Tennessee orders libraries to review children’s books for material promoting gender ideology, DEI
MUNFORD, Tenn. (WMC) - The Tennessee Secretary of State has ordered libraries in all but four counties to review their children’s sections for content the state and federal government deems not age-appropriate.
Secretary of State Tre Hargett sent letters to the 181 libraries in the Tennessee Regional Library System on October 27, specifically asking them to identify books that may promote gender ideology or DEI. Libraries that don’t comply could risk losing funding.
In a previous letter to libraries in September, Hargett specified two recent pieces of legislation that Tennessee libraries should adjust their material to comply with. The first being President Donald Trump’s executive order titled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.”
At the state level, Hargett cited Public Chapter 458, known as the Dismantling DEI Departments Act, which prevents governmental entities from using discriminatory preferences to promote diversity, equity, or inclusion.
“We believe we are already in compliance with this. I’m very familiar with our collection. I purchased most of the materials here myself. We’ll do a double check of it, but we’re pretty confident,” said Lindsey Moore, director of the Munford-Tipton County Memorial Library, one of the recipients of the letter.
Moore said the library has a process for handling questionable materials.
“If we had something that came up, we have a process where we take the book to the library board,” says Moore. “And the board would review it along with me. We’d call the mayor in at that point, and can review whether or not to keep it or discard it from our collection.”
Hargett’s letter flagged one book found on some library shelves: Fred Gets Dressed by Peter Brown. The picture book features a boy who explores his parents’ closet and tries on his mother’s dress and makeup.
Action News 5 reached out to Brown about his book being flagged by the state. He responded with the following statement:
Hargett’s letter says library decisions should be shaped by the library’s community, but also states he cannot allow any law violations from one library to potentially harm the other 200 libraries in the state.
Libraries that received the letter have until January 19 to provide a final report of their review to the Secretary of State’s Office.
Memphis Public Libraries is not part of the Tennessee Regional Library System, and did not receive the letter.
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