Texas Superintendent Orders LGBTQ Books Be Removed From Schools in Leaked Audio

Conservative elected officials across the country have introduced proposals targeting transgender people, and especially trans children. This is particularly true in Texas, where Republican Governor Greg Abbott issued a directive to the state's child services department, ordering them to investigate the parents of trans kids for child abuse. Meanwhile, far-right Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton was flagged on Twitter for calling Biden's Assistant Health Secretary, Dr. Rachel Levine—who happens to be a transgender woman—a man.

Now, a North Texas superintendent has been caught on tape railing against LGBTQ people and demanding the removal of any and all school library books that mention same-sex attraction or transgender people, the Texas Tribune reports.

Jeremy Glenn is the superintendent of the Granbury Independent School District, and at a meeting with librarians in the district this past January, he discussed the uptick in complaints from parents regarding the contents of the books in their kids' schools. But what started as a discussion about parental complaints soon devolved into an anti-trans and anti-gay tirade.

Listen below.

After mentioning the availability of a book with answers for students discovering their sexuality and gender, Glenn said:

“I don’t want a kid picking up a book, whether it’s about homosexuality or heterosexuality, and reading about how to hook up sexually in our libraries. And I’m going to take it a step further with you. There are two genders. There’s male, and there’s female. And I acknowledge that there are men that think they’re women. And there are women that think they’re men. And again, I don’t have any issues with what people want to believe, but there’s no place for it in our libraries.”

He didn't stop there, emphasizing that his call for the removal of LGBT-themed books was consistent with Governor Abbott's policies:

“Specifically, what we’re getting at, let’s call it what it is, and I’m cutting to the chase on a lot of this,” Glenn said. “It’s the transgender, LGBTQ and the sex — sexuality — in books. That’s what the governor has said that he will prosecute people for, and that’s what we’re pulling out.”

He further reminded librarians of the community's heavily conservative values, warning anyone who disagreed with these to "hide" their beliefs.

Glenn's comments are reflective of a broader conservative outcry over supposedly mature themes being taught in schools. This hysteria has elevated from public complaints to school board officials to legislation like House Bill 1557 in Florida, colloquially known as the "Don't Say Gay" law.

Social media users condemned Glenn's rant, with some expressing .

They voiced their opposition to Glenn's and similar conservative efforts.

Glenn's order resulted in the removal of 130 books from the district's libraries. After being reviewed by a committee this month, only three were deemed inappropriate for students, according to the Tribune.