The council chamber of the Fairhope Civic Center was filled to the brim with residents, many bearing stickers on their chest stating, "I Support the Fairhope Public Library."

A man, who identified himself as a middle school science teacher, walked up to the podium carrying his infant child in one arm. Addressing Fairhope City Council, he thanked the council for standing up for the Fairhope Public Library while also expressing his own support for the library.

"You don't have control over the state regulations, but teens can handle difficult subjects," he told council. "They have to all the time. When we learn about history, we learn about all sorts of stuff, and the idea that we have this subsection that they're freaked out about is just unfortunate."

The teacher was one of a many in the crowd of Fairhope residents who attended the council meeting Monday night not to discuss typical topics like rezoning proposals and infrastructure funding, but to voice their support for the library after the Alabama Public Library Services (APLS) voted to halt around $40,000 in state funding over 35 books it deemed "inappropriate."

Last week, APLS said it violated their policies and guidelines by not removing the books in question.

"The APLS Board has a strong track record of defending parental rights and safeguarding children from sexually explicit material," APLS Chairman John Wahl said in a prepared statement. "Recent code changes made it clear that local libraries had to relocate inappropriate content from youth sections. Our goal is not to punish anyone but to ensure that all libraries receiving state funding adhere to the established standards that protect our children."

HOW WE GOT HERE

The decision to pull funding came after complaints from several individuals, including those from Moms For Liberty.

Adopted in May 2024 under recommendation of Gov. Kay Ivey, APLS's new rules state libraries must adopt new policies that prevent children from receiving material deemed inappropriate or sexually explicit or risk losing state funding.

Some of the books cited include "Sold," a National Book Award finalist centering around a girl who is sold into sexual slavery in India, "Tricks," a story about five teens that features themes of drug abuse, sexual abuse and mental health, and "Sex Is a Funny Word," a book promoted as an educational resource for addressing topics such as gender, sexuality and consent to children ages 8 through 10.

The Fairhope Public Library requires children under the age of 13 to be accompanied by an adult. In addition, they also have a library card system based on age, with both all-access cards for adults and cards with restricted access for teens (ages 13-17) and juveniles (ages 3-12).

Though others libraries in the state, such as the Birmingham Public Library and the Montgomery City-County Public Library, list some of these books as being on their shelves, Wahl said what made the Fairhope Public Library stand out was that it "ignored" parents' complaints and concerns over the placement of the books in their teen section.

"The Fairhope library received those complaints," Wahl told 1819 News, a news site that launched in 2021 as a subsidiary of the conservative state think tank Alabama Policy Institute. "They refused to give parents redress of grievances, saying the books had already been challenged and it would not rehear a challenge for five years, but that was after changed policies both at the state level and the county level. The Fairhope library had multiple parents reach out to them. That separated the Fairhope library from the rest of the state as a refusal to listen to local parents."

Wahl, who also serves as the chair for the Alabama Republican Party, previously said on radio that the library might have to serve as "an example" for others due to noncompliance with their state code.

The announcement has created somewhat of a panic in the community. Some residents accused APLS of caving to the demands of conservative groups without regard for the local community's input while also saying that APLS's rules are too vague and subjective.

An open letter from February, signed by 100 parents and addressed to Wahl, expressed concerns to withhold funding and reinforced their support for the library.

"We stand united in defense of its [the library's] mission to provide access to knowledge and uphold the principles of intellectual freedom. We call on you to cease your threats and intimidation and to engage with our community in good faith, rather than casting dispersions and threatening funding, and invite you to recognize the Fairhope Public Library as a model of excellence that reflects the needs and values of the community it serves," the letter reads.

In response to that letter, Wahl stated in Feb. 7 email that the library was in compliance with APLS guidelines. However, he and others on the APLS board would withhold funding over a month later.

Other residents who spoke during Monday's meeting included a health care provider who explained the importance of providing sexual education materials in libraries and a woman who brought a copy of "Sold" to the meeting, advocating its importance of human trafficking awareness.

Fairhope Mayor Sherry Sullivan said she has been in communication with Wahl about the issue. She clarified that state funding has only been paused and they have already received two installments of their quarterly payments, with their next installment not coming until June. She says the library is under compliance with their guidelines and hopes they will come to a resolution as quickly as possible.

Sullivan and council members also clarified that they have no intentions of defunding the library locally and expressed their support for the library and its staff. Council President Jack Burrell said that while the city will follow the law and comply with APLS's policies, he criticized the state group for a lack of due process, having decided to pause funding before an investigation began.

"I don't like the fact that someone, just anybody, can go to Montgomery and make some comments and cause a pause in our funding without further investigation," Burrell said. "I am very pleased they are going to come and visit the library, but that's not America. America allows due process. I'm not trying to pick a fight with the APLS, but I want to send a message that I don't think that's OK."

Wahl said funding to the library could be restored if the library shows it has complied with its rules and guidelines. City officials and library representatives have indicated that Wahl will visit the library sometime in the near future to check if they are in compliance with APLS.

COMMUNITY RESPONSE

Sullivan said she was never notified of the potential violations and was unaware of the situation until she received an email informing her that funding to the library was put on hold.

The cut to funding also came as a surprise to members of Fairhope's library board. Randal Wright, secretary of the board, said she was eating lunch when she got a call from the library's director, Rob Gourlay, about the news.

"I was stunned, devastated," Wright said. "We had no idea that was going to happen."

Read Freely Alabama, a group of Alabamians against censorship in public libraries, condemned APLS's decision.

"Ignoring the voices of actual Fairhope taxpayers and library users, the APLS board, four of whom are openly in bed with Moms For Liberty and Clean Up Alabama, revoked Fairhope Library's funding, ignoring the board's due process for challenged materials and ignoring, once again, the parents of Alabama who have spoken in support of intellectual freedom," Read Freely Alabama said in a statement. "This decision was made without any transparency to the community. This is not small government — this is big government reaching into the public institutions designed to serve all Alabamians and destroying constitutional rights."

The Fairhope chapter of Read Freely started a fundraiser in an attempt to replenish the estimated $42,000 loss of state funding. At the city council meeting, it was revealed the library would only need half of that cost. They raised over $35,000 in four days.

LIBRARY BATTLEGROUNDS

In recent years, libraries have been at the center of America's culture war, with conservative groups such as Moms For Liberty and Clean Up Alabama pushing for certain books to be removed from children's and teen sections of libraries. Many of the challenged books include material that contains LGBTQ+ characters and themes.

Fairhope is not the only city in Alabama that has been in the spotlight. In Prattville, efforts to reassess contents of the Autauga-Prattville Public Library resulted in the appointment of an entirely new board of trustees, the firing of a former library director and a federal lawsuit against the library over its new content policies that critics say restrict free speech.

In previous reporting by GCM, other libraries throughout Baldwin County generally seemed to have changed their policies to adhere to the new state rules without having books challenged publicly.

The Fairhope Public Library has previously been at odds with these groups. Last year, Clean Up Alabama called for Fairhope officials to cut $250,000 of capital money to the library and demanded the resignation of the library's board chair after they defended the placement of books within the library, including books that covered sexual education and transgender themes.

Wright, the Fairhope library board's secretary, said she believes the library has not been given proper guidance on what is and isn't considered inappropriate and sexually explicit material by the state as well as the state's definition of a minor. She also denied that the library has been uncooperative with reviewing its material and ignoring complaints from parents, saying the challenged books went through an extensive reconsideration process and they felt none of the books in question were inappropriate.

"I think if you looked at a teenager and called him a child, they'd get a little upset with you." Wright said. "I really feel that's a prejudicial statement on their part when they call it children because for me, if you say children, I'm thinking [7-9-year-] olds. I'm not thinking [14-16-] year-olds. … Yes, it does say children, and [the code] also uses the term minor, so, of course, that does include up to 17 years. It says inappropriate and sexually explicit. Those are two, to me, very subjective words and expressions. What you think is sexually explicit, I might not think it is."

Some Fairhopians, including city officials and library staff, also took offense to Mr. Whal calling the Fairhope Public Library "the worst in the state" in regard to his criticism that the library refused to relocate books that were deemed questionable.

"I have some fear for our library because I think this is difficult for the staff here." Wright said. "When someone calls us the worst library in the state of Alabama, [the staff] work hard every day to make this the fabulous library that it is. I think this has been and is continuing to be a difficult time."

Burrell, the council's president, said during Monday's meeting he thinks "we are the best library in the state."

"We can have a difference of opinion on what is appropriate or not," he said. "These are trained professionals [at the library] doing what they think is right by the law, and if there is a misinterpretation or something that is missed, we'll make that right, but I don't think we were given our due process."

Despite support for the library at the meeting, Wahl stood his ground.

"The APLS board has been very consistent in our commitment to safeguarding Alabama children from sexually explicit material," Wahl said. "We want to make it absolutely clear — non-compliance with APLS code is not an option. There are no gray areas, loopholes or exceptions when it comes to keeping sexually explicit materials out of children's sections. These are common-sense requirements that prevent innocent children from accidentally stumbling across sexually explicit material without their parents' consent. Any library that refuses to move these books to the adult section will not receive state funding. Period."