or Rainbow Book Month.

Not For Government

On June 29, Shelstad and Faber emailed Lesley to voice concerns about the LGBTQ promotion.

Shelstad said promoting certain sexual orientations isn’t the government’s place.

“I believe that teaching this kind of behavior to minors is up to the parents not the government,” he wrote, according to Lesley’s complaint. “It also suggests that we are giving special treatment to a certain group.”

Faber’s email was similar, saying, “I would like to see this type of information and topics be a discussion between parents/families,” according to the complaint.

Lesley countered, saying the promotion was meant to offer diverse opportunities to the community, for learning and reading.

The library board supported Lesley, the document says. It then consisted of Dr. Hollie Stewart, former Gillette city attorney Charlie Anderson, Miranda Miller-Finn, Nancy Stovall, and Mandy Steward.

Then-Commissioner DG Reardon told Lesley to come to the commission meeting July 7, 2021, to “help” address residents’ concerns, says the complaint.

Some residents opposed the Pride Month designation; and some argued that the LGBTQ-related books were pornographic and inappropriate.

The Bennetts were among that group. The complaint claims the members of that family and others were “virulently vilifying LGBTQ+ individuals” by invoking degrading stereotypes.

The Magician

In July 2021, the library invited a transgender magician to perform a show.

Shelstad searched the magician, found the performer was transgender, and said “Taxpayer money going to things like this only upsets the tax payers of our County more,” the complaint says.

Lesley answered that it was just a magic show and that the performer was “highly reviewed.”

County officials continued opposing the show.

On July 11, 2021, an anonymous source sent Lesley screenshots from a group chat that included Shelstad and Faber seeking to organize protests against LGBTQ related content, and the magic show, the complaint says.

Faber suggested appointing a parental review board that could remove the director if needed, the document relates.

Shelstad said the county’s goal was for “no specific groups to be recognized” and for officials to protect all people’s rights.

The magician reported receiving threats in the coming days. The show was cancelled.

Resident emails complaining of “perverted” shows and content at the library poured into county commission inboxes, the complaint says.

Book Challenges

Shelstad, Faber, Bear and Collier joined the private Facebook group Wyoming Mass Resistance, says the complaint. Mass Resistance is a socially-conservative group that works to root sexual and LGBTQ themes out of libraries.

Starting in July 2021, Lesley warned people at library board meetings that removing controversial books from the children and young adult collections “would constitute censorship and (violate) the First Amendment.”

Multiple attorneys told the board the same, the complaint says.

Lesley believed removing the controversial books would discriminate against members of the LGBTQ community.

The book challenges started pouring in on Aug. 11, 2021.

Shelstad and Faber challenged some books, as did Commissioner Bob Maul.

They all asked Lesley to remove “This Book is Gay” by Juno Dawson. That book describes the gay experience. It also gives detailed instructions on giving a good “handy” or manual sex.

Shelstad called the book “pornographic.”

Lesley reviewed but did not remove the book, the complaint says.

Residents and activists clamored louder for her termination. 

Hugh and Susan Bennett reported Lesley to the Campbell County Sheriff on Sept. 29, 2021, on the claim she was disseminating obscenity to kids, which is a felony in Wyoming.

The Campbell County Attorney brought in a special prosecutor from Weston County, who concluded that the named books weren’t obscenity, and even if they were, librarians can’t be charged with obscenity in Wyoming if they were acting within their duties.

Among the reported books was “How Do You Make A Baby,” which is written to about a second-grade level and features nude cartoon characters in full sex acts with their genitalia exposed.

More Book Challenges followed. Sometimes the library board granted people’s requests for appeal after the library would keep a contested book.

New Board

The library board saw near-complete turnover in 2022.

Shelstad texted Commissioner Rusty Bell on March 4, 2022, asking his thoughts about a newly-vacant board position, and Shelstad recommended Sage Bear, wife of Rep. John Bear, R-Gillette.

In response, Bell emailed Campbell County Deputy Attorney Emily Williams to tell her Shelstad “appeared to be violating open meeting laws,” the complaint says.

Williams emailed Shelstad guidance on library board candidate interviews, and let him know that the library invites censorship criticisms if it is moving books due to challengers’ “personal beliefs.”

She urged Shelstad against choosing applicants who will remove books for people’s personal beliefs.

Censorship litigation was “waiting in the wings on all sides (and would be) cripplingly costly, time consuming and very likely unsuccessful for the county,” wrote Williams at the time.

The complaint says that Shelstad disregarded Williams’ advice and grilled applicants about their thoughts on whether they support the American Library Association and think its practices are “a good fit for this rural Wyoming community.”

Bear was appointed to the board after calling the ALA “way more liberal than our conservative values here” and saying inappropriate books should have warning labels, the complaint says.

Bear urged Lesley to place warning signs in the library, says the complaint.

Funding Cut

Kevin Bennett asked the commission to cut the library’s funding, and the commission did, says the document. About $32,600 was withheld from the children’s section of the Campbell Branch.

The document says Kevin Bennett thanked the commission for withholding the funding. He reportedly said kids need to grow up and “be part of successful families” instead of “these rainbow lifestyles.”

Commissioners on June 20, 2022, reinstated some funds to the Wright Branch but none to the Campbell Branch in Gillette.

Miller-Finn didn’t apply for a second term on the library board, and Stovall’s two-term limit expired. Commissioners appointed Butler and Collier to fill the vacancies.

Steward then resigned, and Lyon joined the board.

The only board member remaining from the 2021 iteration of the board was Anderson.

Sex Is A Funny Word

In the fall of 2022, the complaint says, Bear sought legal opinions on changing the library’s mission statement to include the priority of “community standards.” Multiple attorneys warned the change could violate First Amendment protections, says the complaint.

The board did add the new language to its mission statement on Oct. 24, 2022.

The board also disassociated from the ALA at that time, with only Anderson voting against the break.

On June 8, 2023, the library board held a special meeting and “approved highly subjective revisions to the collection development policy,” says the complaint.

Lesley worried the criteria would be “entirely subjective” and censor LGBTQ-themed books.

At a June 26, 2023, library board meeting, some Campbell County residents complained about the book “Sex is a Funny Word” by Cory Silverberg, calling it “repulsive.”

This one was one of the ones the special prosecutor deemed not obscene. It is a comic written for 8- to 11-year-olds, which discusses gender and sexual identity, attraction, sex, masturbation and consent. It is LGBTQ-affirming. It depicts and describes female and male genitalia with text and cartoon pictures. 

The book instructs children that if someone has been touching their sexual organs but coercing them not to tell anyone about it, they need to tell someone about it.   

Silverberg’s book also depicts (though not graphically) a cartoon character who is 8-and-a-half-years-old, masturbating in a bathtub.   

“You may have discovered that touching some parts of your body, especially the middle parts, can make you feel warm and tingly,” the book reads. “Grown-ups call this kind of touch masturbation. Masturbation is when we touch ourselves, usually our middle parts, to get that warm and tingly feeling.”   

Get A New Job

Bear pressured Lesley to move “certain books that are pretty obvious;” the “egregious stuff,” “That’s easily meant for an adult audience” and “sexually explicit,” the complaint says.

Lesley refused. She said it would violate the First Amendment and discriminate against people.

“Well, if that’s the way you feel then I feel like you should find another job,” Bear answered, according to the document.

Collier also voiced support for purging the library collection of undesirable books.

Bear urged for the removal of Ellen Hopkins book “Tricks,” in which a character who is a high school junior describes letting a man perform anal sex on him in exchange for money.

“Oh! Nothing has ever felt so good. Exquisite. Exquisite,” says the character in the scene. “No! I won’t. No matter what, I won’t. This isn’t me. I’m only here for Mom. Cory. I won’t! But I do. And when I do, it’s over the top.”

The book ends with Cody nearly dead in a hospital after a jealous boyfriend walks in on a threesome involving Cody, a male client and a female prostitute. The boyfriend beats Cody senseless.

Lesley told Bear at the time that “Tricks” was specially meant for young adults, and that limiting it to the adult collection only because of its content would violate the First Amendment. She warned the county could be sued if it didn’t “follow a structure” with its book relocations.

The board fired Lesley four days later.

Extreme Stress

Lesley’s complaint says that she’s suffered from anxiety, insomnia, and extreme stress. The defendants have made the last two years of her life “pure hell,” the complaint says.

Having gotten her master’s degree in library science to move up in the local library system, she’s been “unable to recover analogous employment in the field she dedicated her career to and loved,” says the document.

The county commission did not respond to a request for comment. Bear, Collier and Butler declined to comment on legal advice. Lyon could not be reached by publication time. Faber and Shelstad did not respond to a request for comment.

Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.