A coalition of local library patrons, supported by the ACLU, have filed suit against county officials in Greenville, South Carolina for allegedly purging literature by and about (LGBTQ) people from its public library collections.
The lawsuit argues that Greenville County officials have violated library patrons’ First and Fourteenth Amendment rights by adopting policies and practices that facilitated the banning or relocati0n of dozens of books that, according to an ACLU statement, “positively portray transgender and gender-nonconforming people.” The suit asks a federal court to declare the library’s policy unconstitutional.
"By 2023 and 2024, treatment of transgender people had become a wedge political issue, both nationally and in South Carolina,” the complaint notes, adding that “against that political background,” the Greenville library board “replaced its traditional and neutral policies with two new discriminatory policies that censored access to information and ideas that the Library Board wished to suppress.”
“Greenville County cannot censor our public libraries merely because its officials find certain materials politically, morally, or religiously objectionable,” said Allen Chaney, Legal Director for the ACLU of South Carolina, in a statement. “After years of public advocacy against these discriminatory actions, we must now rely on the courts to vindicate a simple truth: the constitution protects everyone, including LGBTQ people.”
Among the books the library has removed from the juvenile and young adult sections: Julián is a Mermaid by Jessica Love; Ana on the Edge by A.J. Sass; and Red: A Crayon’s Story by Michael Hall.
ACLU reps also shared a list of 59 books that were removed entirely from the Greenville County library system in 2023 here.
