The censorship story I can tell you
In March 2022, Kelly Jensen of Book Riot penned a compelling article titled "The Censorship Story I Can't Tell You." Jensen's piece delved into a tale of censorship that was unraveling in Anchorage, drawing extensively from my writings and her own research. She also provided vivid details of her encounter with former municipal manager and make-believe library director Amy Demboski, who obstructed the release of library-related documents by demanding an outrageous fee of $940 for a public records request.
More than a year has passed, and I figured it was about time to swing back around and dive into the Bronson administration's years-long assault on the Anchorage Public Library. Join me as I recount the things you knew—and spill the tea on things you didn't.
And So It Begins
Public libraries, designed as neutral havens of knowledge for all people, have become new arenas where conservative extremists wage their political battles. They view libraries as vulnerable battlegrounds to be won and are most eager to impose a regressive right-wing ideology on an entire community by dismantling a library's carefully curated and invaluable diverse collection of materials.
Following a razor-thin win in the 2021 mayoral election, far-right anti-LGBTQ extremist Dave Bronson was tasked with appointing a new director to lead the Anchorage Public Library. His first choice was Sami Graham, who had just lost her Anchorage school board race.
Bronson's appointment of Graham sent shockwaves through Anchorage, leaving residents, library employees, and patrons alarmed. His move was seen as a clear message that the new mayor cared little for the vital role of a public library and that he was determined to inject divisive politics into an impartial institution, with the goal of tearing it apart from within.
On July 7, 2021, I noted that while Graham boasted an impressive background in education, she lacked the necessary master's degree in library science and related work experience, rendering her ineligible to serve as the library's director. Her appointment drew immediate scorn from the Alaska Library Association (ALA), which submitted a letter to the Anchorage Assembly opposing her appointment due to her lack of qualifications for the role.
Adding to concerns about Graham's lack of qualifications were her responses to survey questions during her failed school board campaign, as featured in the right-wing rag Alaska Watchman blog, which drew intense public scrutiny.
In her survey responses, Graham had expressed opposition to transgender students participating on sports teams according to their gender identity. She also made unfounded claims that comprehensive sex education was politically motivated rather than grounded in scientific evidence. Graham said she opposed transgender students using bathrooms based on their gender identity. When asked whether she supported the use of school district resources to refer students for abortion services or distribute contraception to students, Graham responded, "No. Life begins at conception."
Graham's Save Anchorage membership also drew consternation from library staff and patrons who were concerned she was part of a hidden group whose members defamed Assembly members as being pedophiles and unabashedly espoused homophobia and transphobia. She was also among a group of Bronson loyalists who supported frequent Assembly testifier Dustin Darden's efforts to recall Anchorage Assembly members Austin Quinn-Davidson and Cameron Perez-Verdia.
Rep. Jamie Allard, who spent her time as an Anchorage Assembly member grooming her Save Anchorage minions with COVID and political misinformation, used the group to pathetically beg for emails in support of Graham's appointment. Allard later went on to use her sway over the group in an attempt to have a gender identity book hidden from public view at the public library.
Also factoring into the public's concerns about Graham's appointment was that the anti-LGBTQ hate organization, 'Parents' Rights in Education,' supported her school board campaign. The organization believes that LGBTQ+ advocates "groom preschool children at libraries" and that LGBTQ militant activism is fostered in public schools and public libraries.
Mayor Bronson agrees with the far-right organization's positions on LGBT issues, evidenced by his speaking at a November 15, 2021, Parents' Rights in Education event.
The Anchorage Assembly ultimately voted down Graham's appointment to the library on August 24, 2021. Austin Quinn-Davidson said at the time that the Assembly had received hundreds upon hundreds of emails about Graham, adding that they were all almost entirely negative.
"I haven't seen anything like that in a long time, maybe at all, with an appointee," she said.
Mayor Bronson appointed Graham as his chief of staff that same evening and issued a Trumpian-styled press release proclaiming he had delegated his authority to oversee the Anchorage Public Library to her and that Graham would hold physical offices in both the Mayor's Office and the ZJ Loussac Library.
"I've grown increasingly impressed with Sami Graham's political insight, organizational leadership, and ability to navigate complex challenges," the mayor wrote in his press release.
Anchorage Public Library Liability, Judy Eledge
As for the library, Bronson went on to appoint Judy Eledge as his second choice for its director. Like Graham, Eledge also ran for school board in 2021. At a joint campaign event, Eledge railed against transgender people in a hateful campaign speech while Graham looked on, smiling.
Knowing the Assembly would never confirm her to the director's position, Eledge resigned from the director's position on November 5, 2021, less than three months after Mayor Bronson had appointed her. He then installed Eledge in the totally made-up position of deputy director, where she continued to wreak havoc on the library and its staff.
As first reported on the Blue Alaskan, multiple longtime dedicated library staff resigned during Eledge's tenure, including collection management services coordinator Laura Baldwin. Bronson's administration also later dumbed down the educational requirements for the director's position, which no longer required a master's degree in library science.
In what turned out to be a bit of right-wing foreboding, Alaska Parents' Rights in Education moderator Annie Massie tagged Judy Eledge and Bronson's chief of staff Sami Graham in a Facebook post that contained a list of books she said identified examples of "pedophilic grooming."
Lily Spiroski, who served as the first Youth Representative for the Anchorage Assembly after being appointed to the position in 2018, resigned from the Youth Advisory Commission when election fraud conspiracy theorist Kelly Tshibaka's daughter Denali, put forward a project aimed at censoring "inappropriate" LGBTQ literature from the Anchorage Public Library's young adult and children sections.
Spiroski, who is non-binary, wrote in their resignation letter that the atmosphere of the Youth Commission had become too "hostile and unwelcoming" for them to continue serving.
Former municipal manager Amy Demboski added an additional title to her resume on January 12, 2022, when she took control of the public library and anointed herself as the library's director.
Eledge ultimately resigned from the position created just for her on May 15, 2023, after secretly recorded audio revealed she had made inflammatory and racist comments—corroborating much of what I reported long ago.
On the same day as Eledge's resignation, acclaimed Alaska civil rights attorney Caitlin Shortell filed a lawsuit against the Municipality on behalf of a former public library employee who alleges they were the target of discrimination and retaliation.
I should also mention that Mayor Bronson appointed the elusive Robert Hudson to the director's position on April 25, 2022, but the dude wound up being a no-show and wouldn't talk with reporters to explain why he declined to take the job.
After all of the above madness and more than a year after resigning as Bronson's chief of staff, Graham has emerged from the shadows, only to find herself embroiled in two separate controversies related to the city's April 4 election and the Anchorage Public Library.
It's Only Election Fraud if it Doesn't Fürther us
In April, as Bronson-aligned conservatives realized they had failed to take back the Anchorage Assembly, Graham and two others, challenged the election results in support of Assembly member Christopher Constant's opponent, John Trueblood. When the challenge was dismissed, Graham and the others filed an appeal citing a new policy verbatim that had been added to the department's cybersecurity page by Bronson's IT director Marc Dahl on April 11 — just two hours prior.
The new policy was not public, meaning neither Graham nor the others could have known about it, but somehow, they were able to cite it exactly. Stay tuned for what could prove to be an interesting news cycle in the near future.
Constant Hate
While campaign sign vandalism is a frequent and almost normalized occurrence in Anchorage at this point, supporters of Trueblood's campaign took it to a whole new level, accusing Constant of peddling child pornography. Plastered on his campaign signs were photocopied pages from the teen book 'Let's Talk About It' as well as an Anchorage Daily News article about the Anchorage Library Advisory Board's (LAB) vote to refer the book to the municipal attorney for legal review, concerned it violated municipal code and state statute.
The undeniable irony of Trueblood's supporters' actions lies in the fact that if the book were child pornography, as they vehemently assert, then the individual(s) responsible for sharing the image from the book would essentially be involved in the distribution of child pornography. Lock them up?
Leading up to Constant's signs being vandalized was former Democrat turned right-wing Alaska Republican, Jay McDonald, igniting a firestorm after the Save Anchorage member spread falsehoods about the book 'Let's Talk About It' at a February 7, 2023, Anchorage School Board meeting. McDonald's misinformation about the book was regurgitated by Faux News and other right-wing news and media outlets, leading to Board members being bombarded with death threats and menacing emails from individuals in Alaska and across the country.
Having failed in his quest to get the book...that was never accessible by students...removed from the school district, McDonald now sits in the virtual battleground of social media, fearlessly wielding his keyboard—accusing leaders and elected officials within the Alaska Democratic Party of distributing castration medication to children and of actively promoting their use.
Among those named in McDonald's online tirades is state Senator Löki Gale Tobin, who he refers to as a "nut" and "total psychopath."
Collusion Delusion
Mere days after McDonald's assault on the school board, Doug Weimann, appointed to the Anchorage Library Advisory Board by Mayor Bronson, sent an email to LAB members on February 15, 2023. Weimann claimed an anonymous "parent" whom he identified in his email as being female, contacted him directly to ask about the library's process for selecting and displaying books.
The "parent" had messaged Weimann directly about the same book that had just been used to pistol whip the Anchorage School Board - the teen book 'Let's Talk About It.'
"sorry this is so graphic but it is available at the Loussac...and ASD purchased it with our taxpayer money," read the message sent directly to Weimann.
According to online filings with the Alaska Public Offices Commission, Weimann volunteered on Sami Graham's 2021 school board campaign. The documents show Graham's campaign paid Weimann a $395.00 gift for his volunteerism.
An unsurprising commonality among those directly involved in attempts to censor and/or ban 'Let's Talk About It' is that First Lady Deborah Bronson, McDonald, Graham, Eledge, and Weimann are, or at one time were, members of Mayor Dave Bronson's Save Anchorage turd.
On March 10, 2023, Weimann sent an email to LAB's members, including municipal attorney Anne Helzer. Weimann claimed in his email that many parents would find 'Let's Talk About It' "porn and not suitable for their teens." He fearmongered that the book likely violated a state criminal statute that prohibits the electronic distribution of indecent material to minors.
"I'm formally requesting a legal review of this graphic novel by the city's attorney, and have included her in this email. Have we broken any laws? Are we currently breaking the law? Again, what are the liability risk for the Municipal Library," the IGNITE teacher wrote.
At that week's library advisory board meeting, Weimann aggressively pushed the advisory board to vote to refer the book for legal review. Weimann got his way in a 3-2 vote, with the conservative majority, including the mayor's wife, First Lady Deborah Bronson, voting to ignore the library's reconsideration process and send the book to the municipal attorney.
Municipal attorney Anne Helzer refused to judge the book by its cover, however, as LAB did not follow the standard process for reviewing library materials. Who could have ever seen that coming?
As a result, Graham was forced to come out from behind the shadows and file a formal request for reconsideration against the book, which she did on March 25, 2023. Graham called for the library to monitor who was borrowing the book, arguing that patrons under the age of sixteen should be prohibited from accessing it.
An Ad Hoc Review Committee comprised of three librarians was convened to consider Graham's censorship request and found that while not to everyone's taste, the book is appropriate for ages 14-18, depending on a teen's maturity.
"The library's Collection Management policy is applied equally to materials for children. The library believes that individuals may reject for themselves and their children and only their children materials that they find unsuitable. The responsibility for the reading, viewing, and listening choices of minors rests with their parents or legal guardians."
The Ad Hoc Review Committee's findings coincide with a line in the Library Bill of Rights which reads, "A person's right to use a library should not be denied or abridged because of origin, age, background, or views."
Graham went on to appeal the committee's findings to the library director, who also determined that the book was correctly categorized.
LAB's conservative members, in their attempt to censor 'Let's Talk About It,' ended up being outmaneuvered by the Anchorage Assembly, which quickly amended an ordinance to clarify the Board's role was purely advisory and lacked the authority to override the decisions of qualified library employees. After all, advisory boards are meant to provide advice, not engage in censorship. It's absurd to think that politically appointed volunteers, aligned with an embarrassing extremist mayor, should have the authority to censor any book.
Despite failed attempts to censor LGBT material, stifle free speech, and arrogantly dictate what you and your loved ones can read, Mayor Bronson refuses to back down from his relentless mission to dismantle the public library. Up for confirmation to the library advisory board are three more political allies of the mayor—one of them being Leigh Sloan, who supported a Change.org petition last year that sought to censor the gender-inclusive book 'Jack Not Jackie' from the public library.
Censoring and banning public library books is just wrong. Our public libraries should be vibrant, inclusive spaces that celebrate the richness found in different perspectives—not brick buildings filled with books that reflect the extremist views of a deeply unpopular mayor who is hellbent on pushing a regressive right-wing agenda on the very people he was elected to serve.
