Business · Nashville, TN Metro · September 25, 2026
Fired librarian who refused to move LGBTQ books from kids' section sues TN county
Former Rutherford County, Tennessee library director Luanne James filed a federal civil rights lawsuit Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Nashville, according to WPLN News. James was fired in March by an 8–3 vote of the county library board after she refused an order to relocate more than 100 LGBTQ-themed books from the children's section to the adult section. She claims the termination violated discrimination law and her First Amendment rights. James also alleges former board chair Cody York — who had sought removal of such books before joining the board in 2023 — flagged titles containing phrases like "nonbinary teens" and "gay rights movement," and directed her to compile names and addresses of patrons who checked out LGBTQ-themed books, an order she refused. York denies wrongdoing. Hundreds attended the courthouse hearing on her firing; the ACLU of Tennessee has publicly backed her suit. The dispute follows a 2024 directive from Secretary of State Tre Hargett requiring Tennessee libraries to review children's books for age-appropriateness.
Source: WPLN News
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Why Bible-Believing Christians Should Care
This case shows the county board attempting to keep sexually themed material out of the children's section — a modest, protective measure — and now facing a federal lawsuit, ACLU pressure, and accusations of bias for having done so. Bible-believing Christians should note how anti-discrimination and First Amendment claims are increasingly used to reverse decisions meant to shield children from content on gender and sexuality, and how officials who act to protect minors can be personally sued and publicly vilified for it. Scripture takes with utmost seriousness what is placed before children. Christians in local government, on library boards, and in school systems should expect that defending age-appropriate standards will draw legal and cultural opposition, not applause.
But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea. — Matthew 18:6
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From the book
As the Chapter 8b case study showed, the capture of parental authority usually happens by reframing morality as safety. Activists introduce concepts of gender theory or sexual liberation into schools. They do not call it moral instruction, which would be the parent's domain. They call it comprehensive health education, which is the expert's domain. Then when a parent objects to explicit material, the institution answers that these materials were selected by credentialed experts and the parent is not an expert, so the objection is invalid.
— Chapter 18, “The Expert Against the Parent”
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