The latest in the Culture Wars
If you're in the US, or even watching the news about the US, you know about the so-called Culture Wars. Conservative media makes the claim that "traditional values" are under assault, such as saying that store employees are forbidden to say "Merry Christmas" to customers, which isn't true, but it makes their viewers angry and gets the media ratings.
I knew a new front in the assault had started when a Texas State Representative sent out a list to public schools asking if they had any of the titles in their library. The article at that link gives a good summary of what exactly they're targeting, but if you guessed mostly queer stuff, you've been paying attention, because that's the majority, followed by race/racism, then sex ed. Our lovely Governor then made a comment about wanting such "pornography" removed from school libraries.
I'm seeing news from all over the country about similar issues, generally at school libraries, but also some public ones. School libraries often get more attention from potential censors as they're much easier "think of the children" targets, and oten have school boards that can fold like a bad card table if they think it will make angry folks go away.
This latest assault is definitely a political gambit to stir up the conservative base, but I'm concerned that a lot of school board meetings have been infiltrated by a lot of people into Q-adjacent conspiracy theories. Tons of video online showing them protesting and/or speaking at meetings regarding masks, vaccines, etc. They're often unhinged, and frequently not even from the district or other entity, but they add to the numbers to scare those on boards. Some are even going stealth in order to get on boards so they'll gain control.
Local elections don't get as much attention, but keep an eye on your local stuff. I don't think this would get much traction here, but all it would take is a targeted effort to change that. I don't have a ton of queer content on my physical shelves, but the digital ones have a ton of the challenged titles and then some. If protestors start taking note of digital content, a lot of librarians are going to have a Bad Day.
I knew a new front in the assault had started when a Texas State Representative sent out a list to public schools asking if they had any of the titles in their library. The article at that link gives a good summary of what exactly they're targeting, but if you guessed mostly queer stuff, you've been paying attention, because that's the majority, followed by race/racism, then sex ed. Our lovely Governor then made a comment about wanting such "pornography" removed from school libraries.
I'm seeing news from all over the country about similar issues, generally at school libraries, but also some public ones. School libraries often get more attention from potential censors as they're much easier "think of the children" targets, and oten have school boards that can fold like a bad card table if they think it will make angry folks go away.
This latest assault is definitely a political gambit to stir up the conservative base, but I'm concerned that a lot of school board meetings have been infiltrated by a lot of people into Q-adjacent conspiracy theories. Tons of video online showing them protesting and/or speaking at meetings regarding masks, vaccines, etc. They're often unhinged, and frequently not even from the district or other entity, but they add to the numbers to scare those on boards. Some are even going stealth in order to get on boards so they'll gain control.
Local elections don't get as much attention, but keep an eye on your local stuff. I don't think this would get much traction here, but all it would take is a targeted effort to change that. I don't have a ton of queer content on my physical shelves, but the digital ones have a ton of the challenged titles and then some. If protestors start taking note of digital content, a lot of librarians are going to have a Bad Day.