Cali May Ban Book Bans
As red states across America face library book bans designed to target LGBTQ+ literature, conservatives are trying to shift California culture in the same direction. Fortunately, California’s State Assembly is making moves to prohibit book bans.
by Alyssa Steinsiek
In November of last year, the Board of Supervisors in Fresno County, California, passed the “Parents Matter Act,” a controversial piece of county legislation that would create a committee of “parents and guardians” who would review all current and future children’s books in Fresno County public libraries. Now, a California bill that’s set to pass before the legislative session ends on August 31st would prohibit committees or policies that limit access to material at public libraries, effectively squashing Fresno’s plans before they’ve even begun.
Steve Brandau, Fresno County Supervisor, introduced the Parents Matter Act in a board session last year, where it passed three to two. The committee would be given the right to move any material that they consider “age-inappropriate” out of the children’s section in Fresno County public libraries, though Brandau assured reporters covering the act that no material would be outright removed from the libraries.
What material does Brandau himself find “age-inappropriate”? Unsurprisingly, LGBTQ+ material written for children. In an interview with CalMatters, Brandau said, “I don’t like a kid going in there and seeing ‘I can choose to be a boy or girl.’ It didn’t seem age-appropriate, especially without the parent being involved.”
According to Brandau, when he realized this kind of material was available to Fresno County children, he started looking at other states for guidance on how best to handle the situation. States like South Carolina, Kentucky and Texas, where remarkably strict and targeted book bans have been enacted thanks to the work of dark money faux-grassroots organizations like Moms for Liberty, who masquerade as concerned parents in districts across America to ensure LGBTQ+ books cannot be accessed by young people.
Regarding pro-LGBTQ+ protests against the Parents Matter Act, Brandau said, “It appears to me that they believe that children are best educated and raised as wards of the state. We have age limits for movies. We have age limits for alcohol. And it’s not unreasonable to have age limits on sexually graphic material.”
When the act was passed, Brandau was asked by a local reporter when he had last visited the library where he supposedly had his epiphany regarding “inappropriate” reading material. He admitted he had not visited the library in many years prior to that, a fact which makes it very clear where his priorities lie in this culture war.
While controversial book bans are neither new nor uncommon, it is important to note that the American Library Association tracked a 65% increase in the number of requests to ban books in libraries in 2023. Nearly half of the titles subject to ban requests featured “LGBTQ+ or racial themes,” according to the ALA.
The piece of legislation meant to prohibit this kind of targeted assault on the LGBTQ+ community, authored by California Assemblyman Al Moratsuchi, is AB 1825. Named the “California Freedom to Read Act,” AB 1825 requires California public libraries to establish a clear method of choosing reading material, as well as a process for community members to voice objections, but explicitly disallows the banning of any reading material because it contains content that deals with race or sexuality. It names non-obscene sexual content as allowable and gives librarians discretion as to where the material is displayed, though they cannot prevent minors from checking out the material.
Of the bill, Assemblyman Moratsuchi said, “At the center of this bill is the fundamental respect for professionally trained librarians to be making the decisions as to what book titles and how to present them to the general public.”
Though AB 1825 has received support from the California Library Association and advanced painlessly through Assembly and Senate committees, it has its opponents. City Councilwoman Diane Pearce in Clovis, a Republican Fresno suburb, said, “How do we make sure our public libraries really are tools that can be used by everyone? We want to empower our parents in this situation and the state is telling us that they can do it better than we can.”
Pearce also posted a warning to Facebook in June of last year, before Brandau had officially proposed the Parents Matter Act, advising Fresno County parents to “wait until June is over to take your kids to the Clovis Public Library,” sharing pictures of various pro-LGBTQ books on display at Fresno County libraries. About this warning Pearce said, “I looked at it as a public service announcement. I believe that parents should be involved in their children’s exposure to [transgender ideology]. Those issues are controversial.”
These library selection committees and book bans are a growing, looming existential threat to queer communities across America. Once confined to red states where this sort of discrimination is, while unacceptable, unsurprising, it seems that now even the so-called liberal capital of the nation is under siege by Christian nationalists.
We can only hope that the Freedom to Read Act reaches Governor Newsom’s desk and is passed into law before the end of the month, and that it can serve as a model for other states to protect their libraries from anti-LGBTQ+ activists who want to prevent young people from feeling comfortable in their own skin.
Alyssa Steinsiek is a professional writer who spends too much time playing video games!
