BREAKING: Alabama Orders Gender and Sexuality Books Moved to Adult Sections or Lose Funding

(Montgomery, AL July 21, 2025) Libraries across Alabama have been ordered to relocate books dealing with gender and sexuality to adult-only sections or risk losing both state and federal funding, according to multiple local news reports.

The directive came in a letter sent Wednesday by John Wahl, chair of the Alabama Public Library Service (APLS) Board, instructing local libraries to remove access to what he described as “gender ideology” in order to comply with executive orders signed by President Donald Trump.

Under those orders, agencies and organizations that recognize so-called “gender ideology” or “transgender procedures” are ineligible for certain educational grants. The terms themselves remain undefined in the guidance issued to libraries.

“This letter makes it clear that federal taxpayer dollars cannot be used to push gender ideology on our children. Libraries should be places of learning, not platforms for social agendas,” Wahl told the Alabama Reflector.

The Reflector also reported that board member Amy Minton proposed a ban on materials addressing “transgender procedures” shortly before Wahl’s announcement.

During discussions earlier this week, a local attorney cited Free Speech Coalition et al. v. Paxton and other rulings to claim such restrictions were legally defensible when aimed at shielding minors from sexually explicit content. Critics note, however, that the Paxton case involved adult video material not library books with occasional sexual references.

In Fairhope, AL, library board chair Randal Wright reviewed some of the challenged titles and found they did not meet any reasonable definition of sexual explicitness.

“They might have a paragraph, or two or three sentences, that are sexual, but it is not written to arouse or titillate,” Wright said.

Mary Campbell, director of the Pelham Public Library, called Wahl’s stance a “misunderstanding,” stating her belief that federal funding is not contingent on removing all references to gender ideology.

National free expression advocates say Alabama’s new policy reflects a larger trend. PEN America reports more than 10,000 book bans occurred in U.S. schools and libraries during the 2023-2024 academic year, with “pornographic” or “sexually explicit” designations often used to justify removals. The American Library Association documented 821 censorship attempts in the same period, targeting 2,452 unique titles.