Greenville County Library considers banning 24 books, faces LGBTQ+ censorship allegations

Two dozen books, many with LGBTQ+ themes, could soon be banned from the Greenville County Library System.

A copy of each of the 24 books currently on the chopping block has been temporarily removed from circulation, as part of a review process by the library system's board of trustees.

The board's potential book ban has sparked outrage among LGBTQ+ advocates, library experts and even current library system employees who fear the board of trustees is targeting queer-themed materials for politically-charged reasons and undermining the very purpose of a library in the process.

By considering this book ban, employees and experts say the board of trustees has platformed conservative ideologies and injected the national culture wars currently dominating the political landscape into Greenville's library system.

Book banning saga begins with Greenville GOP

Last September, The Greenville County GOP passed a resolution urging County Council to move books with what County GOP Chairman Jeff Davis called "sexually explicit" content from the children's section of county libraries into the adult section.

The problem, though, is that there is no sexually explicit content in the children’s section of any Greenville County library branch.

But the county GOP, in its efforts to drum up support for its claims, created a video condemning the library for promoting inappropriate content to children.

Many of the books scrutinized by the county GOP were children's picture books with LGBTQ+ themes.

The video also included images from parenting books called “It’s Perfectly Normal,” "It's So Amazing: A Book About Eggs, Sperm, Birth, Babies, and Families," and "Sex Is A Funny Word" alongside images of children’s books with LGBTQ+ themes, like "Heather Has Two Mommies," and "Teo's Tutu."

Some of the parenting books targeted by the GOP include illustrations of sex and masturbation, but they are not located in the children’s section of the library, and they require a full-access library card to check out.

The full list of books scrutinized by the county GOP includes:

• "Adventures with My Daddies"

• "Daddy & Dada"

• "Feminist Baby Finds Her Voice"

• "Generation Brave: The Gen Z Kids Who Are Changing the World"

• "Heather Has Two Mommies"

• "It's Perfectly Normal"

• "It's So Amazing: A Book About Eggs, Sperm, Birth, Babies, and Families"

• "Love, Violet"

• "Pride Puppy"

• "Sex Is A Funny Word"

• "Stella Brings The Family"

• "Teo's Tutu"

• "You Don't Have To Be Everything: Poems for Girls Becoming Themselves"

Three library employees, who spoke with The News on the condition of anonymity, said they have experienced an increase in harassment from patrons since the GOP passed its resolution.

One employee said she'd been called a pedophile and a groomer both in person and over the phone.

"I just try to end the conversation," she said.

Greenville County Council chose not to intervene, but library board placed books' future in limbo

The GOP's resolution sparked over a month of public outcry and debate.

Responding to the GOP’s request, former County Councilmember Joe Dill introduced a resolution last October to remove any materials “promoting sexuality” from the children’s section of county libraries.

After multiple sessions of public comment and debate among council members, Council voted 9-3 to not take up Dill's resolution, saying that library content decisions should fall upon the library’s board of trustees.

Councilmember Ennis Fant said at the meeting that anyone would be against children seeing sexually explicit content, and he pointed out that the Greenville County library system already has a policy prohibiting that type of content from the children's section.

Dill, Steve Shaw and Stan Tzouvelekas voted in favor of suspending regular council rules to consider the resolution.

They were outvoted by Fant, Willis Meadows, Dan Tripp, Mike Barnes, Chris Harrison, Liz Seman, Xanthene Norris, Lynn Ballard and Butch Kirven, who all voted against suspending council rules.

But around the same time County Council decided to take a hands-off approach, the chair of the library’s board of trustees, Allan Hill, took up the GOP's request.

At last September's board of trustees meeting, Hill asked the board’s materials committee to review the 14 books that were the subject of the county GOP’s ire.

Hill also asked the committee to review the American Library Association's list of 2021's Most Challenged Books, a decision that one expert said is antithetical to the library's purpose.

"When book challenges occur, and folks are actually removing books from collections, they are not upholding their mission to provide library services to all," said American Library Association President Lessa Pelayo-Lozada.

Hill did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

The 10 most challenged books of 2021 include:

• "Gender Queer" by Maia Kobabe

• "Lawn Boy" by Jonathan Evison

• "All Boys Aren’t Blue" by George M. Johnson

• "Out of Darkness" by Ashley Hope Perez

• "The Hate U Give" by Angie Thomas

• "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian" by Sherman Alexie

• "Me and Earl and the Dying Girl" by Jesse Andrews

• "The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison

• "This Book is Gay" by Juno Dawson

• "Beyond Magenta" by Susan Kuklin

What happens next?

Since Hill’s request in September, the fate of these two dozen books still hangs in the balance.

The library board’s materials committee met last November and voted to temporarily remove a copy of each of the 24 books it planned to review from circulation, according to the committee’s meeting minutes.

The copies were removed from circulation so the committee could evaluate each book and schedule a follow-up meeting, according to the minutes.

But more than three months later, that follow-up meeting has yet to take place.

The materials committee does not hold regularly scheduled meetings and has not met again since its decision to temporarily pull the books last November.

And while the books' fate remains in limbo, it is library patrons, especially young ones, who will suffer.

"[Reading] is how our children build empathy," Pelayo-Lozada said. "This is how our children see the humanity in one another and understand that just because somebody doesn't look or have the same exact lifestyle as them that they are no less human than they are."

It has not been made public when the materials committee will next meet or what will become of the two dozen titles currently facing permanent removal.

Library expert cautions against unnecessary book bans

The ALA is the oldest and largest library association in the world, according to its website.

In order to be hired as a librarian within the Greenville County Library System, a person must have a degree from an ALA-approved institution.

Pelayo-Lozada acknowledged the need for a process through which libraries can review materials. But claiming books are sexually explicit or obscene when they are not, she said, only diminishes the public's trust in the library as an institution of information.

"We are there to provide access," Pelayo-Lozada said. "So when we play into these book challenges that we know are not reflective of our professional values, and we know are not reflective of the entire community, it absolutely will erode trust."

That purpose to provide access to information for all, Pelayo-Lozada said, only underscores the need for libraries to have a diverse collection of materials.

The ALA's list of most challenged books, which Hill used as a guide for which books to review, is actually meant to inform librarians of when a book may be challenged in bad faith, Pelayo-Lozada said.

And while she said she is not surprised a library would misuse the list in this way, doing so allows libraries to become a political battlefield.

"To use [book challenges] and to weaponize them," Pelayo-Lozada said, "I think just fits into this desire to use libraries as political pawns in a much larger game that is afoot."

− Tim Carlin covers county government, growth and development for The Greenville News. Follow him on Twitter @timcarlin_, and get in touch with him at TCarlin@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Greenville Library looks at banning 24 books, faces LGBTQ+ censorship