Political and legal threats were verbally issued Tuesday against the Fairhope City Council over what conservative critics of the city’s library board say is inaction from elected officials to do what they feel is required by the state on relocating “sexually explicit” books shelved in children and teen sections.
Supporters of the library say that the critics simply want to make political noise ahead of the August municipal elections over an issue that has garnered national and statewide attention for Fairhope.
They also urged Fairhope city officials and the library board to stand up against efforts they believe amount to censorship, and which could be violations to past federal court decisions over defining obscenity.
“The world is watching,” said Jeanine Normand, a Fairhope resident and library supporter.
Book reviews
Outside the Fairhope Public Library on Monday, April 21, 2025, in downtown Fairhope, Ala.John Sharp
The two opinions clashed during a sometimes fiery and emotional three-hour public comment period that focused on decisions at the Fairhope Public Library and included a host of personal stories about experiences at libraries.
The controversy stems from several years of national culture war battles over LGBTQ-related content and other sensitive material in children and teen sections. And despite the lengthy appeals from both sides of the debate, there appears to be little the council is able to do or plans to do to squelch the controversy.
“I don’t think there is anything being asked at this point,” said Fairhope Mayor Sherry Sullivan, who plans to officially kick off her re-election campaign Wednesday. “There are two books they are leaving (in the teen section). There are some people not happy about that decision. They feel there is sexually explicit content in them. But our library board has reviewed that and didn’t feel that way.”
The library board is reviewing another 12-14 books, Sullivan said, and has already relocated six other books from the teen to adult sections. Library supporters say the process is playing out as it should be, with library board members reading each of the challenged books to ensure they are shelved in an appropriate area.
The library board, in a vote last week, decided to keep two books that were challenged and subsequently reviewed, within the teen section. Those two books were “Sold” about sexual slavery in India, and “Grown,” which is about sexual exploitation.
Library board members said neither book, in its full context, contains obscenity as defined through federal law, nor do they violate community standards on what can be displayed inside the Fairhope Public Library.
Board critics claim the books contain content that violates the Alabama Public Library Service Board’s lengthy definition of what constitutes “sexually explicit” content. A new code adopted by the APLS board last year requires those books to be relocated from children and teen sections to adult sections, regardless of educational value.
Related: First Amendment dispute intensifies as Alabama libraries resist book relocation demands
Political, legal threats
Books that have either been banned from a library or challenged at an Alabama library on display during a town hall meeting hosted by the organization Read Freely Alabama on Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024, at the Fairhope Unitarian Fellowship in Fairhope, Ala.John Sharp
The fallout from the library concerns and other hot-button culture war issues, including the use of public facilities during LGBTQ Pride Month last June, prompted conservative critics to blast the council and plea with the public to file to run for office. The municipal election is Aug. 26.
The critics also blasted the awarding of the library board as the volunteers of the year, an annual award given to city residents.
“You are not on board with the Trump agenda,” said Fairhope attorney Brian Dasinger to the council, referring to Trump’s executive order that prevents federal funding to agencies promoting “gender ideology.”
He called the council “worthless,” and that anyone who votes for them in August might as well be voting for former Democratic President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. Fairhope city elections are non-partisan. He noted that Fairhope is an overwhelmingly Republican city.
Wendy Pickering of Orange Beach, who recently raised concerns about books at libraries in the Baldwin County Public Schools, then threatened the Fairhope officials with a legal claim.
“We are not asking books to be burned or banned,” she said. “We are asking them to be properly shelved.”
Library supporters said the library board critics are prioritizing politics more than worrying about children stumbling upon a controversial book.
They also said they supported the city’s librarians to decide the best way to run the library and urged elected officials not to cave under pressure from critics.
“The six of you should not be called ‘worthless’ and not be threatened,” said Emyle Mann of Fairhope, referring to the five council members and Sullivan. “It‘s unfair and unprofessional.”
“Please don’t be bullied by these people to do their agenda,” said William Henry of Fairhope. “They have shown their true colors and it‘s political.”
The library board critics also called the board “rogue” and the city council as “woke,” while city officials defended board members as unpaid volunteers who do not have a political agenda.
“They are trying to do the right thing,” said Fairhope City Councilman Jimmy Conyers, the library board’s liaison who noted that board members were reading some of the books that have been challenged to determine if they should be reshelved from teen to adult sections. “At the end of the day, I believe in the library board and our librarians. The processes they’ve gone through have been adequate.”
Dueling sides
Rebecca Watson, who heads up the Baldwin County chapter of Moms for Liberty, said their concerns is about the city following state policies adopted last year by the Alabama Public Library Service (APLS) Board that ties state funding to “sexually explicit” books shelved in non-adult sections.
Watson’s challenges of the city’s library content were made before the APLS board in March and prompted the board to temporarily suspend $42,000 of annual state funding for the library. The city provides the lion’s share of the library’s operations, which amounts to around $1 million annually. City officials say they do not plan to cut the funding.
The APLS board, behind its chairman and Alabama State Republican Party chairman John Wahl, says the Fairhope library board remains in violation of state law.
Wahl said last week that the Fairhope library board remains in violation until it reshelves what he calls inappropriate content for children to adult sections of the library.
However, there has been some confusion over Wahl’s position. In February, who wrote a letter suggesting the Fairhope Library Board was in compliance with the APLS codes.
“We have been coming here for a while,” Watson said, referring to council meetings dating back to 2023, when conservative activists and parents criticized the city over a host of concerns including library content. “We had to go to the APLS. They have policies that need to be followed. I followed up with the library board and did my due diligence and considered reconsideration on books and all were denied.”
An online fundraiser, organized by the anti-censorship group Read Freely Alabama, raised over $46,000 to supplant the loss state funding. Watson said she reviewed the 650 donations and determined that over 64% of the funding came from people who “do not live here,” and that about a quarter of the donations came from Fairhope residents.
Elizabeth Williams, the Baldwin County chapter organizer for Read Freely Alabama, said her review showed that 42% of donations came locally, and that the “vast majority” of support came from Alabama residents.
“The U.S. Constitution and the First Amendment is what we’re speaking about here,” said Williams. “Do we stand up to censorship? Do we roll over? If we do that, we are letting down all the other libraries in the state watching to see what we do. They don’t have our resources. They don’t have the (ability to raise) 47 grand that we can raise overnight.”
Williams argued that the library board is following a procedure of reviewing books that have been challenged. She classified Watson and other critics as “certain members of our community who don’t like the outcome of those reviews. But that doesn’t make them obscene or inappropriate.”
Diverse population
Williams spoke after Watson’s presentation. After Watson spoke, the library board critics left the council chambers before the public comment period was over.
Fairhope City Councilman Kevin Boone applauded the people who stayed for the entire public hearing. Some in the remaining audience did include library critics, but the majority of speakers throughout the night expressed support for the library board.
“After listening to both sides of this discussion, I‘m not real big of people coming up giving their one side and walking out the door and not listening to what anyone else has to say,” Boone said. “We need to be here listening to both sides.”
Sullivan said she has been in discussions with Wahl over how the APLS board will handle appeals of books, and said the two had initially talked about the formation of a three-person committee that would provide a “second opinion.” However, there has been no update from those talks, she said.
“We serve a diverse population and that is where the challenge lies,” Sullivan said. “I appreciate everyone being respectful and here tonight. We are all free thinkers. We like living in a democracy and like living in a community of having a diversity of opinions and being respectful of that.”