MONTGOMERY, Ala.—State library officials in Alabama are forcing books that pertain to gender and sexuality to be placed in adult-only sections or risk losing funding from both state and federal sources, local news outlets report.
Fox 54 reports that John Wahl, the chair of the Alabama Public Library Service Board, wrote a letter sent to local libraries throughout the state on Wednesday prohibiting the availability of so-called "gender ideology" to abide by the executive orders of President Donald Trump.
Trump's executive orders prohibit educational grants if the agency or entity recognizes so-called "gender ideology" and "transgender procedures." There is no clear definition of what Wahl deems as either.
Wahl explained, via the Alabama Reflector, "This letter makes it clear that federal taxpayer dollars cannot be used to push gender ideology on our children. Libraries should be places of learning, not platforms for social agendas.”
The Reflector notes that board member Amy Minton proposed a ban on content that deals with "transgender procedures" right around Wahl's announcement.
During a debate on the matter at hand earlier this week, a local attorney informed the APLS that such bans and restrictions were justified per the aftermath of Free Speech Coalition et al. v. Paxton. According to the lawyer, this ruling and others support restricting access to materials deemed sexually explicit to protect children, as APLS is trying to do through such punitive actions. A justification like this, though, is questionable, as Free Speech Coalition dealt with legitimate pornographic content like an adult video.
Similarly, Randal Wright, chair of the board of the library system in Fairhope, Alabama, said that several books they have reviewed due to claims of sexually explicit content "cannot be considered sexually explicit." Wright adds, "They might have a paragraph, or two or three sentences, that are sexual, but it is not written to arouse ot titilate."
