“If all printers were determined not to print anything till they were sure it would offend nobody, there would be very little printed.”
– Benjamin Franklin
There are several stories we have shared in these blog posts about events occurring around our state that we have had to update as events unfold. We always hope to update with good news; unfortunately, that is rarely the case.
For today’s topic, we return to a previous story and must share more distressing news.
We return to Alamance County and the situation unfolding in their public library system. You can access the first blog post on this topic here.
In our previous post, we discussed the happenings going on in both the school system and the public library. At the time of writing the post, we only had a small piece of the picture for the public library. However, recently we received more information from a concerned citizen of the county that sheds more light on the situation.
Beginning in June 2022, two women were interviewed for a newspaper article for Alamance News, in which they shared their concerns over a Pride Month display in the May Memorial location in Burlington. Their supposed concern came from the idea that the display was located in the Young Adult section of the library, but was visible to the Juvenile section.
Both women claimed they were disturbed because they felt that children were too young to be exposed to such information. One of the women, Cheryl Sanford, had children over the age of 11, but still shared her displeasure that children would see the display and be confused.
The other woman, Tara Ariel, had a six-year-old child who had picked up the picture book A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo by Jill Twiss. The book, which was not on display, featured two male bunnies getting married. According to her story, Tara was reading the book to her child and had to change the language used while reading it because she “didn’t feel it was age appropriate” (Bailey, 2022).
The women went on to expound on their thoughts that any material featuring characters who were LGBTQ+, should automatically be put into the Adult section as it was inappropriate for children. They likened books such as the one mentioned above, to exposing children to sex, even though the book has nothing to do with sex. We have seen this repeatedly in other cases, where books featuring heterosexual characters are not seen as “sexual”, but books featuring homosexual characters are somehow seen as “sexual”.
After using much disparaging language about books with any characters, main or side, who were LGBTQ+ throughout the article, an additional woman, Lindsay McKinney, was also quoted as saying, “I haven’t taught my girls yet about homosexuality; I’m just getting to the basics, and that’s not what I want them to see. I want them to see what is natural versus something we’re not comfortable with” (Bailey, 2022).
What is interesting to note here is that Lindsay McKinney was one of the appointed members of the Library Committee.
The Library Committee, which was previously known as the Board of Trustees, or the Alamance County Library Board, works similarly to how many library boards operate. Citizens submit applications for review to their respective cities. In this case, the cities of Mebane, Burlington, and Graham each get to put forward 2 candidates for consideration. Once the respective city has put forth their candidates, the County Commissioners vote on who to appoint. The county itself gets to put forth 3 candidates for vote.
After the news article came out in June, a new “Statement of Concern Policy” was put forth in November by the Director of the Alamance County Public Library, Susana Goldman. In this policy, it made it clear that the library followed the Access to Information Statement as adopted by the Association of Rural and Small Libraries (ARSL). It outlined that the library would consider each statement of concern brought forth by citizens, what the process looked like, and mentioned the library stood firm that they would offer materials covering a wide range of topics and interests.
The Committee voted to adopt it, with only one dissenting voice. A member, Paula Hendricks, shared her concerns over materials being selected and was encouraged by a fellow member to bring forward a list of questionable books to the next meeting.
At the May 2023 meeting, Ms. Hendricks came with the Krause Booklist, a list of around 850 books that was compiled in 2021 by a Texas State Representative who had objections to materials that largely featured LGBTQ+, racial, or sexual themes.
At this meeting, the Committee decided that one of the duties of the Committee would be to review all library policies, to include the Materials Selection Policy. They would review it at the next meeting in August 2023, which was later cancelled.
In August 2023, a news article came out regarding the new appointments to the Library Committee, which included our old friend Cheryl Sanford. Sanford had submitted an application touting her Bachelor’s Degree in Middle Grades Education, as well as her time spent as a homeschool teacher, as giving her the experience needed for the appointment.
Two others, Paula Hendricks and Jessica Simmons, were reappointed to their positions.
There was another candidate who was up for reappointment. This person came with multiple degrees, including a Master’s degree in Secondary Education and was actively working on pursuing a Master’s in Library Science degree.
The chairman of the Board of Commissioners is the one who put forth Sanford as his choice and she was unanimously voted in, though one Commissioner did share that Sanford was not her choice. The chairman explained in the article that his choice for Sanford was because “Cheryl Sanford was just a friend from the community who’s a homeschooler and has been involved in some activities with us…” (Murawski, 2023).
So, to be clear, the Board of Commissioners chose to elect someone who was a “friend” of the chairman, a person with no adequate education or training related to libraries and who had made expressly clear that she did not agree with any LGBTQ+ content, to the Library Committee, over someone who was working on a library degree.
The favoritism of particular candidates did not end there, however, as we will see shortly.
In November 2023, the first meeting of the Library Committee after her appointment, Sanford first brought forth the idea of labeling certain materials with an LGBTQ sticker so parents would know if an item was appropriate for their child. This was only to be used for children’s materials.
In February 2024, at the following meeting, the County Attorney told the Committee that according to the policy in place at the time, they were not part of the review process for challenged materials, and that the ultimate arbiter of collection decisions lay with the Library Director.
Then, in May 2024 at the next meeting, the County Attorney stated that the Committee did not have authority to make changes to procedures and could only make recommendations for said procedures. This included the idea of the sticker. A question was brought forth by Simmons who asked if book stickers were part of a policy. Director Goldman explained that it was part of procedures, not policies.
A discussion was had at the meeting about what the practicality of the stickers was and how it could be implemented. One person asked if there was no plan to have the stickers, if the LGBTQ+ books were going to be moved to a separate section. The Committee again had to be reminded that they could not make any changes to procedures or policies, and could only recommend those changes be made. Goldman agreed to have staff design a sticker to place on children’s books.
The idea of a sticker that was specifically for LGBTQ+ materials was changed at the January 2025 meeting; instead, a Parental Guidance sticker would go on books deemed to have “violence, sexually explicit material, underage drinking and drugs and/or suicide.” Some discussions were had throughout the year on how to get the word out about these stickers and the process for requesting that a sticker be added to materials, including using QR codes and posters.
In January 2026, the first book brought forth for review and stickered was the Young Adult Graphic Novel The Action Bible for its use of “domestic violence, patricide, genocide, familial violence, implied nudity, murder, and infanticide.”
At the May and June meetings of the Committee, things turned heated as citizens raised concerns that only materials featuring characters who were LGBTQIA+ were being targeted, while some of the Committee members, namely Lindsay McKinney, expressed concerns that books were not being stickered correctly due to their content.
Though the May and June meeting notes are not available on the Alamance County Library Committee webpage, videos can be found on the Save the Alamance County Libraries YouTube Channel with clips from meetings where materials are being discussed for their content. The last video uploaded, at the time of writing, is a discussion about whether witchcraft should be considered “self-harm, though not physical”.
At the same time these meetings and discussions are being had, more appointments have been made to the Committee, while others have brought forth candidates for consideration. What is concerning is that the candidates being brought forth are ones that the Commissioners personally know, or that “align with their politics and values”.
For instance, at the June 2026 Commissioners meeting, the Mebane candidates were up for consideration. Two names were brought forth by the town; however no mention was made of those two candidates at the meeting. Instead, two other names were brought forth, one of whom never applied for consideration. Though neither the Commissioner who brought forth the names, nor the candidate, would comment on the choice being brought, it is clear that somehow the Commissioner knows this person to even mention the name of someone who never applied.
All of these meetings of the Library Committee can either be found on their webpage, or through the above YouTube link, and all the Commissioner meetings are available on YouTube or through the County Commissioners Webpage.
What we see here is a clear violation of everything that the library stands for. We see a county using its appointees to spread their own agenda, while claiming they are fighting an agenda. They are using these Parental Guidance stickers to target books that have ideas and opinions that go against their own.
Even using the example of wanting to label a book that has witchcraft as “self-harm” which will mislead many parents when helping their children find books.
This is an ongoing fight and one that we want to highlight for those unaware. We must all do our part in supporting the efforts of those fighting against censorship, such as the Save the Alamance County Libraries group. Help us spread the word of these dealings and hold those who are in positions of power accountable for their decisions.
We will do our best to keep readers informed of the goings on around the state, and in the Alamance County Libraries. If you have any more information you can share, for this story or others, please send them our way.
If you have not heard it yet today, thank you for all you do for your community!
Resources:
Bailey, K. (2022, June 30). “Mothers question age-appropriateness of LGBTQ display at May Memorial.” Alamance News. https://alamancenews.com/mothers-question-age-appropriateness-of-lgbtq-display-at-may-memorial/
Murawski, T. (2023, August 24). “Commissioners appoint LGBTQ critic to library board, displacing one incumbent member, reappointing two others.” Alamance News. https://alamancenews.com/commissioners-appoint-lgbtq-critic-to-library-board-displacing-one-incumbent-member-reappointing-two-others/
https://burlingtonnc.gov/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/4248
https://pub-alamance-nc.escribemeetings.com/filestream.ashx?DocumentId=4920
https://library.alamancecountync.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2026/02/Bylaws-2020-05-12.pdf