Library Flags Children’s Book Because Author’s Last Name is Gay

An Alabama public library flagged an illustrated children’s book about siblings who decide to build a dog house together for removal because the author’s last name is “Gay.”

The incident appears to have been motivated by a purge of books that might be deemed “sexually explicit” — not because of a book’s actual content, but because librarians appear to have conflated the mere mention of the word “gay” as inappropriate for minors.

Cindy Hewitt, the executive director of the Huntsville-Madison County Public Library, told AL.com that Read Me a Story, Stella, by author Marie-Louise Gay, should not have been placed on the list for removal, adding that it was among 233 titles that were flagged for review — with an eye towards relocating them to the library’s adult section — because the keyword “gay” was wrongly triggered by the author’s last name.

“Obviously, we’re not going to touch that book for any reason,” Hewitt said of Read Me a Story, Stella.

But she defended the library’s actions, saying she was trying to be “proactive instead of reactive” as the library prepares for an expected yet “unprecedented” flood of demands for relocation or removal of books, including those with LGBTQ themes or characters, from the children’s section.

“We wanted to be proactive and allow our library staff to look at our collection and make decisions about moving material to an older age group and not have someone from outside dictating that for us,” Hewitt said. She added that the library considers public opinion when deciding whether to remove or relocate books, but noted that “our librarians are trained in collection development, and it should be their responsibility to examine the collection and make those changes.”

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Hewitt says the internal review of books was prompted by a list of 102 books that Clean Up Alabama, a right-wing collective that seeks to remove “pornographic, obscene, and indecent books” from the children’s section of public libraries, would like to see relocated to places where the books in question cannot be accessed by minors.

Most of the books flagged by Clean Up Alabama deal with sexuality, sex, or gender-based issues, including titles that feature LGBTQ themes or characters, arguing that such books are “intended to confuse the children of our communities about sexuality and expose them to material that is inappropriate for them.”

The organization has also demanded that all libraries in the state should withdraw from the American Library Association and develop their own standards for creating “family-friendly” children’s sections.

They insist any librarian who continues to follow ALA recommendations for classifying and shelving books be fired from their jobs and barred from working in proximity to children. 

According to a copy of the book review list for the Madison branch obtained by AL.com, 91% of the 233 flagged books had the words “lesbian,” “gay,” “transgender,” “gender identity,” or “gender-nonconforming” in the subject header.

Hewitt said she directed the ten branch managers within the library system to search for the terms “sexuality,” “gender,” “sex,” and “dating.”

Hewitt insists there was a miscommunication problem and confusion about flagging books with those keywords in the subject header.

“We understand and appreciate our community, and the needs of our collection to reflect our community,” she said. “We were never eliminating any book. We were just looking at it as a whole.”

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According to AL.com, the books that were flagged as potentially problematic had been checked out or renewed more than 8,000 times.

Kristen Brassard, a publicist at Groundwood Books, which publishes Gay’s books, mocked Madison County for its impulse to ban books, but noted that bans are part of a worrying trend across the culture as conservatives, egged on by politicians and online influencers, have sought to eliminate or restrict access to books based on objections to their subject matter.

“Although it is obviously laughable that our picture book shows up on their list of censored books simply because the author’s last name is Gay, the ridiculousness of that fact should not detract from the seriousness of the situation,” Brassard told AL.com.

Karen Li, a publisher at Groundwood Books, noted that other books on the Clean Up Alabama list of flagged titles have no LGBTQ content or sexual content, such as the Angie Thomas novel The Hate U Give, which depicts the shooting of an unarmed Black teenager at the hands of police.

“This proves, as always, that censorship is never about limiting access to this book or that one,” Li said in a statement. “It is about sending the message to children that certain ideas — or even certain people — are not worthy of discussion or acknowledgement or consideration. This is a hateful message in a place like a public library, where all children are meant to feel safe, and where their curiosity about the world is meant to be nurtured.”

The flagging of books on what appears to be subjective opinions is being replicated throughout the United States, with school districts and public libraries under fire for allowing books to remain on shelves if even a single person objects to their content.

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Hewitt said she didn’t know how many books individual librarians had removed or relocated, saying she took a “hands-off approach” to the process.

But community members from the liberal group Read Freely Alabama, which opposes book bans, visited several branches and compiled a list of 40 books that had been moved into the adult section due to concerns over “sexually explicit” content.

Some of those books had mistakenly been cataloged in the “adult” and “young adult” sections and were being moved to ensure consistency across the system.

Alyx Kim-Yohn, a circulation manager at the Madison branch of the library, said it’s “cosmically ironic” that the negative press the library received for flagging Gay’s children’s book happened during Banned Books Week.

They criticized the library’s actions, arguing it wasn’t conducting a fair review of books based on their content, but already had an end result in mind.

“The decision had been made,” Kim-Yohn, who declined to participate in the purge of books, said. “There was no debate. There’s no conversation. This is what was happening. … Why are we just unilaterally moving all of this before anyone’s even complained about these books yet?”