Alabama lawmakers on Thursday advanced legislation that could see librarians prosecuted under the state’s obscenity law for providing “harmful” materials to minors, the latest in a wave of bills in Republican-led states targeting library content and decisions.
The Alabama House of Representatives voted 72-28 for the bill that now moves to the Alabama Senate. The legislation comes amid a soaring number of book challenges — often centered on LGBTQ content — and efforts in a number of states to ban drag queen story readings.
“This is an effort to protect children. It is not a Democrat bill. It’s not a Republican bill. It’s a people bill to try to protect children,” Republican Rep. Arnold Mooney, the bill’s sponsor, said during debate.
The Alabama bill removes the existing exemption for public libraries in the state’s obscenity law. It also expands the definition of prohibited sexual conduct to include any “sexual or gender oriented conduct” at K-12 public schools or public libraries that “exposes minors to persons who are dressed in sexually revealing, exaggerated, or provocative clothing or costumes, or are stripping, or engaged in lewd or lascivious dancing, presentations, or activities.”
I agree in general, and am thankful there is a law in place to protect librarians now, but I don’t know that Illinois, or rather the part we’re near, would be a huge improvement in terms of the community and what they might try since the closest Illinois town to us is Marshall, followed by Paris and Casey, and they’re not especially big fans of Pritzker. Or Democrats in general. Or individual liberties probably. So it is not as great an option as it could otherwise be. I think the place to work relatively near us would be Champaign, but it would be over a two hour drive to our mothers, who are already a one hour drive away or a 90 minute commute for my wife if we stayed here.