As stated in the article, the initiative is dead in the water, as per the Missouri constitution:
> Article IX Section 10. Free public libraries—declaration of policy—state aid to local
public libraries.—It is hereby declared to be the policy of the state to promote the
establishment and development of free public libraries and to accept the obligation of
their support by the state and its subdivisions and municipalities in such manner as may
be provided by law. When any such subdivision or municipality supports a free library,
the general assembly shall grant aid to such public library in such manner and in such
amounts as may be provided by law.
I found this with a simple ctrl-f. However, thanks to the MO Library Association for knowing their law and educating people, otherwise I never would have looked.
That's not how it works though. The American system is reactive. Meaning, you could see something like this enacted with years of disruption, even if it is ultimately over turned.
Worse, if the court really wants to protect the law, they use "standing weaselry" to effectively protect it from being challenged.
This looks like a red-meat bill that won't pass both houses but it's a big deal that it made it through one. Usually these die in committee or never get schedule for a floor vote.
My rule of thumb is that if something sounds completely evil and it exactly conforms to a political stereotype, there must be more to the story.
The article itself is somewhat thin on the details. Would anyone who knows more about the situation be able to give some nuance? I have a feeling this is brinkmanship at play.
I'm an American who leans politically center-right. Here's my opinionated perspective on this issue.
In recent years, public libraries across the US and UK have hosted a number of Drag Queen Story Hours. These are events where men dressed as sexual parodies of women read books to young children. Sometimes the men dance provocatively for the kids, or wear revealing outfits, or have kids climb all over them:
At the same time, "child-friendly" and "all-ages" drag shows have popped up at gay bars and clubs across the US. These are often much more sexually provocative than shows hosted in libraries:
Far-left militia armed with AR-15s have shown up at some all-ages shows to "protect" them from protestors. The armed militants in these photos are self-identified anti-fascists:
These events have become the focus intense polarization. Republicans say they're sexual performances designed to desensitize kids to advances from adults. Democrats say they're expressions of LGBT pride.
There is a growing conservative backlash to "all-ages" or "family-friendly" drag events generally and Drag Queen Story Hour in particular. Many parents are uncomfortable with the sexual displays aimed at children. Some women see drag as sexual blackface. This backlash is framed by Democrats as opposition to drag shows in general, which generally speaking is untrue. It is the targeting of young children that aggravates conservatives.
Librarians host these events in taxpayer-funded venues. The elected government of the state of Missouri seeks to limit this practice.
Yes, see my linked article elsewhere in the thread. The libraries wanted to make porn available to kids, the republicans said if they did that they would try to pull their funding, and the libraries called them on it.
> The libraries wanted to make porn available to kids
Assuming that you consider every single one of the titles on this list to be “porn”, but while many of them might be dubiously appropriate for (especially young) children, I don’t think very many of them meet any reasonable definition of “porn”.
“It took some man a lifetime maybe to put some of his thoughts down, looking around at the world and life, and then I came along in two minutes and boom! it’s all over.”
We really are in the beggining (or maybe middle?) of something nasty. Reminiscent of things you read in history books. Certainly makes me want to leave the country. Turmoil of this scale in the US is probably something of a worldwide event though, unfortunately.
>The rule introduced by Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft would block state funding for libraries if they allow minors to access books that are pornographic or labeled as obscene under state statutes
So the headline could be restated as: Libraries in Missouri insist on making porn available to children, and lose their funding. In fact, it doesn't even say they can't have porn, it just says that they can't give it out to little kids.
As somebody with young kids: can these people, on both sides, please stop trying to use my kids as soldiers in their petty culture wars?
I want to be able to send my kids to a school and trust that the teachers there aren't going to try and use that as an opportunity to indoctrinate them. Teach them history, teach them math, and then leave them alone to be children.
Here's what *IS* happening as a result of this culture war, and the insistence on making children be the pawns in it: the people who can afford it aren't sending their kids to public schools anymore. What this means is that public schools turn into proverbial ghettos; the places where only the kids who couldn't get out go.
That is absolutely horrible. The idea of a public education should be something we're proud of as a society, but we're watching it be destroyed in the interest of a tiny minority of teachers and administrators pushing radical ideologies. The school, or the library, is not the place for this, and this absolutely tiny minority of activists is ruining a public good for everyone.
What indoctrination is actually going on? It’s a convenient bogeyman, but as someone that went through the public school system, and with younger siblings that did so after me, I’m honestly not sure what people mean by this.
"The banned books include graphic novels such as Batman and X-Men, a copy of Reader’s Digest, works about artists including Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, graphic novel adaptations of classics by William Shakespeare and Mark Twain, the Pulitzer-prize winning graphic novel Maus and other books about the Holocaust, and The Children’s Bible."
He's reading about how, as a child, you can send sexually explicit photos to people on the internet. It seems *completely* reasonable to remove this book from libraries.
Somewhat unsurprisingly, but demonstrative of exactly the type of erosion of trust I'm talking about WRT to the discourse around this topic, Batman and X-Men comics are not the focus of these types of book bans.
I'd expect that it's not the pornographic bit, but the labelled as obscene bit that's the sticking point. I visited a lot of libraries in my youth, youth librarians actually don't make it a practice to give kids porn usually, kids seek that out on their own, it's part of their capacious nature. Also many books in libraries typically get donated (directly or via financial donations), especially in poorer areas, and porn is not really on the shortlist of things librarians tend to want to prioritize money for. Wouldn't it be better to prosecute specific misconduct than to create committees of politicians for book censorship?
> I’d expect that it’s not the pornographic bit, but the labelled as obscene bit that’s the sticking point.
Obsecenity is a legal category, and not all pornography is obscenity. OTOH, “labelled as obscene” may not actually be obscenity, and the list of the actual books banned under the law that this defunding is a retaliation for a lawsuit against seems to largely be books that are neither obscene nor pornographic.
If they have to axe places of public congregation to shore up the budget, before Republicans cut schools, libraries and parks, I propose they start with churches and their tax exemption.
Readit News
> Article IX Section 10. Free public libraries—declaration of policy—state aid to local public libraries.—It is hereby declared to be the policy of the state to promote the establishment and development of free public libraries and to accept the obligation of their support by the state and its subdivisions and municipalities in such manner as may be provided by law. When any such subdivision or municipality supports a free library, the general assembly shall grant aid to such public library in such manner and in such amounts as may be provided by law.
I found this with a simple ctrl-f. However, thanks to the MO Library Association for knowing their law and educating people, otherwise I never would have looked.
Worse, if the court really wants to protect the law, they use "standing weaselry" to effectively protect it from being challenged.
This looks like a red-meat bill that won't pass both houses but it's a big deal that it made it through one. Usually these die in committee or never get schedule for a floor vote.
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"in such amounts as may be provided by law"
Isn't this the law providing the manner and amounts?
>in such manner and in such amounts as may be provided by law.
Set amount = 0;
Set manner_of_support = "spiritual";
The article itself is somewhat thin on the details. Would anyone who knows more about the situation be able to give some nuance? I have a feeling this is brinkmanship at play.
In recent years, public libraries across the US and UK have hosted a number of Drag Queen Story Hours. These are events where men dressed as sexual parodies of women read books to young children. Sometimes the men dance provocatively for the kids, or wear revealing outfits, or have kids climb all over them:
https://alphanews.org/drag-queen-flashes-crotch-to-children-...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VA72t7o24I
https://www.lifesitenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Drag...
Several performers and sponsors of these events have turned out to be sex offenders:
https://www.khou.com/article/news/local/houston-public-libra...
https://reduxx.info/drag-queen-charged-with-25-counts-of-fel...
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/second-drag-queen-story-ho...
Across the pond, the founder of Drag Queen Story Hour UK has tweeted "love has no age" and openly associates with pedophiles:
https://thepostmillennial.com/founder-of-uk-drag-queen-story...
At the same time, "child-friendly" and "all-ages" drag shows have popped up at gay bars and clubs across the US. These are often much more sexually provocative than shows hosted in libraries:
https://reduxx.info/children-tipped-drag-queens-during-perfo...
https://twitter.com/MrAndyNgo/status/1543662744616013825
https://twitter.com/TaylerUSA/status/1538733481492094977
Far-left militia armed with AR-15s have shown up at some all-ages shows to "protect" them from protestors. The armed militants in these photos are self-identified anti-fascists:
https://www.axios.com/local/dallas/2022/08/30/drag-brunch-ro...
These events have become the focus intense polarization. Republicans say they're sexual performances designed to desensitize kids to advances from adults. Democrats say they're expressions of LGBT pride.
There is a growing conservative backlash to "all-ages" or "family-friendly" drag events generally and Drag Queen Story Hour in particular. Many parents are uncomfortable with the sexual displays aimed at children. Some women see drag as sexual blackface. This backlash is framed by Democrats as opposition to drag shows in general, which generally speaking is untrue. It is the targeting of young children that aggravates conservatives.
Librarians host these events in taxpayer-funded venues. The elected government of the state of Missouri seeks to limit this practice.
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Assuming that you consider every single one of the titles on this list to be “porn”, but while many of them might be dubiously appropriate for (especially young) children, I don’t think very many of them meet any reasonable definition of “porn”.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1AVW8q-B4uSZIJ3mLqc5t...
this is an extremely bad faith interpretation of librarians upholding the first amendment.
I see you skipped the “nuance” part of the request.
I couldn't find that mentioned anywhere in the linked article...?
- Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451
Government by grifters for grifters and con artists. It can't get much nastier.
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Dead Comment
>The rule introduced by Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft would block state funding for libraries if they allow minors to access books that are pornographic or labeled as obscene under state statutes
So the headline could be restated as: Libraries in Missouri insist on making porn available to children, and lose their funding. In fact, it doesn't even say they can't have porn, it just says that they can't give it out to little kids.
As somebody with young kids: can these people, on both sides, please stop trying to use my kids as soldiers in their petty culture wars?
I want to be able to send my kids to a school and trust that the teachers there aren't going to try and use that as an opportunity to indoctrinate them. Teach them history, teach them math, and then leave them alone to be children.
Here's what *IS* happening as a result of this culture war, and the insistence on making children be the pawns in it: the people who can afford it aren't sending their kids to public schools anymore. What this means is that public schools turn into proverbial ghettos; the places where only the kids who couldn't get out go.
That is absolutely horrible. The idea of a public education should be something we're proud of as a society, but we're watching it be destroyed in the interest of a tiny minority of teachers and administrators pushing radical ideologies. The school, or the library, is not the place for this, and this absolutely tiny minority of activists is ruining a public good for everyone.
https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/nearly-300-books-re...
Here is a parent reading aloud from the book (on this list) "Let's talk about it": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Cd5VUhMrF4
He's reading about how, as a child, you can send sexually explicit photos to people on the internet. It seems *completely* reasonable to remove this book from libraries.
Somewhat unsurprisingly, but demonstrative of exactly the type of erosion of trust I'm talking about WRT to the discourse around this topic, Batman and X-Men comics are not the focus of these types of book bans.
Obsecenity is a legal category, and not all pornography is obscenity. OTOH, “labelled as obscene” may not actually be obscenity, and the list of the actual books banned under the law that this defunding is a retaliation for a lawsuit against seems to largely be books that are neither obscene nor pornographic.
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Edit: Beat me to it with the tax exemption edit.
They also want to get rid of the sales tax on guns and ammo.
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