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在田纳西州卢瑟福县指导委员会11月的会议上，克雷格·哈里斯主席向该县公共图书馆董事会询问他们对社区保守成员认为不雅的书籍的感受，这些书籍可能违反了一项促进“体面”的新城市条例。
“你认为《让我们谈谈这件事》(Let ' s Talk about It)应该被删除吗?”哈里斯问图书馆系统主管丽塔·沙克尔特。他指的是埃里卡·莫恩(Erika Moen)和马修·诺兰(Matthew Nolan)为青少年写的一本图画小说，这本书是关于人际关系和性教育的指南。
“在我个人看来，这有点太形象了，”沙克尔特回答说，“所以我可以去掉那个。”
在距离纳什维尔不到40英里的卢瑟福县的默弗里斯伯勒，当地官员和图书馆负责人似乎达成了一致:居民不应该免费获得某些图书馆的书籍。
图书馆董事会主席史蒂夫·沙利文(Steve Sullivan)在会议上说:“有几本书通过公众引起了我们的注意，这让我感到不安。”
8月，图书馆董事会投票决定将四本书从图书馆移走。《Let 's Talk about It》;迈克·库拉托(Mike Curato)的《火焰》(Flamer);《奇妙制作》(curious & wonderful Made)，由利·芬克(Leigh Finke)编辑;以及朱诺·道森(Juno Dawson)的《这本书是同性恋》(This Book is Gay)，这些书已经不在图书馆的书架上了，不过董事会成员表示，这些书仍然可以通过电子方式获取。
另外两本书——玛亚·科贝的《性别酷儿》和查娜·吉娜尔·尤因的《平等的ABC》——分别放在成人区和青少年区。
负责为该县提出新规定的指导委员会，在其月度会议上专门讨论了一项图书馆决议，以使其选书政策与新颁布的禁止“不雅行为”的城市条例保持一致。
今年6月，默弗里斯伯勒市通过了一项体面条例，最初的目的是禁止在城市财产上进行变装表演。该法律的文本称，其目的是促进“公共礼仪，[维护]公共场所的家庭友好环境，并[保护]未成年人免受吸引淫秽利益的公共言论的伤害。”
该条例还包含一项条款，引用了另一项将公开同性恋归类为不雅行为的城市法律。田纳西州美国公民自由联盟对新法令提起诉讼，指控它违反了第一和第十四修正案。该法令被暂时封锁，但后来被允许生效。
默弗里斯伯勒市长谢恩·麦克法兰表示，警察局长和城市经理负责决定哪些事件违反法律，从而执行该法律。
然而，该法令现在正被官员们用来作为基础，使总部位于默弗里斯伯勒的县图书馆系统的政策与“体面”条例保持一致，这表明他们正在努力禁止更多的书，主要是关于LGBTQ+主题的书。
委员会和图书馆董事会正在讨论的图书馆决议将禁止为“不雅”材料或行为提供资金，“不雅”材料或行为被定义为“裸体、猥亵或性暗示行为、不雅暴露、性行为、过度或冒犯性的亲密公开示爱、使儿童产生色情兴趣，以及任何违反州和地方法律或法规的行为”。
“The county doesn’t have a position until the Commission approves a resolution, and I can’t speak for the library system or the City of Murfreesboro,” Lisa Kaye, Rutherford County’s public information officer, told HuffPost.
The county did not respond to a question regarding who would determine which books fell outside the guidelines. The City of Murfreesboro directed HuffPost’s request for comment to the library board of directors, which did not respond.
Meanwhile, some in Rutherford County are worried about how the ordinance will be applied, and the precedent it will set.
“My biggest fear is how this is going to be implemented,” Keri Lambert, one of the co-founders of the new Rutherford County Library Alliance, told HuffPost. The group formed after the decency ordinance was passed in June, in order to support libraries and fight censorship. “What if the next group of leadership finds interracial relationships indecent?”
So far, the only books removed from the Rutherford County public libraries have been books that deal with LGBTQ+ issues. County officials have repeatedly claimed at public meetings that it is merely a coincidence.
Lambert is worried the overly broad nature of the ordinance could spell danger in the future. “I’m concerned about the library because I believe knowledge is power,” she said. “[It’s] the first line of democracy and free access, and once the government starts censoring, it sets us up for something scary.”
Books for teens and children — particularly ones that include LGBTQ+ themes, any depiction of sexuality, or issues related to race — have become culture-war targets for conservatives in recent years.
Under the pretext of protecting children from “sexually explicit” materials, Republican elected officials and conservative activists across the country have sought to ban books from school and public libraries, most of them books with LGBTQ+ themes. According to the American Library Association, book bans nearly doubled from 2021 to 2022.
“Of those titles, the vast majority were written by or about members of the LGBTQIA+ community and people of color,” the ALA said in a March 2023 statement about the increase in book bans.
“They’re starting with saying they want to protect children, but if you listen at the meetings, they’re saying they can’t have any media that doesn’t meet Tennessee state law on decency or obscenity,” Lambert said.
Pettus Read, the vice chairman of the steering committee, implied during the meeting that removing children’s access to certain books wouldn’t be enough, and that banning them completely would be more suitable.
“They need to be moved so high that even I can’t even reach them,” he said of the six books that had been challenged.
It suggests a belief that not even adults should be allowed to access books with LGBTQ+ themes. “They’re not just banning books,” Lambert said. “They’re banning thinking.”
The steering committee isn’t expected to vote on the library resolution until next month. Members of the community are still able to file complaints about books.
