“It looks quite popular so I’m hopeful we’ll be able to get it for a vote,” Glanville told Bridge Michigan Monday.
Related:
House Bills 6034 and 6035 are a response to local battles over books that some library patrons consider inappropriate for young people. Many of the challenged books have themes of LGBTQ relationships, with some including illustrations of sex acts.
The “Freedom to Read Act” would dramatically limit the ability of residents to challenge books by:
- Limiting patrons who can challenge library material to residents of the community.
- Requiring challengers to certify to having read the entire book or watched the full movie and not just an offensive portion of the material.
- Mandating that library directors, not typically-elected library boards, would have sole discretion over library materials.
- Only allowing libraries to approve removal requests if materials have “been adjudicated to be obscene or otherwise unprotected” by the US or Michigan constitutions.
The 1973 US Supreme Court ruling, Miller v. California, ruled the First Amendment protects works with “serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value.” That is a high standard that has all but eliminated obscenity rulings.
In 2022, a Virginia court dismissed petitions to declare obscene one of the most challenged books in Michigan, the graphic novel, Gender Queer: A Memoir,” a coming-of-age story about nonbinary person that includes illustrations of sex acts.
Currently, every Michigan community library can set their own standards. By mandating a state standard, library officials can point to the state law as the basis for their decisions on book challenges.
“What we’re trying to do is support libraries and take some of the pressure off the local librarians so there’s not so much personal attack going on,” Glanville said.
The bills are opposed by some representatives including Steve Carra, R-Three Rivers.
“Society has compelled taxpayers to fund these locations. To me, that gives us a heightened responsibility to scrutinize what goes into those libraries and to not expose kids to pornographic material,” Carra said.
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