Far-right Wyoming legislators tried during the past three sessions to pass laws to lock up librarians for allegedly making “obscene” books available to children. After that batch of outrageous bills failed, this interim session was devoted to trying to bankrupt school and public libraries that offend them.
Opinion
A draft bill that fined libraries a whopping $50,000 every time an employee made “sexually explicit” material available to a minor was lowered to $500 Monday by the Joint Judiciary Committee. Then the panel removed the fine entirely.
But while panel members who approved the heavily amended and confusing bill by an 11-2 vote congratulated themselves for a job well done, one of the dissenters pointed out the bill still infringes on parental control by making certain books unavailable to all children.
“You’re creating a bounty reward system where you’re encouraging people to file lawsuits against the library,” said Rep. Ken Chestek, D-Laramie. Such lawsuits would allow plaintiffs to be awarded damages and legal fees.
The bill requires public libraries to relocate books deemed sexually explicit into the adult section, but school libraries do not have adult sections. “This is straight-up book banning,” Chestek said. “No question about it.”
This bill is a way-off-the-charts effort in the state to censor and ban books that has its roots in a 2021 controversy in Gillette over a “Pride” display of LGBTQ-related books at the public library.
The library’s executive director, Terri Lesley, who stood up for the First Amendment and refused to remove the challenged books, was fired in 2023 by the Campbell County Public Library System Board of Trustees. Before her termination, Lesley told the board that working at the library was her dream job but the last two years were “pure hell.”
Lesley and her staff were branded as pornographers and pedophiles by some members of the public at board meetings, and one family went to local law enforcement to try to get her arrested for violating state obscenity laws. A special prosecutor determined no crimes were committed.
After she was fired, the library board voted to move the books featured in the Pride display and other challenged books to the adult section. It was an expensive “victory” for the far right.
Lesley sued for wrongful termination and reached a $700,000 settlement last week with Campbell County, its commission and six members of the library board. I think she deserved more.
It was vindication for the librarian and her supporters, but it apparently did nothing to deter the extremist Freedom Caucus from going after Wyoming libraries again.
Rep. John Bear, R-Gillette, is chairman emeritus of the Freedom Caucus that controls the House, and co-chair of the powerful Joint Appropriations Committee. His wife, Sage Bear, is one of the six Campbell County library board trustees Lesley sued.
In a text message to WyoFile, Bear defended the board’s action and obnoxiously claimed that Lesley “was more concerned about fleecing her prior employer than the supposed altruistic motive of standing up for LGBTQ rights.
“I don’t believe the county’s insurance company or their attorneys should have settled this case, but I understand the business decision to attempt to keep costs of frivolous litigation minimized,” Bear wrote.
Amazingly, Freedom Caucus leaders like Bear portray themselves as both the victim and the victor whenever their side loses.
Bear whined that Lesley’s case is the reason Wyoming needs to reform its tort laws that govern civil cases, which supposedly allow liberals to file frivolous suits for damages.
Then Bear pretended that somehow the Campbell County Public Library won when it settled the suit.
“Gillette public libraries are the first in the nation to stop the left’s onslaught on the innocence of children by moving books that sexualize children to the adult section of the library,” Bear wrote. “Is $700,000 too much to pay to save our children?”
Lesley’s wrongful termination had absolutely nothing to do with saving children. It was about appeasing a group of people who do not want the LGBTQ community represented in the books available at the Gillette library.
Our society doesn’t work that way. Public resources should be inclusive and open to diverse groups.
Parents have the right to determine what books their children read, and most school districts have policies that allow parents to “opt-in” and allow their child to read a controversial book. Legislators can’t allow one set of parents to decide what all children should read.
But that’s effectively what they’re attempting to do with their latest library bill. The Joint Judiciary Committee, at the urging of Rep. Jayme Lien, R-Casper, decided in June to draft a bill to ban sexually explicit material from children’s sections in libraries.
This was a significant change in approach from previous Freedom Caucus bills, which sought to repeal the exemption librarians, educators and museum workers now have from being charged with obscenity crimes for performing their job duties.
Under the earlier bills, the state established that materials may be deemed obscene if the average person applying contemporary standards would find it appeals to the prurient interest. The work must also lack “serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value” to be obscene.
The committee’s bill, however, covers “sexually explicit” material, going into graphic detail to list any sex acts between two or more people.
Bill supporters want to keep LGBTQ-related books off the children’s shelves, especially ones aimed at the far-right’s favorite target, transgender individuals. These banned books would be unavailable to the people they were written for, teens who may be struggling with their own gender identity and want information.
Opponents say the bill would force libraries to move into the adult section all educational material about puberty and sex, historical books like “The Diary of Anne Frank,” and religious texts like the Bible, Quran and Book of Mormon.
Allowing libraries to be sued for allowing a book in the children’s section that describes any sex act, no matter the context, would have a chilling effect on libraries’ book purchases. What library official would take a chance ordering a book that has been challenged anywhere that could cause economic harm to the entire library and its staff, plus deprive patrons of their First Amendment right to decide what to read?
Before going to the polls during next year’s primary elections, do your homework. Research which candidates have voted to make libraries effectively ban books for fear of retaliation, or allow parents to make reading decisions for other people’s kids. Then vote them out.
Do it in the name of Terri Lesley. Do it in the name of all defenders of the First Amendment.
CORRECTION: This column has been updated to note that the Joint Judiciary Committee removed a $500 fine for libraries and school districts that leave books regulated under the bill in areas accessible by children. -Ed.
How is it freedom when one takes away from others to make themselves feel better?
Don’t just burn the books, burn the libraries! That’s coming if we don’t get those free Dumb Caucus out of office. They want to run the state like a cult.
I haven’t looked into this stuff much I admit. But is it a safe assumption that most of the book-content angst centers on the LGBT info being available in the schools? I’m thinking we’ve not opened the door to date in having all the straight porno mags racked up at the front door of our high school libraries and as such folks are still in broad agreement that this ‘banned’ info is inappropriate for government funded schools to make readily available? Are the porno coloring books available in the grade schools? If not, why not? I mean, sexually active and curious teens should definitely have access to new and kinky positions / toys to read up on while at school, shouldn’t they? All these uptight parents should really get a grip. Why should only the LGBT folks have all the fun?
Gallop ran a poll in 2022 what percentage of kids younger than 18yo were LGBT active in relation to the year they were born. Certainly decades back it was only 1-3% for ever, at least until recently. In ’22, there were 20% of high school seniors self reporting as LGBT. Continuing this trend using exel software, 50% of all kids born this year will graduate high school as LGBT which then rockets to 100% of 2035 newborns.
Is this really what we want our society to become? Is it real, or is it massive levels of peer pressure and grooming? What does our country look like if the next generation is successful in making straight couples extinct? Have we really done ourselves a good turn taking this path to full completion?
The pushback we’re seeing is really uncomfortable. But it appears it’s only the beginning. This caldron will continue to heat up to a full rolling boil before too long. We need to stop. Think. Are we prepared for this?
Are you out of your mind?! Nobody in their right mind would become LGBTQ+—they are born that way. Ask that poor sod tied to a barbered wire fence outside of Laramie. Yeah your kids might read LGBTQ+ books that help them deal with identity issues. No one is going to read LGBTQ+ books that will convince them to be LGBTQ+. So your porn analogy is is insane—I’m not going to become LGBTQ+ reading books designed for children
First of all, I would like to note that this legislative session is a budget session and there are a lot of budget issues that The state of Wyoming has because of the carelessness of the free Dumb Caucus.
The free dumb caucus needs to get their act together and concentrate on making a better Wyoming.
The voters need to read everything they can about who they are going to vote for in this upcoming election. It shouldn’t be the people that make the most noise.
The free dumb caucus is great at spreading noise, rumors and lies. They take after their great orange leader.
But now on topic, all those legislators should have to read Fahrenheit 451 It demonstrate how burning one book leads to the banning of knowledge.
My other big issue with this is if parents don’t want their children to read these books that’s their right. Parents nowadays are not doing a very good job
Helping their children. They are too distracted by their phones. If you’re going ban books, you better ban computers, and you better ban cell phones. Kids don’t go to the library anymore. They go to their phone.
I saw a comedian that said kids now have porn in their pocket. THE CELL PHONE The BOOKS in the libraries are far more tame and probably more accurate than what they see on the Internet.
It’s not the library’s responsibility, it’s not the legislator’s responsibility, it’s the parents responsibility. They need to control their kids. They need to educate their kids. They need to teach their kids.
The nonsense of these legislators is horrendous. They worry about the state spending too much money while they themselves are blowing a lot. Again, following the direction of their great orange leader.
The “Free”dumb Caucus “conservatives” practically and maliciously blow $700k of taxpayers money and don’t care. These people make the fabled “tax and spend” liberals look like true conservatives. If Bear is so proud of paying the $700,000, he should write the check out if his own pocket
Ah! The Culture Wars! Banning books! Come on, let’s burn books instead! Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, Orwell’s 1984! Protect the children? What a laugh, coming from the GOP—whom some wit labels Guardians of Pedophiles! You elected an adjudicated sexual assaulter President and move a convicted child trafficker to a Club Fed. Yet you dare label a librarian a pedophile for just doing her job. Meanwhile, healthcare and rural hospitals vanish along with our rights. Here are some more suggested reading materials to be banned: The U.S. Constitution, The Declaration of Independence, The Federalist Paper, and Paine’s Common Sense. The Wyoming Constitution is also problematic what with that bit about giving women the right to vote! Great job, Kerry! You hit the nail on the head!
Do not be fooled into believing this is about the minds of children being tainted; it is about intolerance. Unfortunately, children are not flocking to the libraries to read with or without their parents. Libraries are just a handy tool to further the agenda of bigots.