CalMatters
By Alexei Koseff, CalMatters
The presentation was unassuming, just a handful of picture books arrayed on the side of a bookcase — the ABCs of a Pride parade, biographies of the gay World War II codebreaker Alan Turing and 50 LGBTQ+ people who made history, the sex education manual “It’s Perfectly Normal,” a retelling of the Stonewall riot and “My Shadow Is Pink,” in which a young boy explores his gender identity.But when Fresno County Supervisor Steve Brandau heard a complaint from a constituent that Clovis librarians had put together a graphic Pride Month display for the children’s section, he was concerned enough to check it out. It wasn’t the type of material that he thought should be available alongside books about skunks and pirates.
“I don’t like a kid going in there and seeing ‘I can choose to be a boy or girl,’” Brandau said. “It didn’t seem age-appropriate, especially without the parent being involved.”
After flipping through the books, Brandau said he left the library in June 2023 “horrified” by images he believed were too sexually explicit and topics he felt were too mature for young readers. He began reaching out to local officials elsewhere — in states such as South Carolina, Kentucky and Texas, where library book controversies have become commonplace — to learn what they were doing.
Last November, Brandau led Fresno County in creating one of California’s first citizen review committees for library books, which could soon decide whether to move material with “sexual references” and “gender-identity content” to a restricted area where it could only be checked out with a parent’s permission.
The committee, which has not yet been selected, is already a lightning rod for fears about parents’ rights, censorship, the politicization of libraries and LGBTQ people being pushed out of public life again. Supporters say they are concerned about sexual content, not LGBTQ themes, and they do not want to ban books from the library entirely.
Tracy Bohren, a queer mother of two from Clovis who helped rally local LGBTQ residents against the committee, said adults who object to books about gay and transgender people are applying their own biases to sexualize material meant to help children understand the world. She said it’s important to have library books about marginalized groups available to LGBTQ kids who don’t come from supportive homes and need the message that they are loved.
“Somehow in the ‘we need to protect kids’ platform that they have stated, trans kids, LGBTQ kids, have not been considered part of that population that they need to protect,” Bohren said.
Now the book battle has become another front in the intensifying clashes between more conservative pockets of California and the state’s liberal government over values and local control. A bill on track to pass the Legislature before the session ends on Aug. 31 would effectively outlaw book review committees and other policies that limit access to materials at public libraries — potentially shutting down Fresno County’s efforts before they ever get off the ground.
“It appears to me that they believe that children are best educated and raised as wards of the state,” Brandau said. “We have age limits for movies. We have age limits for alcohol. And it’s not unreasonable to have age limits on sexually graphic material.”
Books bans surging nationwide
Though disagreements over what constitutes suitable reading material for young people are nothing new, public libraries have been thrust into a pitched culture war over the past few years as conservative activist groups across the country organized to demand more books be removed from collections.
The American Library Association has tracked a massive increase in the number of books being challenged at schools and libraries, which soared by 65% in 2023 to a record 4,240 titles. Nearly half featured LGBTQ or racial themes, according to the association.
Many Republican-led states have subsequently embraced policies requiring schools and libraries to remove books with any sexual content — including nudity, masturbation and homosexuality — or keep them in a separate adult section. New statewide restrictions have taken effect in Utah, Idaho, South Carolina and Tennessee in recent weeks.
California is not at the center of this conflict, though it has faced scattered fights over school materials, including a high-profile showdown last year between Gov. Gavin Newsom and the Temecula school board that tried to ban an elementary school social studies textbook because it incorporated a lesson about assassinated gay politician Harvey Milk of San Francisco. In response, Newsom signed a law to penalize local districts that block books for including the history or culture of LGBTQ people and other diverse groups, while voters recalled the school board president in June.
Besides Fresno County, the city council in Huntington Beach, the iconic Orange County surf community, has also voted to create a citizen committee to review children’s library books, part of a broader push by local officials to establish a bulkhead against progressive California policies. In the latest salvo of a bitter brawl over the political future of the city, opponents are collecting signatures to place a repeal of the review board before voters next spring.
These incidents caught the attention of Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi, a Torrance Democrat, who said public libraries are cornerstone institutions that should provide all Americans with a diverse range of perspectives.
“Teens exploring gender identity issues absolutely should have access to books that speak to their experiences and that may provide support or guidance,” he told CalMatters.
His proposal, Assembly Bill 1825, would require public libraries in California to establish a clear policy for choosing books, including a way for community members to voice their objections, but would prohibit banning material because it deals with race or sexuality. It also clarifies that library material can include sexual content that’s not obscene and leaves to the discretion of librarians where to display those books, though they could not prevent minors from checking them out.
“At the center of this bill is the fundamental respect for professionally trained librarians to be making the decisions as to what book titles and how to present them to the general public,” Muratsuchi said.
The measure has received the support of the California Library Association. Peter Coyl, the director and CEO of the Sacramento Public Library and a member of the association’s intellectual freedom committee, said librarians want to provide people with information, not pornography. While parents have the right to decide what their own children read, he said, libraries need to have materials available to serve their full communities, including families with same-gender couples and children who are questioning their identities.
“Not every book is meant for every reader,” Coyl said. “You can’t then take your belief about what’s right for your child and apply it to everyone else.”
The bill, which won overwhelming approval in the Assembly in May and has advanced smoothly through Senate committees since, must pass the Legislature by the end of August to reach the governor’s desk. A spokesperson for Newsom said the governor would not comment on pending legislation.
If it is signed into law, it could still potentially face legal challenges from defenders of library book review committees, who argue the bill prevents parents from protecting their children from adult material.
“How do we make sure our public libraries really are tools that can be used by everyone?” said Diane Pearce, a city councilmember in Clovis, a fast-growing and Republican-leaning Fresno suburb. “We want to empower our parents in this situation and the state is telling us that they can do it better than we can.”
LGBTQ families feel targeted
The debate over the book review board in Fresno County has been deeply enmeshed with anxieties around LGBTQ rights, particularly transgender youth, underscoring how advocates on either side see the committee in starkly different terms.
As Brandau was researching his proposal last summer, the issue blew up publicly when Pearce posted a warning on Facebook that people “might want to wait until June is over to take your kids to the Clovis Public Library” alongside photos of the Pride display and a page from a book about gender identity.
Pearce said she does not object to LGBTQ content, but rather to graphic sex education books and others dealing with “transgender ideology” being targeted to young children, which she said are not appropriate themes for that age.
“I looked at it as a public service announcement,” Pearce said. “I believe that parents should be involved in their children’s exposure to that. Those issues are controversial.”
Pearce asked her city council colleagues to send a letter to the Fresno County Board of Supervisors seeking a solution, though they did not ultimately agree.
That effort mobilized local members of the LGBTQ community, such as Boren, who said the library skirmish is part of a broader pattern of religious conservatives in Fresno County overlooking or discriminating against LGBTQ families.
The Clovis school district was one of the first in the state last year to require parental notification when a student changes their name, pronouns or gender identity — a policy that the Legislature and Newsom recently made illegal in California, effective in January and pending several lawsuits.
When advocates rallied against the review committee proposal before the board of supervisors last fall, Bohren said officials ignored their expressions of support for the library and seemed only concerned with serving their constituents who aligned with their ideology.
“I feel like it was contrived,” she said. “It’s one specific group of people — Christian nationalists — who are deciding what is appropriate or not appropriate for my children to see.”
Brandau said opponents fundamentally misunderstood his proposal, known as the Parents Matter Act, which he already considered a compromise. No books will be banned, he said; the committee will merely move material to a restricted section of the library that parents can access if they want, allowing Fresno County to set its own community standards for what books should be readily available to children.
He said he took months to develop a policy that was “not targeting one lifestyle,” though he acknowledged that language limiting “gender-identity content” and other “content deemed age-inappropriate” encompasses books about sexuality and transgender people.
“I’m not against this material. I’m against it at the wrong age,” Brandau said. “If this didn’t involve children, it’s not the biggest deal on the planet.”
Librarians under siege
California librarians say morale in their profession has plummeted in recent years. The backlash to certain books has fomented public distrust of their intentions and stoked a host of stressful and sometimes terrifying new threats — protesters, prank calls, bomb threats and “First Amendment auditors,” who record their encounters with library workers on their phones.
“These are things we never worried about before,” said Coyl of the Sacramento Public Library. “It’s not what we signed up for as library workers. And it is probably the worst that it’s ever been.”
Some libraries that have not faced a huge number of book challenges are making precautionary changes to their policies, such as requiring that demands come from someone who proves that they actually reviewed the material and not allowing another challenge if the library keeps the book on the shelf.
“Not every book is meant for every reader. You can’t then take your belief about what’s right for your child and apply it to everyone else.” – peter coyl, director and CEO of the Sacramento Public Library
The tumult has stretched even to liberal California communities not used to conflicts over cultural values. Programs where drag queens read stories to children have become a particular flash point. Two years ago, members of the far-right militia group the Proud Boys stormed a drag storytime at a library in the East Bay city of San Lorenzo.
The library in Redwood City, on the San Francisco peninsula, started a drag queen story program remotely during the pandemic. When it hosted the event in-person for the first time in 2022, several groups protested that the library was grooming and indoctrinating children. The protesters included people associated with the Proud Boys and a local homelessness nonprofit with an evangelical Christian affiliation, according to Derek Wolfgram, interim director of Redwood City’s parks and recreation department.
Wolfgram, a past president of the California Library Association, said he tries to use these situations as an opportunity to engage positively with the community. The evangelical nonprofit wanted to host a Bible storytime in response to the drag queen event, so the library created a series of story hours with faith leaders of different denominations, which Wolfgram said has been popular and appeared to draw new library users.
He recalled another exchange with a man who said the library didn’t have enough books with conservative viewpoints. Wolfgram asked for a list of recommendations, some of which were already in Redwood City’s collection and at least one — “Why I Stand,” the memoir of NBA player Jonathan Isaac — that the library added. It has since been checked out several times.
“Don’t tell me what you want to take away from anybody else. Tell me what you want to add so you feel included,” Wolfgram said.
Parents divided over review committee
In Fresno County, another Pride Month has come and gone and the library book review committee still has not launched. The deadline for applications was in April, but more than three months later, the board, which will primarily be selected by county supervisors, remains vacant.
Brandau said he received more than 40 applications, which he is reviewing. He expects to finish interviews and choose his two representatives to the committee by the end of the month.
“We have age limits for movies. We have age limits for alcohol. And it’s not unreasonable to have age limits on sexually graphic material.”- Fresno County Supervisor Steve Brandau
A spokesperson said the library is waiting to receive direction from the review committee before it moves any material. In the meantime, the Clovis branch put together an elaborate Pride display in June, with a case of featured books, a historical timeline and, in the children’s section, a banner depicting melting popsicles of every color in the rainbow, with the slogan “Love is Love.”
John Gerardi, executive director of Right to Life of Central California, is among the applicants waiting to find out whether he’ll be on the committee. The Clovis father of three “frequent library-goers” under the age of 10 said he wants to move books about sexuality that he believes are being presented to children who are far too young.
On several library visits, Gerardi said, his wife has found books in the children’s section that included explicit material that did not seem appropriate for the marked grade level, such as “Sex Is a Funny Word” by Cory Silverberg and Fiona Smyth. The sex education comic book for 8- to 10-year-olds has been one of the most challenged books in the country in recent years because of its frank discussion of sexual topics. Gerardi objected to an image that depicts a character masturbating in a bathtub and a passage about the meaning of the word sexy.
“Some of these books just seemed completely inappropriate for healthy childhood development around sex,” Gerardi said.
Gerardi said he has lost confidence in library officials, who he believes have been dismissive of parents’ concerns even though they are not all experts on early childhood development.
“There’s this idea that they have access to some secret hidden knowledge that we don’t have. And I just don’t think that’s true,” he said. “I think that appropriate presentation of sexual themes to children is something that the taxpayers who are paying for this darn library can understand.”
Others are seeking positions on the library book review committee precisely because they do not believe it should exist at all.
“It’s absolutely disgusting trying to control a public library that way,” said Jamie Coffman, a Fresno mother of four children ranging in age from 2 to 11. She said it’s a parent’s job to monitor what their kids are reading, not anybody else’s, and people should trust the librarians’ judgment about what books they put on the shelves.
Coffman said she submitted her application with vague answers that she hoped would conceal her true intention to “take it down from the inside.” She has yet to hear back.
Raised in a conservative, Southern Baptist family, Coffman said reading helped expose her to other viewpoints as she was growing up. She worries that society is moving backward on accepting diversity and said she’s scared that her own children might have fewer books available to them.
“You can’t hide the world just to make your children into who you want them to be,” she said.
This article was originally published by CalMatters.
Some parents drop their children off at the library and expect the librarian and staff to be the babysitter. If the parent is concerned about what the child is having access to, the parent needs to accompany the child to the library and guide their reading. Years ago, I worked at a library in another city In which the library Director said, “ A good public library should have something to offend someone.” That’s what freedom of access to information is .
Before any book can be proposed to be banned, removed or restricted the person proposing it should be required to read the book & write a complete book report on it to be included with their formal request.
Good idea. And they need to give an oral report and answer questions, to prove they actually read the book, and didn’t just copy a book report written by another person or AI.
Absolutely, HALIBUT. So much fear and paranoia based solely on what Fox or Parler tells them to think, not what they actually experience, see or read. They are a lazy and simple bunch.
Yes, freedom of press, speech and association are critically important. But I don’t think there is much credible opposition to the idea of allowing children to grow up at a reasonable pace. Unfortunately this concept is heavily corrupted by for profit social media and “entertainment” that wants to shock and awe. Therefore parents have the right and duty to monitor what their children are exposed to. I am not sure t hat a review committee working with the professional librarian isn’t appropriate, especially if the only issue is where the material is kept and how it is accessed.
RHS – yes, parents do have “the right and duty to monitor what their children are exposed to.” So, if you’re concerned about what your kid might see at the library, go with them and monitor what books YOUR kids are looking at. Leave the rest of them alone.
Sac, what you don’t seem to understand is that conservatives are NOT trying to ban LGBTQ+ books. They are trying to remove sexually explicit and pornographic books.
However, if you think gay porn should be allowed in schools then so should heterosexual porn.
Don’t you agree? Equal representation, don’t discriminate against st straight kids after all they are the majority.
Ah, there are zero heterosexual sex books in schools. Why are these graphic LGBTQ books allowed?
SBLETS – have you read them? No. Are the books shown above “porn?” No.
“Ah, there are zero heterosexual sex books in schools.” – BS.
Again, you don’t understand the issue and are just parroting talking points. The GOP is actively banning books, the majority are representing LGBTQ people and minorities. First learning about American history is too offensive to white kids and now learning about gay people will turn kids gay. You people are so stupid.
RHS, you’re talking about something different. Screen time, social media, video games, etc. etc. is a different topic than a small section of people banning books about minorities and different genders and sexualities because religious zealots don’t like it.
With respect, SBSurfer, I think you missed my point. Children are being rushed into adult for profit lanes and exposed to content beyond their maturity and understanding. This exposure is harmful to self-esteem and skews perceptions of the real world. I would like to see younger people protected and allowed to grow at their own pace, not forced to “know” about stuff and therefore to have an opinion about stuff before this it is valuable and necessary for their becoming balanced adults.
RHS – I think this quote from the article sums it up well:
“Not every book is meant for every reader. You can’t then take your belief about what’s right for your child and apply it to everyone else.”
Many kids want to or “need” (for their own emotional security) see these books. Why take that from them?
I’m not debating your point RHS, I’m stating that is a separate and different topic that does not pertain to the article and the MAGA movement that’s driving the banning of LGBTQ+ reading material. The way in which you are conflating the two separate topics is exactly what fundamental christians are doing to “save the children” and “let them be kids,” but what they’re really doing is attempting to erase LGBTQ+ history, art, and identities.
How is it I can buy any banned book on line or in book stores? Seems just a convenient misterm.
It also seems you are uninformed on the topic and did not read the article.
RUBAIYAT – Because the First Amendment. That’s “how.”
I mean, if the books are targeting the “sex education” age kids, they should be allowed to be in that section. There were plenty of “hetero” books like this when I was a kid and yeah, they were there at the SB Public Library. No one turned into a deviant from learning that masturbation won’t cause you to be struck blind by “God.”
Seriously, if you don’t want your kids reading about certain things, don’t let them off the child-leash you likely already have them on!
Too funny. Books are not banned. Certain graphic books are not allowed in schools. Like Playboy and Hustler. You can buy them on Amazon. Why are graphic depictions & descriptions of gay sex allowed? That’s discrimination! Why won’t schools expose my children to heterosexual porn!
“ move material with “sexual references” and “gender-identity content” to a restricted area where it could only be checked out with a parent’s permission.” is not a ban either. Or did Wikipedia change yet another definition?
And I love that this article did not show any books with the graphic sex scenes or graphic descriptions of giving blow jobs that were at the center of controversy.
But I know many people who have never read any of these books and do not have children in school will defend graphic gay porn in schools despite schools not allowed to supply playboy, hustler or other heterosexual sexual graphic books. Why discriminate?
Let’s even the playing field if we’re going to allow children access to graphic materials. Expose my kids to heterosexual material too.
SBLETS – LOL what?!
“Books are not banned. Certain graphic books are not allowed in schools.”
Try again.
ban
1 of 3
verb
ˈban
banned; banning; bans
Synonyms of ban
transitive verb
1
: to prohibit especially by legal means
ban discrimination
Is smoking banned in all public buildings?
also : to prohibit the use, performance, or distribution of
ban a book
ban a pesticide
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ban
“Why are graphic depictions & descriptions of gay sex allowed? ” – Whoa wait, I thought you just said they’re “not banned?” Which is it?
“Expose my kids to heterosexual material too.” – Uh…. there’s plenty of graphic sex ed books for straight kids. Always have been…..
Why is it “gay porn” to have books for kids other than your “straight” ones about sexuality?
SBLets – you are ignorant and fearful.
and ridiculously verbose!
SBLETS – you’re fixated on one single book. Have you read it? Have you looked at the age rating? Of course not. It’s not for young kids or even young teens. Just because it has graphics, doesn’t mean it’s for kids. You people are so blindly homophobic and fearful. Keep your hate and lack of knowledge to yourself and stop poisoning our society with it.
Maus is also a graphic novel. Would you let a little kid read it? Doubt you even know what it is.
Ignorance is what keeps us from being a civilized society.
Not all parents (probably almost none actually) can or will spend their time always chaperoning their kids to the library whenever they’re going there to decide what they’re going to look at. Absurd idea. People work, and kids can and should be able to go hit the public library on their own. If they run into homeless living there daily they’ll need to avoid that, unfortunately.
Sexual material, whether it’s straight or gay, has no place in a public library, especially in the kids section.
Anyone saying this a a Republican “con” issue is full of it. This has nothing to do with political parties. It’s kids, it’s parenting. Save that tired blame game. It’s over, hard.
From the article:
“Not every book is meant for every reader,” Coyl said. “You can’t then take your belief about what’s right for your child and apply it to everyone else.”
BI – Funny, then, that it’s only the reactionary cons pushing the issue.
BASIC – uh, actually most (good) parents don’t just drop off young children at the library to fend for themselves. Please keep your awful parenting advice to yourself.
More importantly, if you’re one of these parents who are so concerned about your kids seeing a sex ed book (or any sexuality/gender related book), then you SHOULD take the time to monitor what they see in public libraries.