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... Two hundred miles south, Fairhope Public Library offers a cautionary tale of unintended consequences. When Alabama's board suspended and then revoked Fairhope's 2025 state aid over teen-shelf content earlier this year, locals raised roughly $40,000 in five days, essentially replacing the lost check. "It came as a complete shock," said a board volunteer as donations poured in.

There's a deeper pattern here. Attempts to hide books -- especially those with LGBTQ+ themes -- often make them more popular.

In the landmark Wichita Falls case a quarter-century ago, two picture books about same-sex parents were barely read until a political campaign targeted them; afterward, each title was checked out over a hundred times. ...