First In A Series Of Reports
Image Credit: Tennessee Secretary of State / Facebook & Canva
The Tennessee Conservative [By David Seal]-
Cody York set out to rid the Rutherford County Library System of objectionable materials in 2022 but was met with tremendous resistance from library officials.
The library system messed with the wrong man. York was later appointed to the library board and now serves as its chair.
The issue started when his daughter, aged 6, reached for a book on the library shelf. The book next to it was one that described testacies and sperm with an illustration of a young child in the shower with two adult men showing full frontal nudity.
Subsequent pages illustrated a male-female couple in the missionary sex position with a separate diagram of a penis inserted into a vagina.
At the time, the book, and many other books, deemed age-inappropriate by the board were available for check-out for any age member of the library. York and the library board have made changes to the membership cards such that three age categories have been established to control access to library materials based on age appropriateness.
Certain volumes have also been removed from circulation.
To see a copy of the letter from the library system to York justifying the above-described book, a link is provided HERE.
Fast forward to January 20, 2025.
Just a few minutes after taking office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order entitled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.”
The order was intended to bring common sense back to public institutions that receive federal funds, especially libraries.
Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett issued his own letter on September 8, 2025, with the aim of bringing Tennessee’s libraries into compliance with the order, all of which receive federal funds through the State of Tennessee.
Hargett’s letter to the state libraries that receive federal and state funds reads in part as follows: “[O]n January 20, 2025, President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order entitled Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government. This executive order prevents federal funds (which are often present in grants from the Tennessee State Library & Archives) from being used to promote gender ideology, which the Executive Order defines as:
“Gender ideology” 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. Gender ideology includes the idea that there is a vast spectrum of genders that are disconnected from one’s sex. Gender ideology is internally inconsistent, in that it diminishes sex as an identifiable or useful category but nevertheless maintains that it is possible for a person to be born in the wrong sexed body.
“Tre Hargett will be seen as a hero to those of us who are trying to protect children from inappropriate materials in public libraries.” – Said Cody York, Chair, Rutherford County Library System
The Tennessee Conservative News will report a series of future articles on this issue.
About the Author: David Seal is a retired Jefferson County educator, recognized artist, local businessman, 917 Society Volunteer, and past Chairman of the Jefferson County Republican Party. He has also served Jefferson County as a County Commissioner and is a citizen lobbyist for the people on issues such as eminent domain, property rights, education, and broadband accessibility on the state level. David is also a 2024 winner of The Tennessee Conservative Flame Award & has received an accolade from the Institute For Justice for successfully lobbing the TN legislature to protect property rights. David can be reached at david@tennesseeconservativenews.com.
