A longtime Georgia librarian has been fired after featuring a children’s book about a transgender girl in a summer reading display, a decision that has ignited national outrage, raised concerns about censorship, and underscored the ongoing efforts to push transgender stories out of public life.
Lavonnia Moore, who served as the branch manager at the Richmond Hill Library in Bryan County, was dismissed after creating a Pride Month book display in June that included My Rainbow, a critically acclaimed picture book about a Black transgender girl written by Trinity and DeShanna Neal. The display, which celebrated LGBTQ+ families and diversity, was immediately targeted by right-wing complaints and led to a swift backlash from local officials.
According to reports from Truthout and the Georgia Recorder, Moore’s termination came after members of the Bryan County Library Board expressed opposition to the display. Though she followed guidelines from the American Library Association (ALA) and her system’s diversity goals, Moore was removed without warning, despite 15 years of service and no record of misconduct.
Community members and LGBTQ+ advocacy groups are calling the move a blatant act of discrimination and political censorship. “This isn’t just about one book,” said a Savannah-based civil rights organizer. “It’s about silencing entire communities, trans people, Black families, queer children, and sending a chilling message that our stories are not welcome.”
Moore, who is Black, is now seeking legal representation and has launched a GoFundMe campaign to support her as she fights back. In her statement, she expressed heartbreak not just for herself but for the message this sends to young people. “We tell children that reading expands their world—but now, we’re telling some of them that their world doesn’t deserve to exist.”
This case is the latest in a disturbing trend of politically driven censorship targeting LGBTQ+ representation in schools, libraries, and public institutions. Under Georgia’s SB 226, passed in 2022, parents can challenge books deemed “inappropriate,” a vague standard that has increasingly been used to target LGBTQ+ materials, even when those books are age-appropriate and highly praised.
While My Rainbow has received accolades for its affirming, gentle depiction of a trans child’s journey, it has become a target simply because it acknowledges that trans people exist. That fact alone seems to be too much for some.
For transgender individuals and their families, this firing is yet another painful reminder that visibility remains a battleground. It’s not enough to tell trans youth they matter; we must protect the spaces that affirm them, from classrooms to bookshelves. We must call out the coordinated efforts to erase their stories for what they are: an attack on truth, dignity, and the basic right to exist in public.
TransVitae stands with Lavonnia Moore, with the families who needed to see that book on that shelf, and with every trans child whose story deserves to be read, not hidden.
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