Texas Library May Face Elimination Weeks After Banned Books Return

Texas officials will meet on Thursday to decide the fate of the Llano County Library System, as the three public branches face closure after a federal judge ordered 12 banned books returned to the shelves this month.

Seven residents sued Llano County over the book ban, noting that all the books contained LGBTQ+ and race-related themes. The residents filed the civil lawsuit in April 2022, alleging their First and 14th Amendment rights were violated when local officials deemed the books too inappropriate and removed them.

A judge on April 1 ordered not only must the books return to library shelves but also be available in the library system's catalogue. When overruling the county's ban, U.S. District Court Judge Robert Pitman, based in Austin, Texas, ruled reinstatement of the banned books within 24 hours.

"Defendants shall return all print books that were removed because of their viewpoint or content," Pitman wrote.

According to the library board, the books were pulled from shelves because they encouraged "child grooming" and contained cartoon nudity.

Newsweek has reached out to the Llano library system and county officials via email Monday night.

The Llano County library ban drew national attention, with many outraged over the book removal, which stemmed from library board officials calling for it "because they disagree with the ideas" contained in the books, according to the lawsuit.

Some of the controversial tiles include: Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, by Isabel Wilkerson; They Called Themselves the K.K.K.: The Birth of an American Terrorist Group, by Susan Campbell Bartoletti; and Being Jazz: My Life as a (Transgender) Teen, by Jazz Jennings.

Book bans have been on the rise in the U.S. over the last few years, and as of last year, there were thousands of banned books in the U.S. Texas has the most in the nation, according to Pen America, a literary and free-expression advocacy organization.

Of all those books banned in schools, 41 percent have LGBTQ+ content, a study found. A record number of demands to censor books also peaked last year, the American Library Association (ALA) found. A record 2,571 unique titles were targeted for censorship in 2022, a 38 percent increase from the 1,858 in 2021, according to the ALA.

A Texas librarian said she was ordered to remove a display in honor of Banned Books Week because one parent complained. Her refusal sparked a viral debate on TikTok and other social media platforms.

In Virginia, 21 books were removed from one school library because of adult content— including works by Stephen King and Margaret Atwood.

The special meeting to determine the future of Llano County libraries is set for 3 p.m. Thursday local time.