Three children's book authors and an Alabama anti-censorship nonprofit have filed a federal lawsuit against the Alabama Public Library Service and its executive board, arguing that rules restricting books about transgender people and gender identity amount to unconstitutional, discriminatory censorship. The suit targets a set of administrative-code changes that direct libraries to pull or relocate certain titles to adult sections or risk losing state funding.
The lawsuit, filed by Democracy Forward on behalf of authors Christyl “Kit” Rosewater, Page Powars and Phoenix McDonald along with Read Freely Alabama, challenges a regulation that singles out “any materials regarding transgender procedures, gender ideology, or the concept of more than two biological genders” as potentially inappropriate for children and youth, according to the Washington Blade. Under the rule, libraries must remove or relocate those materials to adult sections to remain eligible for state funding. Read Freely Alabama is described as a nonprofit dedicated to protecting against censorship in the state.
Authors Say Their Own Books Are Caught in the Crossfire
Rosewater, Powars and McDonald have each authored children's books featuring transgender characters, and the lawsuit argues the policy unfairly targets transgender people while restricting minors' access to constitutionally protected materials. Rosewater's young adult novel, Buried Feelings, features a transgender character and is marketed to readers under 18, per the Blade's reporting. The plaintiffs also contend the rule is unconstitutionally vague and overbroad, open to arbitrary, content-based enforcement by library staff and state officials.
As reported by AL.com, the plaintiffs are suing members of the Alabama Public Library Service executive board, arguing the unelected board mandated that libraries remove and exclude books based on its own subjective judgments about what residents should be able to access. Gadsden Public Library reportedly decided not to purchase the authors' books after the March 2026 code change took effect, according to the same report.
A Policy Years in the Making
Alabama libraries have faced controversy over book content since 2023, and the current dispute traces back to a 2024 letter Governor Kay Ivey sent to the Alabama Public Library Service board, which AL.com reports set off a chain of events leading to two legislative code changes. The first mandated that libraries risk losing state funding if they carry books deemed inappropriate for children; the second specified that books containing transgender characters count as inappropriate under that standard.
John Wahl, who chairs the Alabama Public Library Service executive board and is now a Republican candidate for lieutenant governor, has supported the restrictions on books with LGBTQ themes, according to Alabama Reflector. The board withheld aid from Fairhope Public Library after Wahl accused it of violating state code by not moving books — including Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale — out of its teen section, the outlet reported. The Times Free Press has reported that Fairhope remains the only library to have forfeited state aid for refusing to move materials the board objected to.
Confusion, Costs and a Compliance Push
The rollout has been expensive and confusing for libraries statewide. A survey by the Alabama Library Association found that 14 state libraries collectively spent $117,000 and more than 4,600 hours complying with the administrative-code changes, Alabama Reflector reported, even though roughly 97% of surveyed libraries said APLS ultimately approved their submitted policies. Library directors told the outlet they struggled because terms like “sexually explicit” and “gender ideology” were never defined in the rules themselves.
Compliance deadlines have also been murky. AL.com reported in March that libraries had until September 30 to comply with the newer prohibition without losing state funding, while WAFF reported that libraries had until October 1 to get updated policies approved by the state or face an immediate freeze on aid. The Alabama Library Association has said libraries were not required to be fully compliant before September 30, according to Alabama Political Reporter.
WAFF reported that under the new rules, all minor library cards must default to a restricted status, requiring written parental consent before a child can check out materials from adult collections. At a September board meeting, six people spoke in favor of hiring an assistant director to enforce the restrictions in youth sections or withhold funding from libraries that had not complied, with board member Amy Minton pushing for the agency to create that temporary compliance role. The outlet also reported that many of the roughly 900 catalog results Minton had flagged were not even shelved in youth sections, though Minton was separately reported elsewhere as having circulated a list of nearly 9,000 books she said could indicate noncompliance — a discrepancy that remains unresolved in public reporting.
Beyond Alabama's Library Shelves
The lawsuit warns that the regulation's vague language could sweep in classic and mainstream literature, including Louisa May Alcott's Little Women, Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor and David Levithan's Every Day, according to the Blade. Nationally, the American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom tallied 821 attempts to censor books and programming in 2024, involving more than 2,400 challenged titles, AL.com has reported, with Alabama's own 2023 numbers showing more than 100 challenged books, about 74% of them featuring LGBTQ characters or themes.
Alabama's library fights have already produced other legal battles. The Autauga-Prattville Public Library's policies banning LGBTQ+ books from sections for minors remain the subject of a yearslong lawsuit, Alabama Political Reporter has reported, and AL.com noted that the APLS board has also discussed a separate federal lawsuit filed by the Eagle Forum of Alabama against the Tuscaloosa Public Library.
The Alabama Public Library Service responded to an inquiry from the Blade but declined to comment on the new lawsuit. AL.com reported that it had sought comment from Gadsden Public Library, the Alabama Public Library Service, its board members, John Wahl, Amy Minton and Ron Snider.
