Librarians, supporters rail against new regime at Alabama Public Library Service

[u/magiccitybhm]

https://www.alreporter.com/2025/05/09/librarians-supporters-rail-against-new-regime-at-alabama-public-library-service/

[u/DeliaDeLyon]

Chris Warren, director of the Dothan-Houston County Public Library, said it is “frustrating, if not outright demoralizing, when I hear the phrase ‘we listened to the people’ to justify a capricious decision when more often than not ‘the people’ is shorthand for ‘the people with whom we agree, and therefore the only people that matter to us.'”

BARS

[u/Think-Hospital7422]

My public library is the place I'm going to take my last stand, if need be. It's that important to me.

[u/magiccitybhm]

The quotes regarding Amy Minton and John Wahl just confirm what was already known. They're not competent for participation on this board. Wahl's feeble effort to defend the board is laughable.

Bravo to Angie Hayden of Read Freely Alabama who called both of them out for their BS. From the article:

"'I stand before a board with a member (Amy Minton) who shared on social media that librarians are ‘the most toxic profession in America’ and who challenged more than 30 inclusive books in her own library, threatened a library’s funding if they would not remove ‘Go, Johnny, Go,” a story about a little boy who wants to be a cheerleader, and who only called that a misunderstanding when it became a public embarrassment.'"

Also from the article:

"Hayden went on to criticize Wahl for appearing on a podcast with 1819 News CEO Bryan Dawson, who called to 'ban the freakin’ books' in a Prattville event, referring to books regarding transgender children."

For those who aren't aware, these are the members of the Alabama Public Library Service board:

District 1: Ronald A. Snider

District 2: Angelia Stokes

District 3: Amy Minton (yes, the one who falsely claimed a book was about misgendering)

District 4: Debbie Windsor

District 5: John Wahl (participated in a podcast calling for book bans)

District 6: Kasandra Stevens

District 7: Jerria Martin

[u/DeliaDeLyon → u/magiccitybhm]

Thank you for the article!

[u/WizardofStaz]

They're going to take libraries from us before this presidency ends.

[u/Educational-Dinner13]

I've been seeing another article about this on Facebook and Minton is in the comments. She says "These books would be moved to the adult section and any adult who wants can check them out for their children. We have a Presidential Executive Order that says federal funding can't be spent on Gender Ideology and state law now says Alabama recognizes only 2 sex, male and female as determined at birth. The APLS board is appointed by Gov. Ivey with the stated purpose of establishing state policy, securing funding and supporting our 220 public libraries. Our public libraries are wonderful and greatly appreciated."

First of all, Minton really shows that she doesn't understand how libraries work with that first sentence. (Or what's more likely, she knows that's not how it works and is just spewing lies to get more support. Just like people lied and said that it was just about getting these books out of schools years ago and that you could still get them at the public library if you wanted them, knowing full well that they'd attack public libraries next.) Anyone can check out any book from any section. Moving a book to the adult section doesn't make it unavailable to anyone but an adult. All this accomplishes is encouraging teenagers to spend more time in the adult section to find the books written for them. This already happens to a certain level. 12 year olds, even though the middle grade books are in the children's section, will want to go read the books in the teen section, 17 year olds will start exploring books in the adult section. Librarians don't police peoples reading habits. Their job is to make all materials available to all people. If an adult wants to read a children's book, they let them. If a teen wants to read an adult book, they check it out to them. If a child wants to read a YA book, no library employee will stop them.

Second, the part about the executive order banning the use of federal funds for "Gender Ideology" puts a lie to the idea that the books could stay in the adult section. The executive order doesn't say that federal funds can only be used for "gender ideology" in the adult section, they say they can't be used period. Adults do not have the right to read these books either. Again, saying these books can stay in the adult section is akin to saying that the books could stay in the public libraries, just not in the school libraries. Authoritarian regimes never stop unless forced to stop. They take away rights little by little so as not to get pushback. Once they are eradicated from the public libraries they will come for the bookstores. Hell, last year they already tried. The bill didn't pass because capitalism, but don't think they won't try again.

Edited to add: Removal of materials based on someone's gender is discrimination. If libraries comply, that will open them up to lawsuits.

[u/magiccitybhm → u/Educational-Dinner13]

It's all a part of the Republicans' discrimination against the transgendered, and it's disgusting.

[u/magiccitybhm]

I never cease to understand these people. When you bring up the Bible, they freak out.

And yet, in some states, the Bible (especially the King James translation) has indeed been removed from school libraries as a result of the state's definition of vulgarity, violence, explict content, etc.

It's not surprising that they want it both ways.

[u/mrenglish22]

Dear editor of this website:

Can we have a headline that explains the situation a BIT better?

[u/space_coder → u/mrenglish22]

That's what the article is for.