Anderson County sheriff: Obscenity law doesn't support challenge to library books

Anila Yoganathan, Knoxville News Sentinel
·11 min read
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After weeks of turmoil over calls to ban or restrict books at public libraries in Anderson County, the sheriff has concluded there are no legal grounds to support claims of obscenity to two of 17 books at the center of the controversy.

Sheriff Russell Barker was asked, in a letter, by Anderson County Mayor Terry Frank and four county commissioners to review the books and determine whether they violate Tennessee's obscenity law.

Mayor Frank told Knox News her request came after a member of the public shared images and descriptions from the book "Let's Talk About It" with the county commission. Frank and the four commissioners felt that since there was no clear guidance on how to handle cases when a piece of content might not be age-appropriate for a minor and might be considered obscene, the situation warranted an investigation, according to the letter.

The request came after a group of people began a campaign to remove the books from the local libraries.

Of the 17 books that have been highlighted in the controversy, only four had been formally challenged as of April 17, said Miria Webb, director of the Clinton library. Three were deemed suitable to be on the shelves and the fourth was put in a section for older children following a review by a library system committee and the county library board. The other 13 have been mentioned but not officially challenged.

That could change. Barker, despite saying the two books he examined wouldn't fit the legal definition of obscenity, said during an April 17 Anderson County commissioners meeting that he planned to personally file challenges to those two books, both of which the library system categorizes for adults.

The controversy comes at a time when libraries nationwide are seeing an uptick in challenges to books, especially to those containing themes and references to LGBTQ+ life experiences, as well as sex education, according to the American Library Association.

What did the sheriff conclude about the books?

In his professional capacity and based on his review of the books "Gender Queer" and "Let's Talk About It," Barker said neither violated Tennessee law. Both books already are designated as for adults in the library's system.

"I think there's sort of a general notion of obscenity and then a legal notion," Stuart Brotman, a professor of journalism and electronic media at the University of Tennessee, told Knox News.

"Obviously, the law controls here. So it doesn't really matter what people think about it. It's what law would be applied under the circumstances."

Nevertheless, the sheriff also included a separate letter to the county commission, on his official sheriff's letterhead, to express his personal opinion about the two books:

"While I appreciate the library's mission to provide a wide range of reading materials to the community, I believe that these particular books are not age-appropriate for minors and should not be available for them to view or check," Barker said in his letter. "Both books appear to have a political agenda that promotes a specific ideology related to gender and sexuality, which may be confusing or potentially harmful to young readers who are still developing their understanding of these concepts."

At the county commission meeting on April 17, Barker said he planned to file a request for reconsideration with the library system to challenge the books. Barker felt the restrictions on the two adult books were "too weak," pointing out that while children 12 years old or younger wouldn't be allowed in the library unattended, they could still wander to the adult section, he said in his letter to the commission.

Barker told the commission during the meeting that he wants the books to be either removed or restricted, referencing his letter, though he also warned: "In the United States, we have to be very careful, because once we open Pandora's Box, particularly with these two books, and I can speak solely on these, but if these are widely accepted throughout the country and by our own state of Tennessee, my caution would be if we start removing those books we could start an avalanche of everyone questioning anything that they disagree with and we get into some censorship issues that would be really outside the bounds of what our country is about."

How did this book ban request start?

The local challenges started with three books for children and families that discuss LGBTQ+ life experiences, according to the websites from the authors:

Members of the public filed "requests for reconsideration" with the Clinton Public Library to have the books removed because of alleged "sexual content," Anderson County Commission Chair Josh Anderson told the Oak Ridger in an earlier interview.

Anderson also serves as chairman of the Anderson County Commission and the library board.

A committee for the library system denied the request. That decision was supported by the Anderson County Library Board, whose members also read the books, Anderson said.

Anderson asked the county law director's office for guidance, and assistant law director Rachel Comunale said the books would not be considered obscene by law.

Obscenity has a legal definition for content that is not protected under the First Amendment, according to U.S. Department of Justice guidelines drawn from federal law and U.S. Supreme Court decisions. Materials considered obscene are federally prohibited from being distributed to minors.

"I think it's difficult to imagine how this would survive a judicial challenge under either the First Amendment or under a specific Tennessee statute that would apply to minors," said Brotman, the journalism professor.

The Anderson County objection didn't stop with the three books that were first identified. It expanded to include 14 more books, four of which are designated by the library's system as for adults, nine for young adults and only one for children, said Webb.

Of those 14, about half involve themes of gender identity, sexuality and sex education. The other half include either potential references or discussions of sex or sexual violence.

County Law Director Jay Yeager asked the district attorney's office for its opinion on the 14 other books because his office found "it was too close of a call" whether the books met the legal criteria for obscenity, Yeager told the Oak Ridger in a prior interview.

District Attorney General David Clark declined to analyze the books.

After a county commission vote of 11-4 against holding a public hearing on the complaints, Mayor Frank and Commissioners Anthony Allen, Tim Isbel, Denise Palmer and Shain Vowell requested an opinion from Barker, the Anderson County sheriff.

Since that request, the library board held a public forum on March 27 that was attended by about 260 people, Anderson said.

National opposition to books on race, LGBTQ+ and sex education

Commissioner Anthony Allen obtained copies of a packet listing the 14 books from local residents he told the Oak Ridger. He then provided that information to the other commissioners.

The packet includes information from a Florida-based company with a website, Anderson said. The site provides descriptions about books it says contain nudity, profanity or sexual content.

Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of the American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom, told Knox News the Florida-based company's work "reflects their political, moral and religious beliefs, not a fair evaluation of the work as a whole, and is not really a tool for discovering what books might best serve a community, but a means finding out what books should be excluded from the view of the community, letting a vocal minority make the decision for everyone (about) what's allowed to be read."

Anderson pointed out that some of the books being challenged in Anderson County have been in the library for more than 25 years.

"And nobody's cared until something from above told them," Anderson said "We've gotten swept into this national effort."

The effort to which Anderson referred is a general increase in demands to ban or censor library books. He noted Blount County is facing a similar situation.

In 2022, there were 1,269 demands to censor library books and resources nationwide, according to the American Library Association. The challenges against books in 2022 were almost double the number in 2021.

During the April 17 county commission meeting, much of the discussion about the sheriff's investigation and concerns about the books were related to sex education and sexual content.

"The argument is being couched in terms of are you a book banner or are you not, and I don't think that's really a fair assessment of what's being discussed," Frank told Knox News on April 18. "I think it's the sexualization and this is a larger discussion that is taking place nationally, the sexualization of children at earlier and earlier ages."

One member of the public at the commission meeting pointed out that Tennessee's prescribed sex education program for schools requires discussion of abstinence.

And while the state's sex education requirements apply to public schools, Anderson pointed out that public libraries have to meet the needs of the community, such as parents looking for resources to talk to their kids about sex education.

The issues don't just involve sex education, however. The first three books that were challenged are about LGBTQ+ experiences, and about half of the other books included in Allen's packet reference themes of gender identity, sexuality or sex education.

"Based on some of the advocacy we've seen from some of the groups pushing this, that they have a claim that somehow this will harm young people, indoctrinate them into accepting identities that these groups do not approve of," Caldwell-Stone said "And that they feel that no minor - and I when I say no minor, I mean anyone under the age of 18 - should even know or understand the concepts associated with gender identity or sexual orientation."

In 2021, the most challenged book recorded by the ALA nationwide was "Gender Queer," one of the books investigated by Barker, the Anderson County sheriff. The ALA says the book has been "banned, challenged and restricted for LGBTQIA+ content, and because it was considered to have sexually explicit images."

At least five of the top 10 most challenged books nationwide in 2021 included LGBTQ+ content, according to the ALA.

Caldwell-Stone said that the ALA is seeing an overall trend of challenges being made to entire lists of books all at once; 40% of recent challenges to books involved 100 or more titles at once, indicating a possible political push.

"But there's a large element of this that is a political agenda that's intended to silence whole communities, whole groups of individuals who live in a community but to exclude them, make sure that they understand that they're excluded from polite society," Caldwell-Stone said. "And one way to do that certainly is to take all the books off the shelf that reflect the lives and experiences of LGBTQIA+ persons."

Accepting communities of LGBTQ+ reduces death by suicide

"These books are not going to make a kid gay," Anderson said. "They might make a kid who's gay who feels suicidal a little more hopeful, or something like they're not alone."

The Trevor Project, an organization committed to ending suicide among LGBTQ+ youth, conducts an annual survey assessing suicidal risks of LGBTQ+ youth. The report captured the experiences of about 34,000 people between the ages of 13 to 24.

In its 2022 survey, the Trevor Project found that the suicide rate of LGBTQ+ youth in communities that were very unaccepting of LGBTQ+ people was 21%. In very accepting communities, the rate was 8%.

The report also found "89% of LGBTQ+ youth reported that seeing LGBTQ representation in TV/movies made them feel good about being LGBTQ."

What happens next to the books in question?

Frank told Knox News she assumes the discussions of what is age-appropriate will be ongoing because there are still different sides on the issues.

"There is this policy for how someone files a "Is this appropriate for the library?' [complaint]. But there really isn't a 'the book shall be reviewed if it's being viewed as obscene,' [response]," Frank said. "And there's really no guidance out there for what do you do. Who is the person to [tell] if you feel there's an obscenity violation, do you go to the sheriff's department? Do you go to the DA?"

One suggestion is that Anderson County move the books to a restricted area in the libraries so kids cannot access them.

"Part of the tradition of libraries is you can kind of go browse without being necessarily judged or having the embarrassment of asking the librarian, 'Hey, I want to look at this book,'" Anderson said.

For some of the books, Anderson suggested direction from the state might have to inform what the county libraries will do.

Barker pointed out two books he reviewed were accessible through the Tennessee Regional eBook Audiobook Download System, which is directed by the state's Secretary of State's office.

"I think the state will end up getting involved because it's it's hard to justify banning a book from the Clinton Library if it's available everywhere else in the state," Anderson said.

Anila Yoganathan is an investigative reporter. Email anila.yoganathan@knoxnews.com. Twitter @AnilaYoganathan.

This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Anderson County sheriff: Obscenity law doesn't support books challenge