The Republican and Christofascist Assault on Librarians

As a shy child - and later as a closeted teenager - who loved to read, the public school libraries and local public library afforded me a way to both expand my knowledge and eventually come to realize that I was not some lone freak attracted to other boys.  The books I read in the latter case were anything but pornographic - e.g., Mary Renault's historical novels, many set in Classical ancient Greece - and helped in small way for me to achieve some level of self-acceptance.  Now, Christofascist white Christian nationalists and the self-prostituting Republican candidates and office holders who pander to them are waging a war on libraries and librarians who offer those like me as a youth a means to see themselves represented  or expand their knowledge about others.  Hence the rash of book banning laws and laws that would criminalize librarians for doing their jobs.  While the proponents of such laws pretend they are seeking to "protect children" and limit access to "obscene" materials (with obscene being defined bby the extremists), the real agenda is to erase segments of the population form view.  Indeed, the vast majority of targeted books involve LGBT and/or black characters and themes.  In some states, things have gotten out of control and even Florida has limited the number of book challenges one can bring in recognition that right wing activists - some who have no children in public schools - are systematically challenging large numbers of LGBT or black themed books.  While a number of so-called "blue states" are seeking to counter the right wing assault on libraries and librarians, in red states, librarians are quitting their jobs rather than face prosecution pushed by extremists.  A piece in the Washington Post looks at the rights effort to censor books and ease those they hate from public view.  Here article highlights:

Sam Lee, a leader of the Connecticut Library Association, heads to work these days torn between hope and fear.

She’s encouraged because legislators in her state proposed a bill this year making it harder for school boards to ban library books. But she’s fearful because Connecticut, like America, is seeing a sustained surge in book challenges — and she wonders if objectors will see the legislation as a reason to file more complaints.

The bill in Connecticut, pending before an education committee, is one of a raft of measures advancing nationwide that seek to do things like prohibit book bans or forbid the harassment of school and public librarians . . . . Legislators in 22 mostly blue states have proposed 57 such bills so far this year, and two have become law, according to a Washington Post analysis of state legislative databases and an EveryLibrary legislative tracker.

But the library-friendly measures are being outpaced by bills in mostly red states that aim to restrict which books libraries can offer and threaten librarians with prison or thousands in fines for handing out “obscene” or “harmful” titles. At least 27 states are considering 100 such bills this year, three of which have become law . . . Lawmakers proposing restrictive bills contend they are necessary because school and public libraries contain graphic sexual material that should not be available to children.

But other lawmakers say bills like Steele’s are ideologically driven censorship dressed up as concern for children. They note that, as book challenges spiked to historic highs over the past two years, the majority of objections targeted books by and about LGBTQ people and people of color.

“To attack library books, you’re attacking the ability to learn, grow, think,” said Missouri state Rep. Anthony Ealy (D), who introduced a bill this year to prohibit book bans in public libraries. It “has nothing to do with protecting kids.”

A bill pending in New Jersey grants librarians the right to sue if they suffer “emotional distress, defamation, libel, slander [or] damage to reputation” due to harassment from someone displeased with their books. Another, in California, stipulates public libraries cannot remove books “for partisan or political reasons.”

Still other measures, focused on public libraries, build on state and federal laws that forbid discrimination in public places due to a person’s race, sex or gender. These bills assert that removing titles about, say, LGBTQ people, would violate the equal protection clause of the Constitution.

“If we’re not turning people away from the door based on the color of their skin or the fact they’re wearing a rainbow pride flag, we should not be taking their books off the shelf,” said Chrastka of EveryLibrary.

Other protective bills outlaw book removals. Some draw inspiration from an Illinois law enacted last year that prohibits “the practice of banning specific books or resources.” At the time, Gov. J.B. Pritzker declared his state was “showing the nation what it really looks like to stand up for liberty.”

This year, Vermont lawmakers have proposed three protective bills. One would prohibit removing library books due to “school board members’ or member of the public’s discomfort, personal morality, political views, or religious views.”

Some restrictive library bills give parents more power over book selection, for example requiring schools obtain parental sign-off before providing children sexually explicit content. Another common move is to require that libraries post lists of their books for parental review.

But the majority of the bills work the same way. They eliminate long-established exemptions from prosecution for librarians — sometimes teachers and museum employees, too — over obscene material. Almost every state adopted such carve-outs decades ago to ensure schools, museums and libraries could offer accurate information about topics such as sex education.

Removing the exemption means librarians, teachers and museum staffers could face years of imprisonment or tens of thousands in fines for giving out books deemed sexually explicit, obscene or “harmful” to minors. For example, an Arkansas measure passed last year says school and public librarians can be imprisoned for up to six years or fined $10,000 if they hand out obscene or harmful titles.

It has forged a poisonous atmosphere for librarians, said Megan Tarbett, a county library director in West Virginia and president of her state’s library association. West Virginia considered a bill this year ending exemptions from prosecution over “obscene” material for schools, public libraries and materials, but it failed to pass.

In some places, librarians have already called it quits. . . . Tara White was appointed Elkhart Community Schools’ director of literacy in 2015. For the first several years, she never fielded a book challenge — until 2021, when community members objected to 60 titles, she said. When she defended the books, a conservative website claimed she was fighting for porn in school.

Then last year, Indiana passed a law declaring school employees can face criminal prosecution — leading to a possible $10,000 fine or 2½ years of jail time — for handing out sexual material that is “harmful to minors.”  White resigned.

“I loved being a librarian and … helping every student find themselves in a book,” White said. But while certain she wasn’t actually “breaking the law, nobody wants to go through that process.” Nobody wants to go to jail, she said, for giving children books.