Book Banning

Today I read an article that started with this lede:

JAMESTOWN TOWNSHIP—What started as a fight over an LGBTQ-themed graphic novel may end with the closure of a west Michigan public library.

Voters in Jamestown Township, a politically conservative community in Ottawa County, rejected renewal Tuesday of a millage that would support the Patmos Library. That vote guts the library’s operating budget in 2023 — 84 percent of the library’s $245,000 budget comes from property taxes collected through a millage.

Without a millage, the library is likely to run out of money sometime late next year, said Larry Walton, library board president.

The rest of the article can be read online. 

It seems that some people were upset that the library stocked Maia Kobabe's graphic memoir Gender Queer. The library staff pulled the book from the public part of the collection, but made it available for checkout for anyone who asked for it. Following their collection development policy, the library board said they would not ban the book. The following is a section from a different public library, but illustrates a set of principles that many libraries use in such situations:

Intellectual Freedom

It is in the best interest of the community that the library provide material representing all points of view in all fields, no matter how controversial or objectionable these ideas may be to some people. Individuals are free to explore a plethora of ideas in order to determine which ones are meaningful to them. The library, to the best of its ability, strives to include a wide and inclusive spectrum of materials and topics. The inclusion of an item in the collection does not imply the Library’s endorsement of the author, publisher, or subject matter.

The American Library Association’s Freedom to Read Statement and Library Bill of Rights are considered to be part of the Library’s collection development philosophy.

ECPL supports the right of each family to decide which items are appropriate for use by their children. Responsibility for a child’s use of library material lies with his or her parents or guardian.

Unsatisfied with their inability to band Gender Queer and other similar titles, some parents organized to persuade local voters to defund the library by voting against a property tax millage that is the largest source of revenue for the library. Absent a new vote to restore that funding, the library may close in the near future.

These actions in Jamestown Township, Michigan are, perhaps, a more extreme example of a broader issue across the United States. A recent article in the New York Times on the topic described the broader issues. 

Here are two selections from that article worth reading.

First:

A lot of the people I’ve spoken to say they don’t consider the bans they want to be racist or bigoted. They say the books contain specific content that they feel isn’t appropriate for children, and they’ll sometimes point to explicit passages. But librarians we speak to say that the most challenged books around the country are basically all about Black or brown or L.G.B.T. characters.

And, then, this: 

I understand why some of the fights over school reading are so intense: By definition, teachers are making choices about which books children are — and are not — going to read, and parents may not always agree. The efforts to take books from libraries feels different, yes?

Elizabeth: When people are trying to push a book out of the library, they’re making a decision for everyone, that nobody has access to a particular book. But librarians are trained to present a range of viewpoints. For them, it’s a matter of professional ethics to make sure that the point of view of one person or one group isn’t dictating what everyone reads.

Elizabeth: Book banning can also be damaging to kids who identify with story lines in books that are banned in their communities. The question for the child becomes, “What’s wrong with me?”

Much more could be said on the topic of politics and book bans in the United States. Let me suggest on direction to begin for those curious to learn more.

The book Gender Queer has probably become the most challenged book in the United States now. Here is an article specifically on that topic. 

Several factors made “Gender Queer” a target.

It’s a graphic memoir that deals with puberty and sexual identity, and includes a few drawings of nude characters and sexual scenarios — images that critics of the book were able to share on social media to stoke a backlash. The book explores the author’s discomfort with traditional gender roles, and features depictions of masturbation, period blood and confusing sexual experiences.

And it arrived in the middle of a politically and emotionally charged debate about gender identity and transgender rights, as Republican elected officials in Texas, Florida and elsewhere have put forward legislation that would criminalize providing medically accepted treatment to transgender children, or ban discussions of gender identity and sexuality in some elementary school grades.

 

Read the rest here.