This week, the Greenville County System Library Board in South Carolina voted to remove all books about trans people or with trans themes from young adult areas in their public libraries. Those books will be pulled from YA areas and placed into adult areas, where they will only be accessible to those under 17 with explicit parental permission. That means no browsing and no borrowing whatsoever if the book has anything related to “trans content,” including books published for teens and for children. Eight of the eleven committee members voted in favor while three were against it.
This decision comes after the board’s decision earlier this year to do the same with all books in the children’s section that depict trans people or trans themes.
The books to be moved will include any and all that discuss or show a character transitioning from their biological sex to a different gender identity. That will include books where there is text or illustration depicting change in gender identity, whether it is physical or social.
Chair of the library materials committee of the board claimed that the decision was easy because it aligned with a new state law–House Bill 4624–that bans gender affirming care for those under 18 in the state. The bill includes no provisions about the materials available to those under 18 in publicly funded institutions in the state, including public libraries. Another board member added that the decision was aligned with South Carolina’s new budget proviso, where in order to acquire state funding, public libraries must certify through the State Library that they have no books that appeal to the “prurient interest of children under age 17 in children’s, youth or teen book sections and are only made available with explicit parental consent.”
What of trans identity appeals to the “prurient interests of children under 17” is unclear. What is clear is that time will now be dedicated to determining whether or not books published for young adults are now inappropriate because they have a trans character or theme. That requires time spent by grown adults thinking about biological gender and whether or not genitalia matches identity under the guise of “protecting the children.”
One board member suggested that they seek attorney input on whether or not this new policy is discriminatory and violates the First Amendment. That motion did not pass. Another called it “patently discriminatory,” but that was overruled.
This new policy is ripe for litigation. There is no question that the policy not only plays into the right-wing moral panic over books and queer people, but it also makes abundantly clear queer people, especially trans people, are unwelcome in the Greenville County Library System.
Find below last week’s coverage of the impending vote to ban trans books in Greenville County Library System to learn more about the impact this will have on youth throughout the county. Greenville is the sixth largest city in South Carolina.
Greenville County Library, which has 12 locations in and around the Greenville, South Carolina, metropolitan area, is giving serious consideration to removing all books featuring trans characters from their young adult sections.
The public library system has been among one of the most prolific in the realm of censorship since the rise of the moral panic over books in 2021. They’ve attempted to persuade the city council to take over library collection decisions, a resolution that did not pass, but they have seen success through utilizing recommendations from the Materials Review Committee to move LGBTQ+ themed books into new sections of the library, as well as move entire sections of the library in and of itself. Notably, books in the “parenting”and “early childhood” collections have been moved from near juvenile areas to adult nonfiction sections. At least three LGBTQ+-themed books were also moved from the sections of the library meeting the needs of their target readership to less accessible spaces. The chair of the county library board has contributed to a hostile work environment in the system as well. The Greenville County Library system has received complaints about Pride displays, leading them to be removed and outright banned. In October 2023, the board voted to remove any and all displays from county libraries unless they were paid holidays observed by the library and city government.
Last March, the library board voted to remove all transgender-themed books from the juvenile areas. They were relocated to the above-mentioned parenting shelves and accessible only by adult patrons or those juveniles whose parents have given them explicit access. In the libraries where such sections did not exist, the books were moved to a facility that has it, making them inaccessible without either visiting a different branch of the library or seeking an interlibrary loan.
Now the Materials Review Committee recommended to the board that all transgender books in their teen areas be removed, too. Any books that include a character who has transitioned or is in the process of transitioning from a gender that corresponds to their biological sex to another will be moved to the adult section. This applies to both written texts and illustrations and will likely include books that cover topics such as pronouns or drag, as it did with the ban on trans books for those under 12.
The recommendation will go on to the full library board, which has been receptive to the changes presented previously. At least one library board member believes that the change would be fine under the new South Carolina budget proviso which states no public libraries can receive state funding if they provide materials to those under 17 that appeal to prurient interests. What of all YA books featuring transgender characters falls under the category of prurient interests is a question best left to the individuals who have been fixated on a weird and incorrect narrative about what gender means.
If the board passes the recommendation, all of the YA books which fall into the “trans” category would be moved to the adult section. This would make them completely off limits to anyone under the age of 18, unless they have a library card that gives them permission to borrow material from any section of the library. That requires parental/guardian permission in the library card application.
As is always the case with such permissions, those most in need of those books will be most harmed. Teenagers who use the library often do so without their parents, and those who have parents who cannot make it to the library to update or apply for new library cards will be unable to borrow books that depict their experiences and the experiences of people they likely interact with daily.
If passed, no so-called transgender books would be available to browse or borrow in any YA or juvenile section of the entire county library system.
A full timeline of events related to the public library’s ongoing censorship is available here, compiled by the local organization Freedom in Libraries Advocacy Group working to push back against the discriminatory changes.
