It never ceases to boggle the mind that institutions like public schools and libraries demand taxpayer funding yet, in many cases, minimize or ignore taxpayer authority.
A Missouri state lawmaker is hoping to change that with a bill that would empower parent-activists to keep Drag Queen Story Hour and other sexually explicit content out of the libraries that they pay for.
House Bill 2044, the Parental Oversight of Public Libraries Act, would require any library that receives taxpayer dollars to create a review board composed of five parents elected from the community. The board would be given the final authority over any explicitly or implicitly sexual material within the library.
“Just knowing that there are children being exposed to the agenda being pushed by the LGBTQ community is alarming, but even more so when the vehicle in these situations is our taxpayer funded public libraries,” Republican state Rep. Ben Baker, who filed the bill, told LifeSiteNews.
According to the bill, these boards would be empowered to hold public hearings and render verdicts on public concerns as to the library’s offering of “age-inappropriate sexual material,” meaning “any description or representation, in any form, of nudity, sexuality, sexual conduct, sexual excitement, or sadomasochistic abuse” that is deemed “patently offensive” and without “serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value for minors.”
“Any public library personnel who willfully neglects or refuses to perform any duty imposed on a public library under this section, or who willfully violates any provision of this section, is guilty of a misdemeanor and on conviction shall be punished by a fine of not more than five hundred dollars or by imprisonment in the county jail not to exceed one year,” the bill states.
Unsurprisingly, LGBT groups and library officials have come out with guns blazing against HB 2044.
“I was contacted by my fellow directors across the state. They’re all very very upset about it,” Neosho Newton County Library director Carrie Cline told KOAM. “The Missouri Library Association’s very aware of it, so also is the American Library Association at a federal level.”
Shira Berkowitz, communications manager for Missouri LGBT group PROMO declared that the bill was “just based on fear,” according to NBC News. Berkowitz also denied that Drag Queen Story Hours involve “any kind of sexual content.” In the very next breath, however, she expressed how vital they are in increasing the “visibility of LGBTQ culture.”
So, which is it? Do they promote any certain sexuality, or don’t they?
“I think it is a ridiculous accusation to say that the bill would ban books or censor literature,” Baker told LifeSite, responding to the fearmongering out of the LGBT opposition. “Anything the parental oversight board would deem to be inappropriate for access by minors would still be available to adults to check out and provide to their children if they chose to do so. They already have internet filters on library PCs for the same reason, and that is protecting children from objectionable materials.”
Baker also added that the penalty for noncompliance is no more severe than what library personnel already face for willfully neglecting other policies, such as internet filters on library computers.
“The current law on disseminating objectionable sexual material to minors is actually a felony which is a much stricter penalty than what the bill calls for,” Baker said. “I think it’s perfectly appropriate to have a penalty for those who would willfully ignore the wishes of the community regarding content or events available for children to view in a public space.”
In a tweet last week, Baker noted that he had even received death threats over the bill:
Here’s the world we live in today. Try to protect children from age inappropriate content in our libraries and in response get death threats. It seems we no longer live in a society where you can have civil discourse about ideas. #Isaiahfivetwenty #HB2044
— Ben Baker (@BenBakerMO) January 17, 2020
“I have received several death threats for me and my wife and four daughters,” he told LifeSite. “Some of the threats were from as far away as Australia. Most of the negative has been outside the state and what has been from Missouri has been outside of my district. I think most sane thinking people can agree that this is an issue that needs to be addressed.”
“The biggest problem is the false narrative that the media has created,” Baker continued. “They have not been objective with the story and the headlines are misleading so people just run with that rather than actually reading the bill and finding out what it actually would do.”
Folks, we know Baker and any bold legislator who follows in his footsteps has a massive uphill battle ahead.
Drag Queen Story Hours are protected and actively promoted by American Library Association and, in spite of many cases of inappropriate behavior or failure to keep criminals away from children, these events are allowed to carry on with impunity.
Baker will only be successful if we all rally behind him and lend our voices—and our votes—to preserving family values.
If you haven’t already, please sign our petition to the ALA to demand that they stop promoting these disgusting events.
To show your support for Rep. Baker, sign LifeSite’s petition and, if you are a Missouri resident, urge your representative to co-sponsor HB 2044!
If you appreciate the work we are doing to fight the leftist assault on our values, please consider a small donation to help us continue. Thank you so much!
