NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Tennessee's Secretary of State doubts any books will be removed from public libraries following a statewide review that he requested.
In October he sent a letter to all 181 public libraries in Tennessee asking for an "immediate age-appropriateness review" of materials in their juvenile children's sections.
The letter cited Tennessee's recently passed "age-appropriate law" and an Executive Order from President Trump that banned "gender ideology extremism."
Many librarians were shocked by the letter and worried it would lead to mass book removals similar to what has happened in some Tennessee school libraries.
They also questioned exactly what was "age-appropriate" since the state law cited books with "excess violence" or with "descriptions or depictions of sexual excitement."
"Our goal at the end of the day is for every Tennessean who utilizes a library to know that their library is a safe place for their child or anybody in their family to go," Secretary Hargett said on Inside Politics.
Hargett said about half of the libraries have already sent in their reports, which are due next week.
He said some books will likely be moved out of the children's section, but does not expect any books to be removed.
He showed some books identified by libraries as not appropriate for children's sections.
"Here's one on domestic violence, the Oklahoma City bombing and here's one on understanding drugs."
He said those books would be moved to the adult section .
He doubted any books would be removed, including the only book he mentioned by name in his letter - Fred Gets Dressed.
It is a children's book about an 11 year-old boy playing dress-up in his parent's closet.
The boy tries on his dad's and his mom's clothes.
"We've had libraries come back to us and say, 'We've reviewed it. We think it's appropriate for our library. We think that's what our patrons want to see and we believe it's in the right place in our library,' and that's their call," Secretary Hargett said.
Hargett said ultimately county library boards control public libraries.
His office helps distribute federal grants.
He was asked on Inside Politics, "Would you withhold money?"
Hargett responded, "We have no intention of withholding money from any library, zero intention of withholding money from a library."
He even walked back the idea that libraries were required to do this review.
He was surprised Rutherford County shut down its libraries for a week and said his office was just "asking" for a review.
"We asked these libraries to do this. Asked. We can't force them to do it. I guess technically we could, but we asked them. We said please twice. We asked them to complete it by a certain date. We never ordered. We never directed. We never said shall. We never said must," Hargett said.
That may surprise a lot of librarians who have worked on this review.
You can watch the entire interview with the Secretary of State about this on Inside Politics.
It airs at 7pm on Friday night on NewsChannel 5 Plus.
It is also available as a podcast.
Just enter "Inside Politics Nashville" wherever you get your podcasts and start listening.
