The Library Board Crossed a Red Line
Since 2023, Anderson County residents have watched the same fight return to the Library Board again and again.
At first, it was framed as concern. Then review. Then restriction. Then a list. At the May meeting, it crossed into something else.
A motion was made to remove books from Anderson County public libraries because they were labeled as containing “gender ideology.”
That should alarm every person in this county who believes public libraries belong to the public.
This is not a story about one messy meeting. It is the story of a public board being slowly captured by a pro-censorship faction that now has the votes. On a nine-member board, they have a 5 to 4 majority. That means this is no longer noise from the sidelines. They have power. And now they are using it.
The worst part is that Anderson County already has a process for reviewing challenged books.
If a community member challenges a book, the normal process is supposed to involve review, structure, and people who are not personally driving the complaint. That process exists for a reason. It protects the public. It protects the libraries. It protects against one faction turning political pressure into county policy.
But this faction did not create a better process. They created a way around the process.
Book names were gathered from community members, board members, people who called, and outside censorship efforts. Those books were put onto a list. Some were pulled from shelves. Then the list was brought before the board under the political label “gender ideology.”
And when the motion came, it was as plain as it could be.
“The books with gender ideology that have been identified be removed from the library.”
Removed. Not reviewed one by one through the established process. Not handled through a formal challenge by a resident willing to stand behind the complaint. Not left available to the public while the board determined whether they even belonged on the list.
Removed.
Only after objections were raised did the motion get amended so the board would review each book individually and determine its “disposition,” meaning whether the book stays, moves, or is removed. But that amendment does not undo what happened. The red line had already been crossed. A public board entertained removing books from public libraries under a vague political phrase no one could clearly define.
And “gender ideology” has never been clearly defined.
At different points, it seemed to mean a book with a transgender character, a book with gay characters, a book that mentioned gender, a book with a character whose name could belong to either a boy or a girl, or simply a book someone personally disliked.
That is not a standard. That is a junk drawer.
One board member admitted, “There really may be some books on there that absolutely shouldn’t be on that list.” Another pointed to examples that should embarrass the entire board: a Ruth Bader Ginsburg biography, books about the civil rights movement, and a book about planting trees in India.
“Civil rights movement is not a reason to do anything with the book,” one member said.
Exactly.
So why were those books on the list?
Who made the list? Who checked it? Who gave it authority? Which books are currently unavailable to the public? Which libraries pulled them? What written legal guidance authorized it? And why are trained librarians being dragged into a political process built around fear instead of facts?
The Secretary of State’s letter does not excuse this. Secretary of State Tre Hargett asked libraries to conduct an age-appropriateness review of materials in juvenile children’s sections and provide a report. He did not order Anderson County to create a shadow book-removal process. He did not order the board to collect titles from outside activists. He did not order them to treat every LGBTQ character as a threat.
His letter says the board should receive a report from the Library Director and initiate reconsideration for any item believed to violate state or federal law.
Item. Not dragnet. Not activist list. Not panic.
Someone in the meeting pointed it out: “Trey Hargett’s letter did not change our board policies.”
That should have ended the discussion.
Instead, the pro-censorship faction kept pushing.
The most chilling exchange came when the board was warned that the policy cannot simply be reversed after books are removed. One member said, “The policy is to challenge books that are on the shelf. The policy is not to challenge books that have been removed.”
In plain English: once the board votes books off the shelves, the public may not have a real path to get them back.
That is censorship by shortcut.
And while all of this was happening, library staff were talking about real problems. Money is tight. Budgets are strained. Communications costs are eating into book funds. One library representative explained that an additional cut had “slashed” the book budget even further. Another one said that if communications costs could be handled differently, “you might have money to buy books again.”
Think about that. Our libraries are scraping for money to buy books while a narrow majority on the board is spending its time trying to remove them.
That is the story of this moment.
Our librarians are trying to run summer reading programs. They are trying to serve families. They are trying to help people access books, technology, programs, gardens, community resources, and basic public services. Meanwhile, board members are debating whether gay characters, transgender characters, civil rights books, and biographies belong in public libraries.
One board member had to say, out loud, “It is not against the law to be gay in the state of Tennessee. It is not against the law to be married in the state of Tennessee to a partner of the same sex.”
That should not have to be said at a public library board meeting in 2026.
But here we are.
Chairman Shain Vowell, who is also a county commissioner, made another comment that ought to stick with people. As the board discussed reviewing the books one by one, he joked, “It might take a year and a half, but I ain’t got nothing to do for the next year and a half. I got reelected.”
That is the problem in one sentence.
This is what happens when local officials get comfortable in power. They can drag a public institution through month after month of political chaos because they already won their election. They can treat librarians’ time, taxpayers’ money, public trust, and legal risk like a hobby.
And the rest of us are supposed to sit quietly while they do it. No.
Public libraries are not private churches. They are not campaign props. They are not the personal property of five board members. They are public institutions funded by taxpayers and meant to serve the whole community.
If board members want to remove books, they should have to define their terms. They should have to explain the list. They should have to name the legal standard. They should have to follow the policy. They should have to answer why professional librarians are being bypassed. And they should have to explain why Anderson County taxpayers should be exposed to risk because some board members cannot tell the difference between age-appropriate placement and political censorship.
The next Library Board meeting matters.
If you cannot attend, contact the Library Board. Be direct. Be respectful. Be clear.
Ask them to return books to the shelves while any review is pending. Ask them to follow the existing challenge process. Ask them to stop using activist-generated lists. Ask them to trust professional librarians. Ask them to govern public libraries like public libraries.
Current Library Board members:
Vicki Underwood, Vice Chair: viunderwood2@gmail.com
Tommy Mariner: marinert@aol.com
Jess Anne Cole: jessannecole@gmail.com
Christy Hibbler: chibbler@gmail.com
Shain Vowell: jsvowell1@gmail.com
Terri Ryan: tlryan@earthlink.net
Susan Miceli: susanmiceli@att.net
Charlotte Johnson: charlottejohnson72@yahoo.com
This is how local government gets captured: slowly, meeting by meeting, motion by motion, until the people trying to censor books have the votes to do it.
And this is how we stop it: we show up.
A public library does not belong to the loudest faction in the room. It belongs to the public.
And the public needs to take it back.
If you would like to torment yourself and watch the full May 2026 meeting of the Anderson County Library Board, good luck! Atleast you will know what the public is up against.
