Let me be clear at the outset: This is a story about a book that did not get censored or banned. Nonetheless, it is a story about the extent of book-banning these days, and how blatantly it is targeting the LGBTQ+ community.
A children’s picture book called “Read Me a Story, Stella” was added to an Alabama library’s list of potentially sexually explicit books in need of further review. It wasn’t a book about accepting differences or being comfortable with your identity, as was the case with “Red: A Crayon’s Story,” the book banned by a North Carolina school district because it turns out the crayon everyone thought was red is really blue. No, “Stella” is a book about a sister and brother reading books and building a doghouse. But! The author’s name is Marie-Louise Gay. And in Alabama in the year 2023, that is apparently enough to get your books flagged for further review.
Cindy Hewitt, the executive director of the Huntsville-Madison County Public Library, told AL.com that “Read Me a Story, Stella” has been put on the list because of a keyword search for “gay”—but that the library system wasn’t trying to target the LGBTQ+ community. It’s not clear how anyone can square that reality and that claim. Especially given this:
AL.com received a copy of the book review list for the Madison branch and found that 91% of 233 titles had the words lesbian, gay, transgender, gender identity, or gender non-conforming in the subject header, which lists numerous themes for each book. Hewitt said the keywords she asked the 10 branch managers at HCPL to use were “sexuality, gender, sex, and dating.”
Hewitt told AL.com that she had taken a “hands-off approach” and that librarians in the different branch libraries had been responsible for the specifics of which books were moved. That led to varying results across the branches, with some books being classified as adult in one library and young adult in others. (In other words, librarians in some branches were more dedicated than others to rooting out LGBTQ+ content.)
The overall project of reviewing books, Hewitt said, was because the library system was anticipating requests to remove books. “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,” she said.
Being “proactive” about reviewing books could mean having your responses ready to rebut outside demands for censorship, but that doesn’t seem to be what was happening here. HCPL started the effort with reference to a list of books targeted by a group called “Clean Up Alabama,” but the library system ultimately abandoned it under protest at the blatant targeting of LGBTQ+ content.
That a children’s book totally unrelated to sexuality or gender identity made it onto a review list because the author’s surname was Gay is one of those moments that shows how far things have gone.
Looking at the review list as a whole, which includes award-winning books like Angie Thomas’ “The Hate U Give,” which centers on the police killing of a Black teenager, Gay’s publicist, Kirsten Brassard, noted that the “ridiculousness” of Gay’s initial inclusion on the list “should not detract from the seriousness of the situation.”
“This proves, as always, that censorship is never about limiting access to this book or that one. It is about sending the message to children that certain ideas—or even certain people—are not worthy of discussion or acknowledgment or consideration,” Brassard added. “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.”
Republished with permission from Daily Kos.
