Tell the Greenville County Library Board to Stop Discriminating and Segregating Books!

The Greenville County Library Board is illegally restricting access to books written for young adults and children. They have ordered the materials moved to a shelving area called the Parenting and Early Childhood collection which is off limits to anyone under 18. They then ordered that books that deal with topics that they are uncomfortable with must be moved to this restricted section.

What books has the Board determined must be restricted? Books featuring children with disabilities. Books that help younger people deal with loss. Books that deal with the topic of gender. Some of the books have been deemed inappropriate for children because a crayon has the wrong wrapper or because a fictitious creature is neither a duck nor a bunny. The message is loud and clear that these children—the ones with disabilities, who don’t conform to traditional roles— are bad and wrong. The restricted area stigmatizes many families and forces them to pick their books up from a different section because they don’t conform to the Board’s idea of what a family should look like.