Some Tennessee Libraries Shut Down For “Emergency Closure” Over Transgender Books
It is unclear how many other libraries have or may need to temporarily shut their doors in order to cull their children’s sections for gender-subversive content.
If you tried to go to libraries in Smyrna and Murfreesboro, Tennessee, sometime this week, you might not be able to access them; instead, you’ll be greeted by an “EMERGENCY CLOSURE” notice, The Murfreesboro Daily News Journal reports.
“In order to meet the new reporting requirements from the TN Secretary of State’s Office, this library will be closed from 11/10/25 to 11/15/25 and reopen Monday, 11/17/25, for the purpose of reviewing inventory,” one poster read.
The “review” of books targeted any books that touch upon gender and gender identity, as per several letters that went out to library systems across the state. It is unclear how many other libraries have or may need to temporarily shut their doors in order to cull their children’s sections for gender-subversive content.
“Library decisions should be shaped by the values of the library’s community,” reads an October letter from the Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett. “Libraries, however, often use state and federal funding that is typically facilitated through the Tennessee State Library & Archives to purchase materials for their collections.”
“It is my responsibility and the responsibility of the State Librarian and Archivist to ensure that any recipient of state or federal funds understands that it must comply with all applicable federal and state laws and grant agreements,” the letter continues.
This provision is what evidently triggered the closures. Regional library systems across the state are now tasked with determining the compliance of books with Tennessee’s “age-appropriateness” laws, as well as federal law and President Donald Trump’s slate of anti-trans executive orders.
“I cannot allow the actions of one library to potentially harm and impact over 200 other libraries throughout the state,” Secretary Hargett writes.
Notably, however, there are no federal bans or restrictions on books about transgender people. Nor are local library book bans addressed in Executive Order 14168, alternately titled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.”
State law does remove certain “sexual” or “violent” books from school libraries, but that does not seem to apply to the County libraries at hand.
Rutherford County Library System Board Chairman Cody York told The Murfreesboro Daily News Journal that the closures were a necessary evil in order to assuage impressionable children from the perils of “gender.”
“The library board has a legal and moral responsibility to protect children, and that would include gender confusion and protecting them from materials that lead them to gender confusion,” York said, adding that a book on “transgenderism” may remain in the library so long as the book is not construed as seeking to “promote it.”
The move sparked outcry from members of the community. Many locals said they were confused and blindsided by the closures on the library’s social media.
“So, the library has to remove books from the entire community so that some up tight busybodies don’t have to parent their own children?” one user said.
“The president has NO authority over local libraries,” said another Facebook commenter on The Journal’s post. “Stop being spineless bootlickers.”
A letter addressed to Linebaugh Public Library in Murfreesboro specifically singled out at least one title, Fred Gets Dressed, by Peter Brown. The children’s book follows a young boy who, as one might surmise from the title, gets dressed. But after trying on some of his dad’s clothes, the child realizes that items from Mom’s closet might be more his speed.
It’s a New York Times best-seller, and it has been rebuked by gender extremists.
The temporary library closures come amidst hundreds of book bans being issued across the United States in conjunction with anti-LGBTQ legislative pushes. Tennessee, especially, is rife with book banning controversies. One such recent effort came from Sumner County and its recently-appointed Board Member Riley Gaines Barker, an ex-college athlete turned anti-trans activist.
The full letter sent by the Secretary of State to the Linebaugh Public Library can be viewed below.
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“emergency” - these religious zealots are cooked
The old world power structure and “gender ideology” of: female equals feminine, and male equals masculine, is really hard to shake for some people. This ancient ideology destroys individual liberty. For how can we be free to live out our peaceful lives while abiding by a institutionalized oligarchy of sex?