Luanne James, the former library director of Tennessee's Rutherford County, has filed a lawsuit against the county's library board after she was terminated for refusing to move LGBTQ+ books from the children's section to the adult section.
The board’s decision to move the roughly 100 children’s books to the adult section followed a statewide “age-appropriateness review” ordered the previous year by Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett, a Republican.
The board also voted to sever its ties with the American Library Association, meaning it is no longer bound by the organization’s code of ethics. Among other principles, the code calls on librarians to uphold intellectual freedom, resist efforts to censor library materials, and separate their personal beliefs from their professional responsibilities.
You can see a news report about James' firing below.
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James filed a federal civil rights lawsuit Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Nashville, accusing Rutherford County’s library board of unlawfully firing her in March in violation of discrimination protections and her First Amendment right to free speech.
The board voted 8-3 to remove James after she refused to comply with an order to move more than 100 books from the children’s section to the adult collection. In March, she told the board "I will not comply" and stressed that "public libraries serve as vital repositories of diverse ideas, both popular and unpopular."
She added:
“Restricting access to these materials through subjective relocation or removal constitutes a violation of the community’s right to information and a direct infringement on the principles of free speech.”
“Our libraries are funded by and for the citizens; therefore, the right to access information–free from government interference–is a protected hallmark of our democracy.”
The lawsuit names individual board members as defendants and alleges that former chair Cody York had a history of hostility toward LGBTQ+ people, including efforts to remove books featuring gay and transgender characters before he joined the board.
According to the complaint, after his appointment in January 2023, York began identifying books he believed promoted “gender confusion,” including works referencing “nonbinary teens,” diversity and inclusion, and the gay rights movement.
James further alleges that York instructed her to create a list identifying patrons who had checked out books with LGBTQ+ themes, including their names, addresses and household information. She refused. York has denied wrongdoing. After she was terminated, York said James was guilty of “insubordination.”
The complaint notes:
“The decision to fire Ms. James was rooted in Defendants’ animus toward gay, non-binary, and transgender persons and in retaliation against Ms. James for associating with and defending them, as well as for refusing to participate in unlawful discrimination and unconstitutional censorship."
When the library board voted to move the books to the adult section, York said:
“I would argue that gender confusion [is] the idea of telling someone that boys aren’t really boys, they can be girls, and girls aren’t really girls, they can be boys, and that you should advocate for [or] encourage the dismembering of healthy sex organs. I don’t think that that’s appropriate for children.”
Many have praised James for continuing to speak out while criticizing the library board's decision.
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York's claims about "gender confusion" have been debunked amid the wider conversation about book bans nationwide.
Medical organizations and healthcare professionals describe gender-affirming care much more broadly. Rather than consisting primarily of surgery or irreversible procedures, it can include mental health support, social support and, in some cases, medical treatments such as puberty blockers.
Many hospitals do not provide gender-affirming surgeries to minors at all. In other words, the evidence cited by medical professionals does not support treating gender-affirming care as synonymous with surgical intervention or the removal of body parts.
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