#a.k.a. Assholes with Casseroles

[archivlibrarianist]

"In their petition, the ardent culture warriors claim the books expose kids to “obscene depictions of sexually explicit acts.” The books in question include People Kill People, a YA novel by bestselling author Ellen Hopkins about the deleterious effects of gun violence; It Ends With Us, a romance novel by Colleen Hoover that was made into a Hollywood film starring Blake Lively; All Boys Aren’t Blue, a “memoir-manifesto” by journalist and LGBTQ activist George M. Johnson about his struggles growing up as a gay Black man; Red Hood by Elana K. Arnold, a retelling of Little Red Riding Hood centered on female empowerment; and Julia Scheeres’ Jesus Land: A Memoir, a New York Times bestseller about the author’s unpleasant childhood experience at a fundamentalist church camp."

Sure would be a shame if anyone, anyone at all actually read these books at their library, or through the Books Unbanned program, which will give you access to these materials, no matter where you are in the United States.

[archivlibrarianist]

Short version:

Bigot visits local public library, sees transgender person working there in the children's section.

Bigot proceeds to have very big feelings about the existence of a transgender person working in the library, leading them to do the following on social media, library board meetings, and public meetings: a) lie about what the library worker was wearing (funny how this self-declared Christian bunch has never heard of the 9th Commandment), b) sexualize the library worker's existence, and c) call the library worker a "groomer" (fascist-speak for "queer person who exists without my permission").

Library worker is harassed and threatened constantly, including a person who showed up at said worker's library in an attempt to provoke them into a fight.

Bigot moves to the Huntsville, Alabama region, where she starts up the same garbage.

Library worker brings defamation suit against bigot.

[archivlibrarianist]

There's a Revolution Happening in Children's Publishing-- You Can Thank Book Bans (Fast Company)

From the article:

"Parents have contested books for decades, but the number of challenges has exploded since the fall of 2020. Teachers and librarians, who are already stretched thin, are on the frontlines, facing the ire of parents. The American Library Association invites librarians to report these challenges to books, for their record-keeping. 'In the past, we received a couple of reports a week,' says Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of the ALA’s office of intellectual freedom. 'That has accelerated to four or five reports a day. On some days, we’re getting a dozen reports.'

"...One part of the playbook is for conservative groups to arm parents with tools to march into schools and challenge books. Moms for Liberty, for instance, runs a website called BookLooks.org that offers 'book reports' about thousands of books which parents can bring to school board meetings or their child’s principal. 

"For instance, they can print out a report about Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, which contains a list of concerns: inflammatory racial and religious commentary; sexual activities including sexual assault and  molestation; alcohol use. Many will use these reports word for word to call for it to be pulled from shelves. 'Once the challenges are on the table, they’re discussed at school board meetings and community events by people, some of whom haven’t even read the books,' says Rich Thomas, HarperCollins’s executive director of children’s book publishing."

[archivlibrarianist]

In which an extremist Granbury, TX police officer tried to get librarians arrested and jailed and/or fined for the heinous crime of providing families and kids with books.

"In an extraordinary look into the ramifications of the right-wing backlash against books dealing with racism, gender, sex and sexuality, an 824-page investigative file obtained by NBC News and NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth shows how, for two years, [police officer Scott] London vigorously pursued felony charges against librarians in the Granbury Independent School District."