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Originally published in Antigravity Magazine June Issue 2025
In February 2023, a private detective was on a mission to find where Livingston Parish librarians were stashing their porn. He was hired to do so by parish Councilman Garry Talbert—who was running for office in the Louisiana House of Representatives that year. The following week, then-Library Director Giovanni Tairov was grilled by Councilman Talbert, who revealed the detective was in fact able to “easily” access porn on the library’s computers—he just had to break library policy by getting past firewalls and using third-party sites, a task the councilman believed was simple enough for a child.
The inciting incident occurred in July of the previous year when a right-wing activist named Michael Lunsford appeared in a library board meeting and accused the library of putting “porn” in the children’s section. The book in question was Dating and Sex: A Guide for the 21st Century Teen Boy, which was in the nonfiction teen section. But also on the agenda for the night was a topic called “book content,” which was added by then-Library Board of Control member Erin Sandefur, who is an ally of Lunsford. She wanted to challenge eight books. Librarian Amanda Jones spoke out against book bans that night. The speech was meant to call forth the humanity within the library board members, hoping to impart upon them the importance of people seeing themselves in the literature around them. She sought to solicit within their hearts and minds the idea that those different from them could potentially see the removal of a book as a desire to remove them from society. But that plea for humanity acted as a call-to-arms, ushering in a wave of harassment and even death threats for years to come, as the educator was marred with accusations of pedophilia, instigated by Lunsford and Ryan Thames on Facebook. Though Jones’ treatment garnered headlines, the seemingly endless social media pile-ons impacted library board members and the system’s leadership as well. The situation continued to escalate until reasonable voices on the library board were fired without cause and replaced by far-right activists. In January 2025, the new far-right board voted to have 30,000 titles removed from Livingston Parish Library YA shelves, pending review.
This partisan upheaval within the Livingston Parish library system is typical of the culture wars being fought on the battlefields of Louisiana’s libraries, but if you were to trace the strife among the stacks to a single origin, you’d arrive at the group known as Citizens for a New Louisiana (CFNL). Their goal? They want to take over every single library board in the state. Speculation isn’t needed when the group often boasts on social media posts what they’ve been involved in, like when they celebrated the firings of the Livingston Library workers with the hashtag “#winning.” Following the resignation of Library Director Tairov, one of CFNL’s posts stated, “Thanks to our work, on 6 March 2023, both [Tairov] and his assistant director resigned.” This “work” included several blog and social media posts that portrayed library leadership as pushing “erotica” on children, along with a shaky retelling of an occasion in which a nine-year-old allegedly stumbled upon racy films on Kanopy. However, libraries don’t curate the content on the film app, and there are parental controls, including parental PIN number protections.
In another post, CFNL takes credit for shoring up gains in Lafayette, Livingston, and St. Tammany parishes. The environments they are taking credit for being complicit in include meetings in Lafayette where attendees who disagreed with the far-right library board were removed by police. In St. Tammany Parish, Governor Jeff Landry held a rally in 2023 where he (as Louisiana attorney general at the time) rolled out his book snitch-line, leading to applause from a raucous crowd—a sight that Mel Manuel, member of the Louisiana Democratic State Central Committee who was in attendance at the time, compared to witnessing the formation of a fourth Reich. That same year, a trans teen fell victim to a hate crime—a sign they drew, reading “Ban Hate Not Books,” was burned, along with the mural of their sibling that was underneath it.
Michael Lunsford, the executive director of CFNL, has been the central figure in the library culture wars. Lunsford, according to an anonymous source, is paid to “just cause chaos… I’ve heard some radical people pay him to create radical problems.” And with that money Lunsford is paid, he aims to grow his ranks. He released a call-to-arms in one of CFNL’s newsletters: “Donald Trump isn’t coming to fight the woke mobs at the state and local level. That’s our job… Who will fill public library boards with Christian Conservatives?” For Lunsford, the answer seems to be CFNL.
According to a different anonymous source who is intimately familiar with state Republican politics, CFNL influences at least 10 legislators, where previously it had been as little as three: “[CFNL] makes [the legislature] more toxic because they attack any effort to be reasonable.” By this logic, CFNL sees more of an enemy in moderate Republicans than Democrats. “I think they want a world where the public is forced into choosing between far-right candidates versus far-left candidates.” One of the purposes of attacking Republicans as opposed to Democrats is to frame Republicans willing to stray from party orthodoxy, no matter how reasonable, as “RINOs” (Republican in Name Only) so that Republican voters can primary them out of office in favor of a more extreme candidate. This pushes the party further to the right.
The state officials that CFNL align with sometimes join in with the bullying practices. The husband of state Rep. Kellee Dickerson, Scott Dickerson, told a Livingston library board member that she was just a “spec of crap” [sic] and “meaningless,” adding “You wish you could be the person she is [Rep. Kellee Dickerson],” amongst other things. According to Amanda Jones, Victoria “Tori” Hymel, a legislative assistant of state Sen. Valarie Hodges and former library board member, was working to get her fired over a reading curriculum she created. Both Sen. Hodges and Rep. Dickerson represent Livingston Parish.
On the local level, much of CFNL’s influence is exerted from the background. But there are clear signs of their involvement beyond a bevy of social media posts. When speaking to Lynette Mejia, co-founder of Louisiana Citizens Against Censorship, she said that she’d caught wind that CFNL would be making moves on Terrebonne Parish. Around that same time, there were nine book challenges raised by a group called We the People Bayou Community. It is common practice on the right for more well-funded right-wing groups to train local conservative activists, who then start their own organizations. CFNL’s behind-the-scenes activity is something Lunsford relishes—he calls the meetings he takes with his political allies “secret lunches” and gloats over skirting public records laws. CFNL often partners with other groups. For example, on the Facebook page of Concerned Citizens of St. Tammany (CCST), you can see a photo of Lunsford and the leader of CCST shaking hands, with a caption reading, “The two organizations have been working together behind the scenes… This creates perhaps the most powerful non-profit alliance in the State of Louisiana.”
Their main tactics on the local level tend to be “information campaigns,” and their hit pieces and memes often present distortions as facts. Most recently in St. Tammany, CFNL exacerbated Republican infighting with leaked audio. Republican Jeff Corbin, vice chair of the St. Tammany Parish Council, was on leaked audio saying he didn’t want “our [library] board to turn into Lafayette,” due to the extremists. CFNL’s post framed the comment as him saying he didn’t want any Christian conservatives on the board at all. The person who recorded Corbin told NOLA.com that the recording was only given to his lawyer.
In most cases, whenever library board meetings are held, there are usually more library supporters than there are detractors. But CFNL’s aim is to apply pressure to officials and not necessarily appease the entire parish. The outrage is then used to lobby challenges to the council members who won’t appease conservative activists. When this happened in Lafayette, CFNL bragged about having seven of eight members of the council booted out of office at that time, a shake-up that led to the appointment of multiple far-right activists to the library board, like Robert Judge. While president of the board, Judge blamed a mother for her queer child’s suicide on LinkedIn. Aimee Robinson, an activist from Lafayette, said Judge, who is currently the defendant in a First Amendment lawsuit, has been the most destructive force to the library system. The system removed all cultural displays, and they had (until recently) slow-walked the construction of a library in Lafayette’s majority Black northside. North Lafayette is the only part of Lafayette without a public library, according to Mejia. Judge’s CFNL counterpart in Livingston Parish is Larry Davis. Davis recently posted an “Appeal to Heaven” flag on his Facebook page, which is a flag associated with the Christian Nationalist movement. Both U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito caused controversy for flying the flags outside of their office and home, respectively.
Judge’s and Davis’ abrasive personalities work well for the shock and awe CFNL tends to employ. CFNL’s tactics partly have their roots in Foundation for Applied Conservative Leadership (FACL) training, an activist organization that teaches attendees that the best way to get results is to distort facts, intimidate, and inflict pain upon others. In particular, the organization teaches you to use those tactics against fellow Republicans. One attendee to a FACL course decried the class in an op-ed as not being Christian or conservative for those aforementioned reasons. A flier shows that Michael Lunsford and CFNL member Matthew Thomassee held a seminar with FACL, purporting to teach attendees how to get politicians to fear them. These types of tactics are detailed in a right-wing activist curriculum book which contains transcripts from a class held by the FACL founder. There are sections that mirror tactics CFNL has used, like teaching right-wing activists the formula to pick the best political fight—also known as Red Fox Four—and how to perform “street theater” to make the news and get attention. They put these tactics to use at the Capitol and locally.
According to a source within the state legislature, “They’re at the Capitol… spying on [lawmakers]… taking pictures with long-range lenses and taping conversations… But they’re also part of a network of these small groups and they basically are coordinating to make it look like there’s more political will for their crazy ideas than there actually is.” CFNL is not shy about using their private investigators (PIs) either. According to multiple sources, CFNL had one of their “secret” PIs trailing a former Lafayette official who was pregnant at the time and working on a tax initiative that CFNL was trying to defeat.
You don’t even need to be an elected official to gain CFNL’s ire. Just ask activists who have crossed Lunsford. Aimee Robinson’s husband works at a bakery. “[Lunsford] often gets items from the bakery and every time he makes sure to send a message to my husband in the back that it’s him ordering.” Lunsford held Lynette Mejia’s address up to the camera in one of his videos, and in one post, he describes her car. In another video, a framed photo of Mejia and Amanda Jones can be seen in the background.
CFNL evolved from the Facebook group Lafayette Citizens Against Taxes in 2018, and was reportedly funded by undisclosed “business people and property owners in Lafayette Parish.” Aimee Robinson stated, “I tried warning the community about [Lunsford] in 2017, and here we are.” CFNL has the veneer of something organic and homegrown but a further look shows that two of the people behind the organization, Lunsford and Chris Comeaux, have started similar groups before, with one being Policies for Louisiana’s Future, a group created to defeat a 2017 school tax election.
According to Robinson, CFNL is “definitely an offshoot” of the Tea Party movement. This movement can be seen as a precursor to the contemporary “culture wars” and radicalization of the American right. Giving credence to Robinson’s claim is that Jeremiah Supple, a major CFNL and Republican donor, was the leader of the Lafayette Tea Party. In addition, Comeaux’s company has worked with Republican campaigns before. Both Lunsford and Comeaux have a relationship with U.S. Representative Clay Higgins, who has called for the eradication of secular public libraries. Comeaux was Higgins’ campaign manager in 2016.
Lunsford, who plays the role of concerned citizen, placed himself in the middle of Lafayette affairs at a time when the party was split into moderate and far-right factions. Since then, he has had a noticeable impact on the local GOP. One local political observer says that Lunsford’s decision to not get involved in the 2023 Mayor-President election played a factor in who won.
Lunsford notably does not live in Lafayette, and was the chairman and at-large member of the St. Martin Parish GOP at one point. Adding to his political resume, he was chosen by then-Attorney General Jeff Landry as an appointee to the state Voting System Commission, though his only qualification appears to be attendance at a cybersecurity symposium hosted by Mike “My Pillow” Lindell (which came after then-AG Landry accused CFNL of dragging him into “political garbage”). Lunsford has boasted of taking meetings with advisors of Governor Landry to discuss bills, and in 2020, spoke of a “secret” meeting he had with the then-state House speaker, who he claims reached out to him.
It’s likely owed to Lunsford’s and Comeaux’s connections that the group was able to spend roughly $21,000 on ads to defeat a tax initiative in 2018. Roughly $17,750 went to Brave New Television, which is owned by Comeaux. In fact, it was an infusion of cash—which looks like CFNL paid itself—that got Lunsford under an ethics investigation for violating their nonprofit status by participating in political activity, which he was later cleared of. However, the transaction looked suspicious, according to a political consultant Lafayette-area nonprofit news outlet The Current talked to. “They are saying they gave themselves $21,000… No, someone gave the group $21,000… By filing paperwork with the state Ethics Board in the first place, [Lunsford is] admitting that [CFNL is] in essence, a PAC.” According to The Current, CFNL took in over $130,000 in 2018, from six undisclosed individuals. By 2019 they were attracting the presence of local office candidates to fundraisers, showing a growth in influence. According to their newsletter, their events have been sponsored by campaigns for Clay Higgins, Bill Cassidy, and more. CFNL’s establishment within the larger Christian Nationalist movement can be seen through the endorsements they sport on their website—one of them being The Heritage Foundation’s president, Kevin Roberts, a Lafayette native. Heritage was the lead organizing group for Project 2025. According to Mejia, Roberts’ uncle was former library board member David Pitre. Pitre, according to Mejia, was integral in the board’s decision to leave the American Library Association.
CFNL’s inciting incident to go wholeheartedly after libraries after only focusing on taxes was Drag Queen Story Hour in 2018, organized by Aimee Robinson and others. CFNL organized a petition that by 2019 got 1,600 signatures. Robinson, however, believes that isn’t entirely true, saying the petition only got about half what was claimed. According to her, there were duplicate names and people who didn’t live in the parish listed. Robinson made sure to tell me that Lunsford would call protests and get people to show up, but he never showed himself. Regardless, CFNL was integral in 2019 in having library funding slashed by $10 million. Robinson shared that she always thought Lunsford and CFNL was funded by “someone bigger.”
According to a source close to the Republican party, businessman and GOP “kingmaker” Lane Grigsby paid Lunsford about $40,000 a year to be full-time leader of CFNL. Grigsby isn’t the only Louisiana GOP megadonor who has given money to CFNL. Outside of Jeremiah Supple and Grigsby, Will Mills, a real estate developer like Supple, has been confirmed as a donor. Mills is also listed as an officer in CFNL. Both Grigsby and Mills were chosen to be on Governor Landry’s constitutional convention committee, showing the nexus of power in the state is not far from CFNL. Another prominent member of the group is Jill Hines, a CFNL board member and a conspicuous anti-vaxxer. Public records show that Hines worked closely alongside the attorney general’s office in 2021 to have religious exemptions implemented for COVID vaccines. Hines even recommended an anti-vaxx doctor, Peter McCullough, as a potential witness to help garner support for religious exemptions.
CFNL has a “team” of seven, including three people with private investigative backgrounds. One is Jamie Pope, who sources say is Lunsford’s right-hand woman. The other two are “secret” private investigators, listed as Matt and Ryan.
According to Lynette Mejia, “It’s a coordinated effort across the state… involving the legislature and the governor.” We can look to Livingston to show how their collusion with the state government has impacted law. In a leaked recording, several voices can be heard in a CFNL “secret” luncheon, hoping that they weren’t being recorded. It is from this meeting we see the collusion of local politicians, state lawmakers, and activists. Photos confirmed that at this meeting were three library board members, two parish council members, two legislative aides, and one person on the parish planning commission. Also in attendance was anti-library conspiracy theorist Dan Kleinman.
It has not been uncommon for CFNL associates to walk into legislative hearings with lawmakers’ aides and the lawmakers. Rep. Kellee Dickerson, Larry Davis, and Livingston Parish Councilwoman Erin Sandefur were together for HB 777, where Davis cut off lawmakers every chance he could. The lawmakers are also chummy with the CFNL associates. Photos taken from social media show Sen. Valarie Hodges smiling in a group photo along with Larry Davis, at what appears to be a Christmas party. More evidence that the relationship between the officials and activists is more than friendly is that there have been several instances of suggestions from right-wing activists that were written into a bill. The bill that would have led to the arrest of librarians was introduced not long after the lunch meeting with Dan Kleinman that was recorded.
Over the past 14 months more has come to light than can be shared in one story—tales of anger and frustration, fear and disillusionment. Officials and politically connected people either did not want to go on the record, or rejected responding to questioning altogether. But average everyday citizens have not backed down.
Amanda Jones’ defamation suit against Michael Lunsford and Ryan Thames won an appeal at the Louisiana Supreme Court, and will move forward. Jones’ latest legal action was against Dan Kleinman. Kleinman’s attempt to confront Jones at a library board meeting in New Jersey backfired, because there was no real event for Jones. Kleinman was lured there in order to be served papers, and is being sued in Louisiana and New Jersey. He can be heard screaming, “What the fuck!” in the meeting recording. In addition, Jones was made the center figure of a documentary by Sarah Jessica Parker. After much drama, the Livingston Parish Council gutted the entire board to start fresh, renominating new board members. This process left the more extreme members off the board.
Multiple sources believe that Lunsford is losing steam after being stretched too thin for too long. Mejia noted that there is one perk to her library system being destroyed, and it’s knowing the playbook: “We can warn people ahead of time.” Lunsford attempted to take the CFNL show to Ruston, says Mejia, but was fended off. “They met him at the door, basically. He talked at the library board meeting… there was a whole crowd of people there… he was run out of Ouachita Parish.”
The thing that sustains the citizens working to protect libraries despite this uphill battle are all the things that Amanda Jones tried to impress upon library board members that July night that would change her life: They are meant for everyone. Libraries are storehouses for vast knowledge. Within that knowledge is a capacity to understand not only the world around you, but your fellow man. That’s what book banners want to take away: not just access to knowledge that goes against their worldview, but the ability to empathize. Activists like Mejia let that desire for empathy and inclusivity fuel her—along with stubbornness, she added.
That stubbornness is partly what led to seven of the nine anti-library bills filed in the state legislature in 2024 being defeated, after over 42,000 emails were sent due to an email writing campaign.
No bills impacting libraries were filed for the 2025 legislative session.
illustrations by Anneliese DePano