The chair of the Alabama Public Library Service board, John Wahl, issued a letter to library directors across the state on Wednesday instructing libraries to remove books from their children’s and young adult collections relating to what he called “gender ideology.” This order came a day before an APLS board meeting in which members made plans to amend its administrative code to bar libraries from shelving books about transgender issues in their children’s and young adult sections as well.

Wahl pointed to President Donald Trump’s January “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government” executive order as the reason he issued his directive. The order outlines that, “Federal funds shall not be used to promote gender ideology.”

Wahl’s letter to Alabama library directors instructed libraries to review their collection to ensure that they were not in violation of Trump’s executive order, or else risk their funding. Wahl’s letter did not provide guidelines about what constitutes “gender ideology.” However, Trump’s executive order defines “gender ideology” as rhetoric that “replaces the biological category of sex with an ever-shifting concept of self-assessed gender identity, permitting the false claim that males can identify as and thus become women and vice versa, and requiring all institutions of society to regard this false claim as true.”

The term “gender ideology” itself has proven to be controversial, with transgender advocacy groups claiming that the term has an inflammatory aim.

“Gender ideology” is “a charged term commonly deployed by anti-trans commentators and activists that implies trans people, merely by being trans, are participating in a political activity or have a political agenda,” according to the Trans Journalists Association.

“This letter makes it clear that federal taxpayer dollars cannot be used to push gender ideology on our children,” Wahl said in a statement. “Libraries should be places of learning, not platforms for social agendas.”

APLS board members furthered Wahl’s objective of purging Alabama libraries of materials related to “gender ideology” by voting during their July meeting last week to open up a public comment period on plans to amend the service’s administrative code to add language prohibiting libraries from shelving “any material that promotes, engages, or positively depicts transgender procedures, gender ideology, or the concept of more than two biological genders” in their children’s or young adult sections.

“I’m afraid that Alabama Public Library Service is being used as a platform to boost your own positions to the detriment of the libraries of this state,” said APLS board member Ron Snider, the board’s only “no” vote against the proposed code change process.

The APLS board’s next meeting is scheduled for Sept. 18.

Alabama top stories in brief 

Limestone County provides school supplies for low-income students

• Limestone County School System has used leftover Title I funding to fully cover school supplies for some students. 

• Schools eligible for Title I are determined by the amount of students receiving free or reduced lunch in a district.

• $214,000 was spent on supplies such as notebooks, pencils and headphones for schools in the system with poverty rates between 58% and 88%.

Tensions grow as demands to see video footage of fatal Homewood police shooting of teen go unanswered

• Activists have warned Homewood city officials that they will increase protests in the city until police body cam footage of the June fatal shooting of 18-year-old Jabari Peoples is released. 

• Peoples was fatally shot by a yet-unidentified Homewood police officer on June 23 at the Homewood Soccer Park. Since the shooting, the Alabama Law Enforcement Association has declined requests by the Peoples family’s lawyer to release body cam footage of the incident, saying that doing so would harm their investigation.

• Gov. Kay Ivey weighed in on the issue last week, releasing a statement saying, “As soon as their investigation is complete, the body camera footage will be turned over to the local district attorney who will be able to show it to the family and whoever else he deems appropriate.”

• “We are organized,” Wayne T. Harris, director of communications for Black Lives Matter Birmingham, said at last Monday’s Homewood City Council meeting. “We will rally, we will host sit-ins, we will hold die-ins and vigils throughout downtown at the doorsteps of your businesses. Your commerce will feel our grief.”

New parole board chair not making decisions on case yet

• The Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles is fully staffed with three members, as new chair Hal Nash stepped into his role last week, but it will continue to operate as though it has only two members — Nash has stated he will not be making any decisions on cases for the time being.

• “I have not had an opportunity to review any of these cases, and therefore, I will not be voting on any of these cases,” Nash said during a board hearing last week.

• While Nash adjusts to the role, all decisions will be left up to the board’s other two members, Darryl Littleton and Gabrelle Simmons. This means if Littleton and Simmons disagree is a parole case, parole applicants will be denied.

• Nash did not specify when he will begin to start voting in parole hearings.

Alabama Public Television losing $2.8 million in funding

• A $9 billion dollar rescissions bill package was passed by the U.S. Senate on Thursday, July 20, which included cuts to foreign aid and public broadcasting.

• Alabama Public Television reports that they will lose $2.8 million in combined funding from restricted and unrestricted grants, totaling to 13% of their annual budget.

• APT was the first statewide public television service — preceding PBS by nearly 15 years — and provides emergency broadcasting services for weather and public safety, content for the state Department of Education and local government and sports coverage.

• The APT said in a statement on their website that they “understand that difficult decisions will need to be made in the weeks and months ahead,” but will continue to provide their services to Alabama.

Prefiled bill looks to expand death penalty eligibility

• Alabama Rep. Matt Simpson, R-Daphne, has prefiled a bill for the 2026 legislative session seeking to expand when the death penalty can be enforced.

• HB20 seeks to make murdering a person while “knowingly creat(ing) a great risk of death to multiple persons” a capital offense.

• “I think that capital murder will send a message to the community that we are no longer taking this,” Simpson said. “We have seen an increase in public shootings, a significant increase of this in public areas.”

• Alabama currently has 21 circumstances outlined for when capital punishment can be enforced.

Our articles you might have missed:

• In the most recent episode of Alabama Spotlight, Wesley Hyde and Harrison Neville recount their visit to Ave Maria Grotto, a stunning collection of folk art and the life’s work of Brother Joseph Zoetl. Zoetl spent over 50 years working with concrete and creating Ave Maria Grotto. The conversation discusses not only Zoetl and his work, but also the inescapable sense of wonder that accompanies visitors to the Ave Maria Grotto.

• Check out the companion article on our website, and be sure to listen to the exclusive interview we recorded with Roger Steele, the director of Ave Maria Grotto.

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