The Biden administration announced Tuesday it is investigating a Texas school district that removed LGBTQ themed books from its library shelves.
In January, Granbury ISD removed 130 books from its library shelves, including books with LGBTQ themes including “This Book Is Gay” and “Being Jazz: My Life as a (Transgender) Teen,” according to the Texas Tribune. Following the removal of the books, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a complaint to the Department of Education’s (DOE) Office of Civil Rights regarding a secret recording of Superintendent Jeremy Glenn ordering district librarians to remove books with LGBTQ themes and characters. (RELATED: ‘This Is Truly About The Kids’: Parents Challenging Explicit Content In Schools Respond To ‘Book Banners’ Label)
“The Office for Civil Rights can confirm that there is an open investigation into Granbury ISD under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972,” a DOE spokesperson told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “We do not comment on pending investigations.”
The ACLU filed their complaint after reporting by NBC News, the Texas Tribune and ProPublica which revealed the secret recording of Glenn. The statements by Glenn create a “pervasively hostile atmosphere” for the LGBTQ community, the ACLU stated.
“If parents make an outcry about a child who needs to have conversations as it relates to their gender or their sexuality . . . the library is not a place for them to go get that,” Glenn said to district librarians according to the ACLU complaint. “We are an academic institution, our libraries will be treated as such. If they want to get more information about how to become transgender or sex, go to the public library. There’s no place for it in our libraries.”
An instructor leads a classroom discussion at the Xavier Academy on August 23, 2021 in Houston, Texas. In-person classroom sessions are resuming and schools around Houston are requiring mask mandates, keeping in accordance with CDC guidelines. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
Of the books removed from the school district library shelves, 75% contained LGBTQ content, according to the ACLU. Glenn stated that the books removed were “sexually explicit” and “pornographic.”
“Superintendent Glenn’s comments and the district’s actions regarding books create a chilling atmosphere in which students who reveal their sexual orientation or gender identity risk opprobrium, stigma and exposing themselves to further discrimination,” the ACLU complaint stated. “The message is clear: these students should ‘hide’ their full selves in order to be accepted in Granbury ISD.”
Granbury ISD and the ACLU did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.
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