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Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias testified before
the committee to explain the legislation. Beginning next year,
Illinois will withhold tax dollars from public libraries that
limit what types of books are available.
“This legislation is important because both the concept and
practice of banning books contradicts the very essence of what
our country stands for and what our democracy was founded on,”
Giannoulias said.
Republicans have taken issue with the definition of book bans
adopted by Pen America, which said books being pulled off the
shelves in schools for review constitutes a ban.
“This is not a ban. This is about schools deciding what’s
appropriate for school children, and sexually explicit and
obscene, pornographic material isn’t appropriate,” U.S. Sen.
Mike Lee, R-Utah, said.
The hearing took a racy turn when U.S. Sen. John Kennedy,
R-Louisiana, read passages from a couple books, including a
profane paragraph from “Gender Queer,” which has appeared on Pen
America’s banned book list.
“No one is advocating for sexually explicit content to be
available in an elementary school library or in the children's
section of the library,” said committee chair U.S. Sen. Dick
Durbin, D-Illinois. “That is a distraction from the real
challenge.”
Nicole Neely, president of the organization Parents Defending
Education, testified that some school boards have been
hypocritical when it comes to certain racy books that are
readily available to school children.
“School boards across the country cut the microphone on parents
who read passages from these books stating, ‘This is
inappropriate, there are children in the room’ yet those same
books are being provided to children in schools,” Neely said.
The American Library Association reports the number of book
challenges nationwide dramatically increased between 2021 and
2022.
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