My heart aches for the children who will no longer have access to their local library because some arrogant assholes decided to be offended by books with new ideas and different perspectives.
Yikes 😬
The wolf is at the door now. We are at that point in time.
Via: Utah Library Association
6:12 PM · Feb 3, 2024
"If you are a Utahn concerned about ongoing threats to librarians and teachers, and book-banning, go to Let Utah Read to learn more about the issues and how you can help."
In the most glorious "fuck you" I have seen in a while, you know the book that Cumberland City Council banned because they're homophobic bigots - Holly Duhig's "A focus on Same Sex Parents"? Well, the publisher, BookLife Publishing, have made a PDF version of the book available for free.
Sure be a shame if it was shared far and wide now, wouldn't it?
Every time you ban a book filled with hope and kindness, and care and love, we will resist.
"Facing pressure from right-wing ideologues, #Scholastic is facilitating the exclusion of #books that feature people of color and/or #LGBTQ characters. Scholastic has grouped many of these titles in a collection called "Share Every Story, Celebrate Every Voice" [& given] school officials…the option to exclude the entire set…Scholastic has…given schools a "bigot button" to exclude these books and mollify intolerant pressure groups." https://popular.info/p/scholastics-bigot-button
Judd Legum reports on the testimony given by mysterious Lanah Burkhardt before the Conroe, Texas, school board. Burkhardt wants books censored, especially Scholastic Books. She claims that reading a Scholastic Book with the phrase "a single kiss" turned her into a porn addict when she was 11 years old.
After hearing her, the Conroe board voted to restrict access to the book she claims made her a porn addict.
The #Bible has been removed from libraries in Utah after a parent used a new law that permits the removal of "pornographic".
The parent argued that the Bible contained topics such as incest, bestiality, genital mutilation, and infanticide, making it pornographic under the new definition set forth in Utah Code Ann. § 76-10-1227.
A GOP lawmaker expressed "sadness" regarding the situation.
So, out of all the potentially "offensive" material in this book (like a feminist witch who becomes a leader) , the "censor" decides that mention of the words "goddammit", "Jesus Christ," "Christ Jesus” and "Christ" were the most offensive. I wonder if the person only knew how to read those particular words. I feel bad for the #Abilene#PublicLibrary in #AbileneTexas -- they must have to deal with some real choice humans (I'm being sarcastic)!
American cops are such overt fascists. Years of right-wing brain-poison have turned them into walking Breitbart comment sections with guns and qualified immunity.
Scholastic has sent a letter apologizing, reversing the program, and redoubling efforts to combat book banning legislation. Thank you to all who signed and shared the statement which helped instigate forward momentum for Scholastic's decision.
PS: It turns out to be a myth that Victorians covered piano legs for the sake of modesty. But one day people will hear that Floridians removed dictionaries from school libraries for the sake of modesty, or prudery, or protecting the children, and wonder whether it's a myth. The truth will be out there, but not in Florida libraries.
UPDATE: Scholastic backtracks after alleged exclusion of diverse books
"We recognize and acknowledge the pain caused, and that we have broken the trust of some of our publishing community, customers, friends, trusted partners, and staff, and we also recognize that we will now need to regain that trust."
Remember those facile and glib, "it doesn't matter, children can get those books at the public library" and "just give copies of the book to your local library"? Remember those?
"Despite the age of consent in Mississippi being 16, no one under the age of 18 will have access to digital materials made available through public and school libraries without explicit parental/guardian permission."
“Librarians are being harassed in private Facebook groups. They’re receiving pressure from within and outside the school.”
But bookstores, libraries and book lovers of all kinds came together to fight back against the censorious, so-called READER act. From correspondent Matthew Patin: https://www.texasobserver.org/the-booksellers-revolt/
Student in AP English class gets award-winning memoir of famous Black author banned from curriculum on grounds that it "made me feel uncomfortable" and "ashamed to be a Caucasian."
Vagueness of South Carolina’s new laws governing teaching about race are what made this possible.
I said years ago (on twitter) that romance authors writing so-called 'clean' books to get away from the whole "mommy porn" bullshit were only enabling their own persecution. And today I'm proven right again: the bullshit-name "moms for liberty" fucker in Marion County FL has gotten 8 Nora Roberts books off high school library shelves, because "they're porn".
Read that again.
If you think that's porn, what you mean is that women's agency is your problem, not 'porn'