What happened during Pride Month? Book censorship news from July 5, 2024

This is where you come in.

If you have experienced or know of a targeted attack on a Pride-themed book exhibition, event or activity in libraries, schools or bookstores, please let us know in this Google form. All responses can remain anonymous, but providing as much information as possible – location, type of establishment, etc. – will be much more representative of what is actually happening.

Even if you don’t work in any of these places but have seen a news report about Pride-led bigotry there, enter it in the form. I’ve been collecting these stories since mid-May and through late June, but of course things get lost.

The roundup will be published later this month. It starts with a look at the stories covered in the media, explores the topics they cover, and then shares your experiences.

The deadline for responding to the form is Friday, 12 July 2024.

News on book censorship: July 5, 2024

• The Ozark Public Library (AR) plans to close for an indefinite period of time to ban books that the state deems inappropriate. So they are not just banning books, they are making it everyone’s problem by completely shutting down.
• Representatives of the Escambia County School in Florida want to be protected from having to take a stand in the two court cases over book bans in which they are involved.
• And while we’re in Florida, here are the staggering costs of book bans, broken down by cost per book, in Alachua County schools. That cost is the crux of the matter – those same book banners will turn around and denounce school irresponsibility.
• Leander Independent School District (TX) is at it again! Book banners are drooling over the opportunity to remove material under the Texas READER Act, which, as you may recall, is currently on hold due to court proceedings.
• Books Inc. (Bay Area, California) has canceled a drag queen reading session after receiving a bomb threat.
• There was also a bomb threat at a small arts center outside of Boston, Massachusetts, where a drag story hour was being held. The story hour went ahead.
• Idaho’s book ban law went into effect this week. Remember, it allows parents to sue library workers. There’s still a lot of opposition to the law.
• “We’ve changed our entire library model and we notify all parents when their child checks out a book. So if a child checks out a book that their parents don’t want them to have access to, they get an email right away and can contact the school and say this is material I don’t want my child to be exposed to,” Siers said. That’s the new policy from Franklin County Public Schools (VA). No privacy for the child and worse, once the parent wants to object to the book, they can do so.
• The State Board of Education in right-wing Oklahoma has suggested that the educator who gave her students a QR code to access books banned in the state should her teaching license will be withdrawn.
• The ImagineIf Libraries — sorry, Flathead County Libraries (MT) — who have been mired in nonsense for several years, are having trouble coming up with a new logo for their new old name. If you suspect the reason is that they don’t want to hire a professional to do it, then congratulations.
• There was a bomb threat at the Montclair Public Library (NJ) last weekend. Yes, it was because of a Drag Story Time.
• “The Autauga-Prattville Public Library (AL) Board of Directors passed a resolution last week giving it the authority to remove any materials it deems inappropriate, regardless of the Library Director’s decision.” To be clear, this is not only fascism, but the Board of Directors deciding that it is the Director.
• The Autauga-Prattville Library Board is also attempting to withdraw from the lawsuit filed against it. More information on the lawsuit can be found here.
• What girls are made of remains on the shelves of Osseo District School (MN).
• Brazil has banned a ton of books, and wow, just look at the way they cover the same topics as the books that are banned in the US.
• Miles Adkins, a long-time advocate of the book ban in Frederick County Schools (Virginia), was sentenced this week for his role in the January 6 insurrection. This person was given the power to run a public education system and chose Books as his goal. They don’t care about the children. Or their education. They just want to distract everyone.
• Harford County (MD) Public Schools just canceled its AP African American Studies class because it was “too divisive,” leaving 100 students scrambling to find a new class.
• One in four school districts in Wisconsin have struggled with book challenges since 2020. That’s a staggering number.
• Conservative church members in the Rio Grande Valley (Texas) are pushing ahead with book censorship. One school district, the Mission Independent School District, has withdrawn almost 700 books from circulation within five minutes of being asked to do so. But this is not happening quietly.
• In research, this is no surprise to anyone who pays attention, but it is desperately needed because people aren’t doing it; it’s about stories by and about black women and girls who are disproportionately affected by book bans.
• At the Corpus Christi Public Library (TX), people gathered to voice their opinions for and against book bans. Remember, this community is heavily influenced by a local Moms For Liberty group.
• “On Monday, a new law went into effect in Tennessee that specifically bans books with sexually explicit images. It changes the state’s existing restrictions on materials allowed in schools and specifically bans materials that contain nudity, sexual arousal, sexual conduct, or excessive violence. It also says that materials cannot appeal to ‘prudish interest,’ a term that has been hotly debated in previous legislative sessions.” Another state with a new book ban law that targets books not in libraries, but will target them anyway because of the vague wording.