Once upon a time, working as a librarian in America was not considered a dangerous vocation. Rewarding, of course. Sweet, sure. Occasionally dull, yes, but a lot of jobs can be boring. Yet, for the most part, most people working as librarians in the US did not wake up, head to work, and wonder, What are the chances I’m going to be charged with a crime for letting someone take out a book today? But thanks to GOP state legislators, that’s now become a legitimate fear.
The Washington Post reports that 17 states are currently “weighing” bills that would remove long-standing exemptions protecting librarians from prosecution for distributing material deemed inappropriate for minors, a carve-out that allows them to offer books containing accurate information on things like sex education without having to worry about going to prison. Those bills, per the Post, would look similar to an Arkansas law that was signed last year (and later blocked) that says school and public librarians can be sentenced to up to six years in prison (or fined $10,000) for distributing “obscene” or “harmful” material to students under 18. The bill’s definition of what constitutes harmful or obscene material is extremely broad, and includes books and performances that, among other things, “describe” nudity. Similar laws have been signed in Indiana, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Tennessee.
While the Post found no instances of librarians being prosecuted under such laws to date, the Utah Library Association pointed to cases in Missouri, Texas, and South Carolina where the police were called and/or launched an investigation. And just the threat of prison time is having an understandably chilling effect:
West Virginia House delegate Brandon Steele, who introduced a bill that would allow librarians to be prosecuted, told the Post the move is “strictly about pornography” and “On that limited basis, this isn’t going to have the chilling effect people think it’s going to.” Of course, in practice, the legislation appears to be aimed not at actually harmful material but the kind conservatives just don’t like. As the Post notes, “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.”
Speaking of book banning, on Tuesday, Florida governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill restricting the number of challenges Floridians without children can make against books in public schools, claiming the book-banning system is being abused. “The idea that someone can use the parents rights and the curriculum transparency to start objecting to every single book to try to make a mockery of this is just wrong,” he said. The changes, which go into effect July 1, mean that residents without a child in the public school district will only get to challenge one book a month. Sure, his office tried to blame the situation on “activists” who are “trying to politicize” Florida’s book-banning problem, and not on book banning-obsessed conservatives who have an issue with an illustrated adaptation of Anne Frank’s diary. But it’s an (unintentionally) positive step, nevertheless.