Southern states ban transgender books from YA and children's sections in libraries

Multiple southern states have recently ordered the purge of books related to transgender identity from youth and even teen sections in public libraries.

The Alabama Public Library Service Board of Directors approved a rule Thursday that orders the removal of content related to “transgender procedures, gender ideology or the concept of more than two biological genders” from children's and young adult sections across the more than 200 libraries in its system. The directive bans all “sexually explicit or other material deemed inappropriate" from youth sections, though it does not define sexually explicit content.

The vote was held on Transgender Day of Remembrance, a day specifically dedicated to honoring trans people who have lost their lives to violence.

Meanwhile, the Tennessee Secretary of State, Republican Tre Hargett, sent a letter to all 181 libraries in the Tennessee Regional Library System last month demanding that they remove books that contain "gender ideology" or diversity, equity, and inclusion from children's and young adult sections. He threatened to withhold funding from libraries that did not comply.

Hargett cited Donald Trump's executive orders banning DEI practices in federal government, and declaring that there are only two sexes and that trans people don't exist against medical and scientific consensus, which are not law and have been partially blocked by a federal court.

During the 2024-2025 school year, PEN America recorded 6,870 instances of book bans across 23 states and 87 public school districts, affecting 3,752 titles. They represented the work of 2,308 authors, 243 illustrators, and 38 translators — the majority of which feature LGBTQ+ or racial themes. The most banned books in the U.S. over the past several years have consistently been the renowned queer titles All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson and Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe.