by Noah Zahn, Wyoming Tribune Eagle
CHEYENNE—Dozens of Wyomingites packed the committee room once again Wednesday to speak against a bill opponents call a “book ban” that goes against the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, diminishes parental rights, and opens Wyoming schools and libraries up to more litigation.
Proponents of House Bill 10 say it is the best way to protect Wyoming’s youth and reduce a parental burden to oversee the literature children can access.
Titled “Sexually explicit materials in libraries-requirements,” HB 10 seeks to regulate how books with graphic sexual content are housed and challenged in the state’s public and school libraries.
A major change came Wednesday in an amendment to the bill by the Senate Judiciary Committee that gives county commissioners the opportunity to opt out of the state policy if they choose to do so on a majority vote. It does not give school districts the opportunity to opt out of the measure, however.
Sen. Barry Crago, R-Buffalo, who has been an opponent of the legislation throughout the interim, said he put forth this amendment because he said this is not an issue in his county, but he wanted to give more local control to communities that feel this may be an issue in their area.
“If there’s a way for (librarians) to continue to do their job without fear of lawsuits, I want to try to give that to them. I understand there are communities where this is important, and it is an issue. Those communities can still deal with that through this amendment,” he said.
Sen. Gary Crum, R-Laramie, said he supported this amendment because he has been to Albany County public, school and university libraries and has not seen this as an issue at any level.
Rep. Ann Lucas, R-Cheyenne, a staunch supporter of HB 10, said she has had very few constituents speak to her in opposition to the bill.
“Wyoming parents have emailed me, called me, texted me, they catch me at Albertsons, everywhere I go, to talk about this issue,” she said. “I have had very few people actually speak to me against segregating adult sexual content from children.”
As amended, the measure passed through the Senate Judiciary Committee on a 3-2 vote, with Sens. John Kolb, R-Rock Springs; Larry Hicks, R-Baggs; and Jared Olsen, R-Cheyenne, voting in favor, while Crago and Crum voted in opposition.
Parental and local control
Cristine Braddy, current president of the Wyoming Libraries Association, said a core value of the Republican platform focuses on decreasing government control and leans on emphasizing local control.
“This bill strips authority from our local boards and places it in the hands of the state. HB 10 is an erosion of parental rights. While framed as a parental rights measure, this bill selectively supports the rights of one group of parents while actively stripping away the rights of others to decide what was appropriate for their own children,” she said, calling the measure “censorship through relocation.”
Throughout the meeting, attendees and lawmakers went back and forth, with some calling the measure a “book ban” for schools and libraries and others calling it a “relocation” requirement.
Braddy was one attendee who saw the bill as a ban on books, adding that parents, not state legislators, should be responsible for the materials their children read. Lisa Heiner, who identified as a Laramie County mother and public education graduate, also took this perspective.
“I care deeply about what my children read. I pay attention, I am involved, and I believe it is my responsibility, not the state’s, to guide those decisions,” she said.
While fewer people offered testimony in support of the bill, some attendees made a case by saying it should not be the responsibility of parents to police what their children read in government-funded institutions.
“Parents should be able to trust that children’s sections are intentionally curated for youth,” said Moms for Liberty Laramie County Chapter President Patricia McCoy. “Clear cataloging and placement standards protect that trust without limiting adult access to those materials.”
Bob Wilson, another Laramie County resident and a grandfather, said there is nothing stopping parents or behavioral specialists from checking out appropriate materials for children to have more oversight.
“These are topics that sex and health education specialists can check out, or their parents can check out … or buy, if they see them as useful for their therapy or for their parental guidance. Those books are still available from the county library. No one is suggesting that we throw them away, that we shred them,” he said.
When public comment ended, lawmakers discussed the issue. Crum discussed parental duty.
“We talk about rights and responsibilities, but a lot of times here we’re forgetting about the duties that go along with those rights. And part of that duty as a parent is to make sure that you know what the child is seeing,” he said.
Hicks, while he said he agreed with Crum’s comments about duty, took the opposite stance on where duty lies, saying the status quo creates an undue burden on parents and guardians to oversee the content children consume.
“At what level do we say there’s also a governmental responsibility that they don’t have to go through the library every time a new book shows up?” he asked. “It’s a balancing act.”
First Amendment and legal challenges
Darcy Lipp-Acord, collection development manager for the Laramie County Library System, focused her testimony on the definition of “sexually explicit materials,” saying the vague definitions give her pause.
She said books have helped her in her personal and professional life to aid children navigating through puberty, single fathers learning and explaining menstruation, and teaching teens about how to recognize abusive situations.
Lipp-Acord said reshelving the books in those sections also further pushes youth seeking educational material to browse other literature in the adult sections if the material is cataloged there.
“Under the definition of sexually explicit materials in HB 10, the books that I use to meet those information needs would be less accessible,” she said, saying they would be removed from school libraries and reshelved in public libraries. “That situation would put patrons potentially selecting books that are not truly written for the developmental age that they are or that their child is, and that doesn’t seem protective to me as a mom, as a grandma, as a librarian.”
Former state legislator and current Wyoming Equality Executive Director Sara Burlingame said this creates constitutional concerns and restricts access to literature for Wyoming youth.
“Rather than fall back on the easy culture war talking points, we defend the First Amendment, not tepidly, but with rigor,” she said.
Clayton Melinkovich, Sublette County attorney speaking on behalf of the Wyoming Prosecuting Attorneys Association, said his association encourages lawmakers to deny the bill because it creates too many legal concerns.
“All in all, this legislation has significant problems in the implementation of what you’re expecting, both in the judicial system and the county attorney’s offices to be able to represent their clients effectively, creating significant questions as to what that looks like,” he said.
Some of his concerns were addressed in amendments, like changing “shall” to “may” and adding the word “party” to clarify that the court “may award reasonable attorney fees and cost to the prevailing party” instead of “shall” award them to “a person prevailing.”
However, some of his concerns went unaddressed, like the vague definitions of the term “obscenity,” and how a “section of a library” is defined, asking whether that means some libraries may be forced to construct new rooms or doors to create more physical separation between youth and adult sections.
For all of these reasons, Melinkovich said the bill could generate lawsuits from residents, authors and publishers.
Nathan Winters, a former state lawmaker and president of the Wyoming Family Alliance, supported the bill, saying threats of litigation should not deter lawmakers from supporting “good legislation.”
“It would be very important, I believe, for the state to support families from having their children sexualized in a government institution,” he said.
Education versus vulnerability
Domenic Syracuse, who identified himself as a Cheyenne father, youth pastor and a Christian, said he does not support the legislation for many reasons, including that it could ban the Bible from libraries and schools.
He cited a passage from the Book of Ezekiel, which referenced “genitals as large as donkeys” and “semen like those of horses.” Syracuse referenced other passages that mention rape and adultery.
Winters, who is also a pastor, said that, in his interpretation, there are no sections of the Bible that would qualify it to be reshelved under the definitions of sexually explicit material outlined in the bill.
Syracuse said that, as a youth pastor, he has used other material to help youth in crisis for educational and support material. As a Christian, he said he wants children to be properly educated on things like sexually transmitted diseases and consent.
“I’d rather them come to the library and get the information than go online.”
Dr. Rene Hinkle
Steve Melia, who is a program manager for the Wyoming Department of Health, said he also wants proper sexual education, but cautions that not all material may be accurate.
“There’s a lot of adults out there that are exceedingly sexually irresponsible. How many porn sites do we have?” he asked. “The mentality filters down in some of these books that the kids read, and we need to make sure that they understand sexuality properly.”
Dr. Rene Hinkle, who is a member of the Laramie County School District 1 Board of Trustees, said it is harmful to ignore physiological differences between a 5-year-old and a 17-year-old, as this measure would blanket all materials available to people under 18.
“Teenagers are thinking about sex. I’m sorry if that surprises anybody, but they are,” she said. “There are things that are not necessarily taught in schools that they need to be able to educate themselves on. And if those things are not available in the library for many people, they’re not available at all. I’d rather them come to the library and get the information than go online.”
HB 10 will now go to the full Senate for further consideration.