Rightwing groups across US push new bans to limit ‘obscene’ books in libraries
Rightwing groups across US push new bans to limit ‘obscene’ books in libraries
Critics say bans would hinder rights as proponents would impose their beliefs on others who don’t share their views
Summary
Rightwing groups across the US are driving a wave of legislation to restrict books in school and public libraries, targeting content deemed “sexually explicit” or “obscene,” often affecting LGBTQ+ and race-related titles.
Texas leads with 31 bills and 538 book bans in the 2023–24 school year.
Proposed laws, like Texas Senate Bill 13, shift book selection power from librarians to parent-led advisory boards.
Critics, including librarians and legal scholars, warn these efforts amount to censorship, risk violating First Amendment rights, and reduce access in underserved communities.
Why are links from The Guardian posted so often here?
Are these the ones with blowjobs and things?
Is it not considered pornographic, and if not where do we draw the line, is anything with LGBT in the title fair game?
Why do they care so much about libraries. it's not like they or their kids read. How do you get illiterate people excited to ban books. It's a god damn conspiracy!
only one thing for it. Put as much indecent material in the library as possible. Also I used to work at a library and every now and then this like 80 year old dude would come in and say "show me where your dirty books are!" that guy was awesome.
That country is so fucking stupid its unbelievable
"Bu-but the right wingers promised me that I could say the hard-R N-word yet again, and if people were to call me 'racist' for it they'd be jailed for defamation, and they'd also jail feminist video game critics for censoring games!"
Obscene books like the Bible?
guns
By "obscene" they mean a guy flirts with a guy. Meanwhile a full on sex scene isn't "obscene" so long as it's heterosexual
I’m over 50 and they tried to ban Diary of Anne Frank when I was a kid. Sometimes they even succeeded.
Fucking idiots. Name one reason why kids shouldn’t read that book. They never could. Not a real reason anyway.
Over and over they try to ban books. The only thing that really changes is that they add books to the list.
“And on the subject of burning books: I want to congratulate librarians, not famous for their physical strength or their powerful political connections or their great wealth, who, all over this country, have staunchly resisted anti-democratic bullies who have tried to remove certain books from their shelves, and have refused to reveal to thought police the names of persons who have checked out those titles.
So the America I loved still exists, if not in the White House or the Supreme Court or the Senate or the House of Representatives or the media. The America I love still exists at the front desks of our public libraries.”
― Kurt Vonnegut, A Man Without a Country (2005)
They need to just get on with it, we all know what they want to do
Shit or get off the pot
So tired of hearing that the right is a champion of free speech.
We need a massive bible book burning event.
Wonderful.... I wonder when this country is going to have Kristallnacht.
Honestly, the best thing for the planet right now would be not to have a US
Wow, I did Nazi that coming.
I bet that the people that wanna decide on this stuff never intend to read the material they are banning.
Similar to how they never read their holy books, but know it's great.