As the primary elections begin to roll out, there is one thing pushing politicians such as Texas Governor Greg Abbott and State Representative Matt Krause’s campaigns trial along, and that is books. States such as Wyoming, Oklahoma, Virginia, and Tennessee are joining Texas politicians and parents in banning books in school libraries that focus on race, sexuality, and gender. The state of Oklahoma, for instance, has introduced a bill in the State Senate that will prevent public school libraries from keeping books that discuss sexual activity, sexual identity, or gender identity.
Parents are reporting to school districts to remove books from libraries, and now reaching out to politicians for help. The American Library Association has initially received 300 book challenge reports listing various books per report. Virginia candidate Glenn Youngkin has used the book challenge reports to his advantage by reaching out to parents who oppose these “explicit books” during his campaign for governor, which might win him the position. Additionally, Texas Representative Matt Krause “is asking schools statewide to tell him whether they currently hold any of around 850 books on a list he compiled.” Furthermore, Texas Governor Gregg Abbott has even gone as far and has continuously called for criminal charges against all school administrators concerning these young adult novels. However, what politicians such as Governor Gregg Abbott are missing, is novels that focus on sexual activity, sexual identity, or gender identity might be resources for the youth, especially those within the LGBTQ+ community.
The overall idea of banning books sets society back many decades. In addition, involving politicians to make laws against books sounds extreme. Books are an outlet for some children and teenagers. Additionally, novels, especially ones that discuss race, sexuality, and gender, bring new perspectives not commonly taught throughout K-12. Teenagers are exposed to much worse in current society, and they are more aware of what is happening in the world. Furthermore, passing a law that would incarcerate a librarian for displaying books about diversity in a library does not sound reasonable.
All in all, the claims made by politicians to ban critical books for the youth to further their campaign reveal the lengths they will go to increase votes.
This blog post is part of the CIMA Law Group Blog. If you are in need of legal help, the CIMA Law Group is a law firm in Phoenix, Arizona which possesses expertise in Immigration Law, Criminal Defense, Personal Injury, and Government Relations.
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