The Oconee County Library Board on Tuesday, in split votes, decided to leave a challenged book, My Rainbow, by Trinity and DeShanna Neal, in the children’s picture book section of the Oconee County Library in Wire Park.
The Board first voted down, 3 to 5, a motion to accept the recommendation of its own Book Action Committee to move the book, which tells the story of a mother and her transgender daughter, to the young adult nonfiction section of the library.
The Board then voted 5 to 2, with one abstention, to approve a motion to leave the book in the children’s picture book section in the library.
Nicholas Bennett had challenged the book, saying his five-year-old daughter “does not need to learn about transitioning genders at her age.” Bennett said he had not read the book and had discovered the book by asking a librarian for it.
Library Board Member Wanda Stitt-Gohdes, responding to the Book Action Committee recommendation, said the book “won't be read in young adults. It is a picture book for children.”
“Moving that book to a section where it is inaccessible to the intended audience is censorship,” Board Member Laura Moore said.
Only five people other than board members and library staff attended the meeting at the Bogart Library on Tuesday, and no one spoke during the public comment section of the meeting.
In other action, the Board voted unanimously to accept the recommendation of its Art Committee to re-open its request for proposals for art for inside and outside the library in Wire Park.
Request For Reclassification
Bennett filed out his Request for Reconsideration on Aug. 9, saying that he had “asked a team member” to find My Rainbow at the Oconee County Library.
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| Vote To Accept Book Action Committee Recommendation 10/21/2025 |
Bennett said he had not read the book, but he said “This book is not appropriate to be in the kids section. My 5 year old daughter does not need to learn about transitioning genders at her age and the other words used in this book.”
He said the library “should put them in another section if you keep in the library. I should not have to read a book that my kid picks out beforehand.”
The staff recorded acceptance of the request on Aug. 10.
Valerie Bell, Director of the Athens Regional Library System at the time, told the Board at its April 2024 meeting that the system had received 13 Requests for Reconsideration since July of 2023, with 12 of those in Oconee County and one in Franklin County.
The Board has moved some of those books, and left others as originally classified.
Bennett’s request was the first the Board has received and addressed since April of last year.
Committee Reviews
The review process when a Request for Reconsideration is filed involves two committees, one made up of professional librarians in the Athens Regional Library System and the other made up of members of the Oconee County Library Board.
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| Norris 10/21/2023 |
The Athens Regional Library System’s Library Staff Review Committee had recommended that My Rainbow remain in the children’s picture book section.
“The filer’s complaints are centered on their own opinions about transgender people and a desire to avoid discussing the topic with their children,” the State Review Committee wrote in its report.
“We respect every patron’s right to hold their own opinions,” the report continues, “but the library’s collections must be representative of everyone in the community.”
The Oconee County Library Board’s Book Action Committee recommended that My Rainbow be moved from the children’s picture book section to the young adult nonfiction section of the library.
“There was a concern that a seed could be planted in a young child’s mind that could introduce gender confusion,” the report of the Book Action Committee stated.
In presenting that report to the full Board on Tuesday, Library Board Chair Rubielen Norris said “We did have a very detailed, lengthy discussion” when the Book Action Committee met on Sept. 9.
“We are looking at the best way for the book to be used and the proper place for it to be in the library,” she said.
Board Response
When Rubin had finished her comments, Stitt-Gohdes said “I think it's an unfortunate decision to make on this book.”
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| Stitt-Gohdes 10/21/2023 |
“It won't be read in young adults,” she continued. “It is a picture book for children.”
“The decision was made to do all this based on someone not even having read the book,” she said. “That seems really counterintuitive.”
“A child is not going to go into the young adult section to find a picture book,” Moore said. “It is a children's book. “It is meant for ages four through eight.”
Moore said the Board’s role “is not to pass judgment on what we are uncomfortable with. If I'm uncomfortable with a book about guns, then I don't check it out for my children.”
“To be in the children's section, she continued, “a child under 11 has to have a parent with them. So by moving that book to a section where it is unaccessible to the intended audience is censorship.”
Rachel Watson, one of five Board members on the Book Action Committee, responded to Moore and Stitt-Gohdes, saying “We discussed all this, in terms of, yes, the person who made the complaint didn't read the book.”
“And I mean, frankly, we debated this issue for two hours, and, as I told Rubelein (Norris), at that point, it was a compromise. I am not for moving the book at all.”
More Discussion
“The library is not in a position to act as a parent,” Board Member Angela Moss-Hill said. “So a parent should be in the library with their child.”
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| Hansford 10/21/2023 |
“I cannot imagine our moving a book in the library to a place where a child would never find it,” she added.
Kelly Hansford, who also served on the Book Action Committee, said “I had to look up the definition a word, and I’m 60 years old.”
“I had to look up cisgender,” she said. “I know what transgender is but I had to look up cis. I also had to look at the page really closely when it used they/them pronouns without explaining."
"So there were times when I think the assumption is made that four year olds understand these things,” she said.
“I also had a concern that he--the parent who was concerned about the book--said that he should not have to read the book to decide if it was appropriate for his child,” Board member Daphne Norton said.
“And I feel like if the child cannot check out a book without a parent, then I think that it is the parent's role and that that's not something we should be policing,” she added.
Norris, Watson, Hansford, Deann Craft, and Amanda Marable served on the Book Action Committee. Marable did not attend the meeting on Tuesday.
Two Votes
When discussion ended, Board Member Fred Lutz made a motion to accept the recommendation of the Book Action Committee, and Hansford seconded the motion.
Craft, Hansford, and Lutz voted in favor, and Watson, Moss-Hill, Stitt-Gohdes, Moore, and Norton voted against.
Watson then made a motion not to move My Rainbow from the children’s picture book section of the Oconee County Library. Stitt-Gohdes seconded the motion.
Watson, Moss-Hill, Stitt-Gohdes, Moore, and Norton voted in favor, with Craft and Hansford voting against. Lutz abstained.
Arts Committee
Norton, who chairs the Art Committee, told the full Board at the Tuesday meeting before the discussion of the Request for Reconsideration that, based on feedback from the Board and “based on interest from some other artists in the area, the Art Committee is proposing that we reopen” the requests for proposals.
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| Norton 10/21/2023 |
At its August meeting, the Board heard presentations from two artists and discussed a proposal from a third but did not make any decision on the proposals.
Norton said some Board members had “expressed sort of surprise that we only had three proposals for the art installation."
Norton said of the three existing applicants “as long as they're still interested, they're actively part of the submission pool.”
“We're still hoping that the artists will be Georgia artists,” Norton said, “but we're going to try some other avenues of sending out information to make people aware of the RFP.”
One difference, Norton said, is that the Committee will collaborate with OCAF, the Oconee Cultural Arts Foundation, in distributing the request.
The Board approved the Art Committee recommendation that the request for proposals be reopened.
Other members of the Arts Committee are Moore and Moss-Hill.
Video
The video below is of the Oct. 21, 2025, meeting of the Oconee County Library Board of Trustees.
Norton gave her report on the work of the Art Committee at 21:55 in the video.
Norris began her report on the Book Action Committee at 27:18 in the video.
Stitt-Gohdes began the discussion of that recommendation at 31:27 in the video.
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