The library board voted that a collection of children’s books featuring LGBT content was to be pulled from the shelves of the Rutherford County, Tenn., library’s children’s section. The books in question would be transferred to the adult section, but the library would not remove the titles altogether.
Former library director Luanne James intentionally left the books in the children’s section instead, keeping them there because of her First Amendment-related beliefs. Ms. James was fired as a consequence of intentionally disobeying the library board’s decision.
The board met to resolve the book issue on March 16, and Ms. James lost her job on March 30.
Oddly enough, she had just been onboarded in July 2025 and moved to the Rutherford County Library System from the York County Library System in South Carolina. The library found an interim director to replace Ms. James until someone applies to take her position.
Sixty-three percent of Rutherford County residents are Christian, but a tiny 8% of the full U.S. population is LGBT, as per the Pew Research Center.
A growing population does not enjoy LGBTQIA+ themes in books whose target demographic is children. Heather Cook, who lives in Rutherford County, claimed to be “standing for the truth in opposition to the deception of transgender ideology and gender confusion.” Fellow Rutherford County citizen Emily Adams said, “If parents want their children to have access to these books, they don’t even need to go to the library. They can buy it on Amazon, or they can check them out themselves and bring them home.”
From Richard Land’s Christian Post article, county news reports, and the Pew Research Center, one may infer that many Christians in Rutherford disapprove of surprise LGBT themes in reading materials.
Rutherford is conservative and the fifth-largest Tennessee county as of 2026. This county is close to the metropolis of Nashville and includes bustling, populous cities, such as Murfreesboro and Smyrna. Of all Rutherford County’s cities, Murfreesboro has the largest population.
Interestingly, 66.1% of Rutherford County citizens voted for President Donald Trump in the 2024 election cycle. At that time, Rutherford was the fourth-largest county.
According to the Associated Press and the Christian Post, 132 books were relocated.
One rough count taken from the Rutherford County Library Board meeting minutes contained 124 books total and the motivations behind the censorship. Almost all of them were censored on the grounds that the content “promotes gender confusion,” and approximately 79% of those books were specifically flagged for LGBT themes. Eight other books were censored for violent passages, while an additional 10 were removed for mature themes.
The meeting minutes handout contained 33 pages of large spreadsheets organizing the books by reasons for censorship and their target demographics. The spreadsheets were each a page wide.
Director James fought tooth-and-nail to keep the books available to children; she embedded a “Director Recommendation” in the spreadsheets to let them stay in the children’s section.
However, there were “presidential executive orders” to relocate them from the library permanently. In addition, the state of Tennessee issued an “action” for “age-appropriateness” and recommended that Ms. James re-shelve the books to the adult section.
The library board had attempted to compromise with Ms. James and the executive orders by mandating that she transfer the books to the adult shelves; they would have been stored in a different location, but still available at the library. James did not comply with this workplace task.
The overly vibrant illustrations and mind-bending content found in these books make the notorious “Mr. Ratburn and the Special Someone” episode of Arthur, whose art style uses a more neutral color palette, look tame.
Many of the controversial titles were geared to audiences ages 4-8 and 8-12.
Shocking sample books for ages 4-8 were The Spectacular Suit; Pink, Blue and You: Questions about Gender and Stereotypes for Kids; What are Your Words?: A Book about Pronouns, We Belong; Jacob’s New Dress; and I’m Not a Girl.
I’m Not a Girl, by Jessica Verdi and Maddox Lyons, is about a school-age girl wanting to be a boy. When viewing Lyons‘ headshot on the MacMillan Publishing website, one will observe that she has cut her hair shorter to resemble a male and answers to a gender-neutral name.
The Spectacular Suit, by Kat Patrick, tells of a girl who feels uncomfortable wearing dresses and instead chooses to wear boys’ clothing.
Finally, Jacob’s New Dress, by Sarah Hoffman, features a little boy pretending to be a girl as his peers look on. The boy wishes his preschool-age peers would let him role-play as a princess during dress-up.
One sharp sample of books for the 8-12 year old set is composed of Twelfth; Jo: An Adaptation of Little Women (Sort Of); What Was Stonewall?; Small Town Pride; and Just Shy of Ordinary.
The author of the Little Women retelling evidently co-opted the actual novel, through a modernized adaptation that insults the original, into the LGBT argument.
Vice President of Rutherford County Library Alliance Keri Lambert was interviewed for News Channel 5, based in Nashville. Ms. Lambert stated that officially “moving children’s books to the adult section constitutes a book ban under its legal definition–by denying children a chance to browse.” The books were placed somewhere else, and Lambert stated that this is the official definition of a book ban. She wrote, “Children’s books, written specifically for children, need to be in the children’s section.”
Lambert downplayed the fact that these books had been placed in the adult section, yet all of them remained available for library guests to read and take home. The books are even available to buy at Amazon and brick-and-mortar bookstores. The materials were simultaneously restricted in the library environment, but not banned through other book sources. Therefore, the question of whether the books were banned has both a yes and no answer.
The library’s decision was based on common sense. The library board thought on it for a long, hard while and intended to negotiate with Ms. James, but she made a grievous decision to keep books showcasing the LGBT agenda in their original location.
Doodleville, one of the censored books, boasts a glowing review from Lincoln Pierce on the cover. Prior to Doodleville‘s release, Pierce created Big Nate, a family-oriented syndicated comic strip. The Big Nate graphic novel adaptations were also bestsellers.
Dana Simpson illustrated I’m Not a Girl and previously created Phoebe and Her Unicorn, another syndicated strip with a family audience. She is well-known as a New York Times bestselling artist.
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