Legal fight over Gillette librarian’s firing expands as Wyoming lawmakers weigh action
FROM WYOFILE:
A former library official is pushing back against the political forces that ended her decades-long career, as the Legislature enters the debate over library books.
A former library official is pushing back against the political forces that ended her decades-long career in the Campbell County Public Library system, bringing her second of two federal lawsuits this month, accusing local government and an activist family of discrimination and wrongful termination.
The Campbell County Public Library System Board of Trustees fired Terri Lesley from her job in July 2023, after the director of the county library system resisted calls to censure books dealing with questions of sexuality among teens and young adults, particularly LGBTQ+ youth.
Two months after her firing, Lesley sued members of a family, the Bennetts, who had prominently advocated for her removal as library director. This week, she brought a new federal lawsuit against the county, its board of commissioners, the library board and individual members of both government boards. The new suit accuses local officials of violating the First Amendment’s right to free speech and firing Lesley in a retaliatory and discriminatory way.
Sage Bear, who sits on the library board and is the wife of House Appropriations Chairman and Wyoming Freedom Caucus leader John Bear, is one of the defendants. Lesley’s lawsuit alleges Sage Bear played a key role in driving the librarian from her job.
By text message, Rep. Bear said he believed his wife had been counseled not to comment by her attorneys. WyoFile reached out to the private attorneys on both sides of Lesley’s lawsuits, including her Denver-based law firm, but did not receive responses by day’s end Wednesday.
A representative for the Campbell County Attorney’s office said it was too early for the agency to comment on the lawsuit against the county, which was filed Monday. Court records indicate the county has yet to be served with the lawsuit.
Lesley notched a legal victory in her first lawsuit earlier this month, as U.S. District Court of Wyoming Judge Alan Johnson ruled that half of her claims against the Bennetts can proceed to trial. He also tossed a motion for dismissal.
Both lawsuits come as the Wyoming Freedom Caucus, which controls the House, promises to thrust the Legislature into the debate over library books. The Legislature’s Joint Judiciary Committee has taken on the state’s obscenity laws as a topic to study from now until the 2026 legislative session, and conservative lawmakers will likely push for laws banning books that discuss sexuality from libraries where they can be accessed by minors.
Librarian directors from around the state opposed a bill along those lines during the most recent legislative session. The House Judiciary Committee ultimately tabled that bill, electing to study it between sessions.
Lesley’s firing marked the culmination of two years of fierce political debate in Campbell County, during which Lesley became a target of activists opposed to LGBTQ+ literature for young people in public libraries.
Those activists, namely the Bennett family, called for Lesley to be fired and even pressed the Campbell County District Attorney’s Office to charge her for providing obscene material to minors, according to the longer-running lawsuit, which Lesley filed in September 2023. It names as defendants Kevin, Hugh and Susan Bennett.
Prosecutors declined to bring charges after conducting what they described as an extensive review of state statutes. The county attorney found that the books in question did not meet the statute’s definition of obscene materials, which requires sexual content to also lack “serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value.”
WyoFile reached Kevin Bennett by phone on Wednesday, and he declined to comment.
In their response to Lesley’s lawsuit, an attorney for the Bennetts says they were exercising their own free speech rights and were not responsible for firing Lesley.
Policy debate
The Joint Judiciary Committee, which meets next month for the first time since the conclusion of the 2025 legislative session, does not have a set direction when it comes to the obscenity law topic, House chairman Art Washut, R-Casper, told WyoFile. The committee might pursue a change to criminal statutes as outlined in this year’s failed bill, or seek to “compel school districts and library boards to certify compliance in some way,” he wrote in a text message.
“It is wide open at this point, but there was strong support to rein in the idea that open access of all materials to kids is appropriate,” Washut wrote.
Conservatives are trying to outlaw LGBTQ+ material under the guise of protecting children, said Sara Burlingame, executive director of gay-rights advocacy group Wyoming Equality. Library books that describe the experience of LGBTQ+ youth carry immense value to young people grappling with their emerging sexuality, she said, particularly in Wyoming’s rural communities and small towns.
“Wyoming Equality supports the freedom to access books for the public,” she said. “Anything that reinforces that the public is made up of a diverse group of individuals which includes gay, lesbian, Two Spirit and transgender people, that has to be fought for over and over again.”
The drive to create new laws targeting certain books was irreconcilable with American democratic ideals, she said. Any effort to stand up to that, like Lesley’s lawsuit, was cheered by Wyoming Equality, she said.
“People keep waiting for what the line is, and when they’re coming for books, that’s it,” she said. “That’s your cue. That’s the line.”
In the crosshairs after a long career
According to her lawsuit, Lesley spent 27 years working for the library system, and 11 as its director. “In 2021, however, the highly politicized vilification of LGBTQ+ communities and book-banning craze engulfing the country landed on her doorstep, with grave consequences,” her attorneys wrote.
Bigotry, not genuine concern for young people, drove Campbell County activists to push Lesley out of her job, and local officials abetted them instead of standing firm for free speech and equal rights, the lawsuit alleged.
In June, which is Pride Month, of that year, the library system made a Facebook post celebrating Rainbow Book Month — an initiative of the American Library Association, which describes it as a “nationwide celebration” of books reflecting the lives and experiences of LGBTQ+ people. That post caught the attention of two then-county commissioners, Del Shelstad and Colleen Faber, who are both defendants in this week’s lawsuit.
According to the suit, Shelstad said the county commission had not recognized Pride Month, though it is a national celebration and President Joe Biden had recognized it that year. Shelstad and Faber did not respond to WyoFile messages requesting comment.
After that, library books became a topic of frequent discussion at Campbell County Commission meetings. Hugh Bennett suggested promoting Pride Month was “the ground game of an attempt to destroy our culture and our country,” while Kevin Bennett said exposing young people to questions of sexuality was “pedophilic” and would drive increases in drug addiction and suicide, according to the complaint.
“The Bennetts and other activist residents voiced explicit anti-LGBTQ+ rationales for their requests to remove books, virulently vilifying LGBTQ+ individuals,” the lawsuit read.
At another meeting, former lawmaker Scott Clem, who is now on the Campbell County Commission, said the library was “promoting the basest of base things in our society,” the complaint read, and urged the county not to “promote animalistic behaviors.”
In 2021, the library board backed Lesley, supporting her efforts to promote Rainbow Book Month, according to the lawsuit.
Lesley’s hiring of a magician further inflamed Campbell County’s conservatives. The magician, who was hired to perform shows at the Wright and Gillette branches, is transgender, though her gender identity was not part of her planned act, which was instead a simple magic show for children. The show did not touch on LGBTQ+ issues at all, the magician said at the time, and Lesley has said the performer was not hired because she was transgender.
Library staff did not in fact know the magician was transgender until someone in Campbell County dug into her background, according to the lawsuit. But Shelstad, Clem and others fixated on the magician’s gender identity, according to the lawsuit.
Eventually, the magician cancelled the shows, citing safety concerns.
Controversy, then firing
Throughout 2021 and 2022, the Bennetts and others sought to get some books removed from the library or move them into a certain area inaccessible to minors. Lesley and the library board continued to rebuff those efforts, saying it would be illegal censorship.
Over time, however, the county commission replaced the library board with people, like Sage Bear, who were more determined to censor certain books, and who opposed Lesley’s stance. In March 2022, a deputy county attorney sought to warn Shelstad that appointing a board with the goal of removing LGBTQ-friendly books and firing Lesley could expose the county to a lawsuit.
“Litigation regarding censorship — which is waiting in the wings on all sides — would be cripplingly costly, time consuming, and very likely unsuccessful for the County,” the attorney wrote, according to a copy of her email included in the lawsuit.
But by July 2023, the board was dominated by people opposed to Lesley’s actions, and she was fired in a 4-1 vote. At the board’s request, her replacement created a special section in the library for the challenged books, according to the lawsuit.
Lesley’s lawsuits have the support of the Wyoming Library Association, which represents the state’s librarians. “Terri dedicated her career to providing library services to her community,” the group’s president, Lindsey Travis, wrote in a statement to WyoFile.
Wyoming libraries do not hold materials that are legally considered obscene, Travis said, and “we believe that only parents and guardians have the right to decide what materials are best for their own children.”
Travis hopes Lesley’s lawsuit will get the attention of the state’s politicians, she said, and “encourage lawmakers to better understand the purpose of their local libraries, to see how libraries hold essential roles in their communities, and to support the ways libraries and librarians uphold the tenets of the First Amendment.”
WyoFile is an independent nonprofit news organization focused on Wyoming people, places and policy.
This story was posted on April 24, 2025.