Proposed federal laws S4925 and HR7661 would put the government in charge of what books are available. This would represent a coercive misuse of power.
Senate bill S4925 is titled “Stop the Sexualization of Children Act,” which sounds great but would have the opposite effect. One inevitable result, for example, would be to ban books for girls about how their bodies work and how to navigate puberty.
If teenagers cannot access information in a library, they will get it from the internet. Librarians, not Congress or Wikipedia, have the expertise to provide relevant, reliable information.
The House of Representatives bill, HR7661, goes by the same title as the Senate bill and uses the same language to ban “sexually oriented material.” It specifically bans any text related to gender dysphoria or transgenderism. This is truly cruel.
Consider a panicked teenage boy who has the usual equipment, is masculine in appearance, but also starts to grow breasts. Yes, this happens. Much gender dysphoria does not manifest until puberty, in either boys or girls. Further, it may go undetected until examination, such as when a woman has testicles where ovaries should be.
Sexually “dysphoric” people have been a part of humanity as far back as we know. Therefore, they surely provide a survival function. The gay people I have known typically help everyone in their families with their skills, time, and money. To scorn them is to scorn the diversity of creation and possibly the survival of the species.
But the main point regarding this topic is not just the harm this round of censorship will cause but the threat to a core principle —the people’s freedom to read. The freedom to access information unrestricted by the state is essential and must not be sacrificed.
I understand the responsibility of librarians, teachers, and parents to choose reading materials appropriate for the reading level and maturity of young readers. Teachers and especially librarians are professionally trained to do this. Let them do the jobs they studied for years.
Books are banned to hide a point of view that the government or the church wants to suppress. Censorship is an invidious way to take freedom away from adults and parents as well as children. To live in the land of the free, we must insist on the essential freedom to read.
The Senate bill and the bill in the House of Representatives are both on the calendar but are still in committee. Our window to comment as citizens is open because the bills have only been introduced, not passed.
All Oklahoma voters should ask their congressmen and congresswomen to uphold our right of the freedom to read.