Children's book flagged as potentially 'sexually explicit' over author's surname

A children’s picture book was flagged as potentially “sexually explicit” at an Alabama public library system because the author’s last name is “Gay”.

'Read Me a Story, Stella' by author Marie-Louise Gay was included on a list of potentially “sexually explicit” books at the Huntsville-Madison County Public Library system over the writer’s last name, AL.com reported, despite it just being about siblings reading together.

The book, which was published in 2013, would have been removed from the children’s section of the library system but staff spotted the mistake.

HCPL executive director Cindy Hewitt told the news outlet the book was mistakenly placed on the list of 233 titles because of the keyword “gay”.

“Obviously, we’re not going to touch that book for any reason,” Hewitt said.

She said she asked 10 branch managers to use keywords like “sexuality, gender, sex, and dating” when looking for possible books to flag, but noted there was a miscommunication over the process.

Gay’s publicist, Kirsten Brassard, of Groundwood Books, told AL.com her client’s book has never been “mistakenly censored”.

“Although it is obviously laughable that our picture book shows up on their list of censored books simply because the author’s last name is Gay, the ridiculousness of that fact should not detract from the seriousness of the situation,” Brassard said in a statement.

Indeed.

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