The “Heartstopper” graphic novel series will no longer be available to minors at the Columbia-Marion County Public Library after its board agreed to a group of enraged residents’ demands to remove them from the young during a meeting on Friday. They will now be restricted to the adult section.
The board also agreed to initiate a review of every book in the young adult section for possible removal. The “Heartstopper” series, which is also a popular Netflix show, tells the story of two teen boys who fall in love but does not feature any explicit sexual content. The board did not explain its rationale for removing the books from minors’ access.
The library temporarily pulled the series from the shelves after an Aug. 9 meeting in which residents wrongly claimed the books were “pornographic.” One person at that earlier meeting claimed “homosexuals” were using the Heartstopper books “to recruit your kid, my kid and grandkid to get into that lifestyle.” The books also prominently feature a transgender girl.
Marion County Library Director Ryda Worthy and Branch Manager Mona Swayze, who did not have a say in the board’s decision to move the books, told the crowd that the only way a minor can obtain a book from the adult section is with parental permission.
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Within minutes of the board voting to restrict the Heartstopper books on Friday, though, members of the nearly all-white, mostly older crowd began demanding more restrictions on other books.
“Who makes the decisions about buying these books that are not appropriate and are degrading to the morals of America? … Is it God’s will for us to have this type of material that the taxpayers are paying for?” one woman said.
A crowd comprised mostly of white Marion County residents appeared at a Columbia-Marion County Public Library board meeting on Aug. 18, 2023, to call for books they considered offensive to be removed from the young adult section. Photo by Ashton Pittman
Another woman stood up and carried a packet of papers to the board members seated at the front of the
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