Alabama lawmakers have advanced legislation that would allow the state to prosecute librarians who provide explicit books to minors.
The bill, HB385, was easily passed by the Alabama House of Representatives with a vote of 72-28. It will now head to the state senate for consideration.
If passed, the bill would remove the library exemption from the state’s obscenity law.
Additionally, the bill would expand the definition of sexual conduct that is banned at public K-12 schools or public libraries. It would prohibit any “sexual or gender-oriented conduct” that may expose children to people wearing “sexually revealing, exaggerated, or provocative clothing or costumers, or are stripping, or engaged in lewd or lascivious dancing, presentations, or activities.”
Librarians who violate the law would be subject to misdemeanor charges if they fail to remove materials or cease activities that violate the law within seven days of a written complaint from a member of the public.
“This is an effort to protect children. It is not a Democrat bill. It’s not a Republican bill. It’s a people bill to try to protect children,” Republican Rep. Arnold Mooney, the bill's sponsor, said during the debate, according to a report from the Associated Press.
Democrats argued that the law would be abused.
“This process will be manipulated and used to arrest librarians that you don’t like, and not because they did anything criminal. It's because you disagree with them,” Rep. Chris England, a Democrat, argued.
Craig Scott, president of the Alabama Library Association, condemned the bill in an interview with the Associated Press, arguing that professionals know better than parents and concerned community members.
“Why are they coming into libraries or thinking that they can come in and run the place better than us as professionals?" Scott said. He also said that the state would lose "lawsuit after lawsuit" if the legislation became law.
Scott also claimed it is an effort to force libraries to the right.
“We are for the entire community. We have to be. We’ve got some books in here that are far right. We’ve got some books on the far left. But the library is for the entire community. We've got to stay in the middle as best we can, and they want to push us way off to the far right," Scott said.
