Florida School District Ordered Librarians to Remove All Books With Gay Characters, Memo Reveals

A county in Florida took a very literal interpretation of Gov. Ron DeSantis' "Parental Rights in Education Act" — which has been referred to by critics as the "Don't Say Gay" bill — by initially asking school libraries to remove books from their collections that contained any LBGTQ+ characters or themes.

When Charlotte County librarians asked in a July meeting how the new law would impact their collections, superintendent Mark Vianello and lawyer Michael McKinley responded that “books with LBGTQ+ characters are not to be included in classroom libraries or school library media centers," according to a memo seen by the Associated Press.

The county later refined its stance to the website Popular Information, which first reported on the memo, saying that the ban was aimed at elementary and middle schools, and that high school libraries would be allowed to keep books in their collection that include LBGTQ+ characters and themes, although those books could not be included in classroom instruction.

Earlier this week, Popular Information received logs of removed books from Charlotte County high schools and noted that the logs included titles like "The Kite Runner" from Khaled Hosseini and "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" by Stephen Chbosky, among others.

The logs were created after the Florida Freedom to Read project filed a public records request.

Various rules and regulations in Florida schools across the state have been in flux since DeSantis signed the restrictive Parental Rights in Education bill earlier this year, with one expert reporting that many public school educators have lamented to him "why can't they just let us teach?"

Earlier this year, Florida's Lake County was sued by the authors of a book it had removed from library shelves called "And Tango Makes Three," based on the true story of two male penguins in a zoo who raised a baby penguin together.