Children's book put on watch list in Alabama because its author's last name is 'Gay'

An illustrated children's book about siblings who build a dog house together was errantly placed on a watch list of books to be potentially removed from the Huntsville-Madison County Public Library (HCPL) system in Alabama simply because its author's last name was "Gay."

AL.com reports that "Read Me a Story, Stella" by author Marie-Louise Gay was put on a list of potentially "sexually explicit" books despite the fact that it contains absolutely nothing about sex.

HCPL executive director Cindy Hewitt tells AL.com that "Read Me a Story, Stella" should not have been placed on the list and said that it only got swept up because the keyword "gay" was wrongly triggered by the author's last name.

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"Obviously, we’re not going to touch that book for any reason," she said.

Kirsten Brassard, Gay’s publicist at Groundwood Books, mocked the Alabama county for apparently having such an itchy book-banning trigger finger, but she also said such bans are part of a worrisome trend across the country that have been incited by culture-warring right-wing politicians and media figures.

"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," she told AL.com.