Final summer season, Greenville County Libraries (SC) voted to take away all books about trans individuals or with trans themes from younger grownup areas of their public libraries and relocate them to the grownup assortment. This got here simply months after the board made the identical determination about trans books within the youth part. These choices meant nobody beneath the age of 18 would have entry to searching age-appropriate books with trans or gender nonconforming content material with out specific parental permission.
These was removed from the primary brushes with ebook censorship in Greenville Libraries, which serve essentially the most populated county within the state. Dozens of books have been faraway from the libraries as properly, practically all of which characteristic LGBTQ+ themes. The 59 banned titles–all of which may be seen right here–have been obtainable in youth, younger grownup, and grownup sections of the library. A minimum of 50 of the books banned have been on the behest of the Greenville County Republican Girls’s Membership.
This week, 4 minor library patrons and their dad and mom filed a lawsuit towards Greenville County for systematically focusing on LGBTQ+ literature within the library. The plaintiffs are being supported within the case by the American Civil Liberties Union, in addition to the ACLU of South Carolina.
The lawsuit, filed within the U.S. District Court docket for the District of South Carolina, focuses on the county’s insurance policies and the way they’ve deliberately led to the removing or restriction of LGBTQ+ supplies. By encouraging such censorship, the county is infringing on plaintiffs’ First and Fourteenth Modification rights.
“Greenville County cannot censor our public libraries merely because its officials find certain materials politically, morally, or religiously objectionable,” Allen Chaney, Authorized Director for the ACLU of South Carolina, mentioned in a press launch. “After years of public advocacy against these discriminatory actions, we must now rely on the courts to vindicate a simple truth: the constitution protects everyone, including LGBTQ people.”
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A number of particular titles have been named within the lawsuit as books deliberately faraway from juvenile cabinets as a result of their LGBTQ+ content material. Amongst them are Hocus and Pocus and the Spell for Residence by A.R. Capetta, The Cardboard Kingdom by Chad Promote, Using Freedom by Pam Muñoz Ryan, and Snapdragon by Kat Leyh. All of those are written for younger readers, however Greenville’s coverage requires that every one supplies with “illustrations, themes, or story lines [that] affirm, portray, or discuss changing the appearance of a minor’s gender in ways inconsistent with the minor’s biological sex” or with “illustrations, themes, or storylines that celebrate, portray, or affirm gender transitioning” be reclassified and relocated.
The Cardboard Kingdom, for instance, has been moved from juvenile cabinets to a brand new location and reclassification as “Juvenile Parenting.” Related titles with out queer illustration, equivalent to Narwhal and Jelly, can be found proper on juvenile cabinets.
Relocation of LGBTQ+ supplies hasn’t been restricted to trans and gender nonconforming content material. Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda, written for teenagers and that includes a homosexual most important character, isn’t obtainable within the teen sections of the Greenville library. It’s cataloged and shelved with grownup fiction.
Such restrictions are an added barrier to entry, particularly provided that the Greenville Library System already permits dad and mom to decide on a stage of entry to supplies for his or her kids through leveled library playing cards.
“For years, the library board has tried to censor patrons’ access to diverse stories,” mentioned Stephen Shelato, co-founder of Freedom in Libraries Advocacy Group (FLAG).“Local parents believe that exposure to diverse stories is healthy and developmentally appropriate, but board members have repeatedly chosen instead to follow the demands of a loud minority of activists and partisan groups. Local parents are now courageously speaking out and taking action—and they deserve the full support of our community.”
This new lawsuit provides to the rising roster of these being filed towards public libraries and public faculties throughout the nation for insurance policies which have led to ebook bans. These ebook bans have had an outsized affect on supplies by or about individuals of colour and LGBTQ+ individuals.
In Greenville, there’s been no query that such insurance policies focusing on queer-themed books has been blatant and intentional.
“Books are one of our greatest tools to learn about other peoples, the world around us, and more importantly to learn about ourselves through representation,” mentioned Greg Rogers, one of many dad and mom bringing the lawsuit. “All children and young adults should have equal access to these tools. Keeping even one child from accessing the representation they provide is a travesty for the equality of all children.”
Whereas this lawsuit particularly focuses on Greenville’s public library system, Greenville’s public faculties have additionally perpetrated ebook bans and censorship. In 2024, the varsity district eliminated a number of books regardless of the assessment committee’s suggestions to maintain them. The district additionally paused ebook gala’s for a interval afterward over worries that supplies obtainable for buy at these occasions wouldn’t meet their very own district’s insurance policies associated to “appropriate” supplies.
