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‘There should be no sexually explicit books’: Texas lawmakers debate school library rules

More than 80 speakers signed up to testify on the bill as some feared it could lead to many books being banned, especially those with LGBTQ characters.

Update:
This story was updated at 11:15 a.m. with additional information about the debate.

A fierce debate over how to regulate what Texas children can read at school stretched for hours Tuesday night, as the House Public Education committee took up a bill targeting library rules.

Rep. Jared Patterson’s READER Act would require book vendors to “rate” titles with sexual content before selling them to school districts. The Frisco Republican said the legislation is an attempt to rid school libraries of books inappropriate for children.

But those opposed to his legislation said they fear its definitions could lead to swaths of books getting removed from libraries, specifically those about LGBTQ characters.

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Books deemed “sexually explicit” couldn’t be sold to districts under the bill. The proposal would also require schools to get parental permission before a child could access “sexually relevant material” in the library.

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“There should be no sexually explicit books,” Patterson said. “Everyone on the district campus is going to know which books are sexually relevant.”

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Patterson’s bill — a priority of the GOP-led House — comes as Republicans nationwide crack down on the kinds of books available in school libraries. Many of the books in their crosshairs deal with LGBTQ issues or themes of racism.

Patterson denied his bill was a “Fahrenheit 451-style book ban” or meant to silence minority voices.

“There is one common denominator in the books that we are addressing with this bill, and it’s sexually explicit content,” he said.

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Roughly 80 people signed up to testify Tuesday night, with many saying they want to protect children’s innocence. Several labeled the books in question as filth or pornography, blaming the titles for contributing to a variety of societal ills. Speakers read aloud sexual passages from books that they want out of schools.

“Everybody read the diary of Anne Frank, probably, in high school. Great book, right?” said Chad Green, a school board member in McKinney ISD. “You know, that there’s a graphic novel version that has a very explicit scene in one of the chapters?”

(Some versions include the teenage girl writing about exploring her own anatomy and sexuality.)

Some authors have argued that, amid this uproar, their works are being reduced to sensationalized snippets, rather than considered in their entirety.

Speakers against the bill pushed the committee to recognize that challenging books can help children learn to make sense of the world around them.

Critics also said the bill’s language and definitions are too broad. Rep. James Talarico, D-Austin, questioned Patterson on how books might be swept away.

“We’re casting a big net, and it’s going to catch a lot of classic books that we think should be in libraries,” Talarico said.

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He asked Patterson to consider Lonesome Dove. Talarico explained the 1985 Western novel by Texas author and Pulitzer Prize winner Larry McMurtry includes sexual content, including prostitutes.

“They might need to ban Lonesome Dove,” Patterson responded.

Patterson argued his bill drew from terms in the penal code and hammered out in a previous Supreme Court case.

Patterson blasted his home district of Frisco ISD during the hearing. He fought its library policies for more than a year, including over titles such as Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower.

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Lawmakers also repeatedly cited disgust with Gender Queer: A Memoir, a graphic novel that’s been frequently banned by districts across the country because of illustrations depicting sexual experiences. The story is the author Maia Kobabe’s journey of sexuality and gender discovery.

Frisco ISD administrator Wes Cunningham testified Tuesday night, taking issue with how Patterson painted the district’s response to concerns about inappropriate books. He said the district updated its library policies and removed dozens of titles officials determined were not age appropriate.

“We absolutely do not want sexually explicit library books available in our school libraries,” Cunningham said. “We expect that some of the structures established in HB 900 will assist us as school districts accomplishing that goal.”

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Just after midnight, the bill was left pending in committee.

A fall report found Texas had removed more books from school libraries than in any other state. Roughly 800 books — many centered on race, sexuality and gender themes — were pulled between July 2021 and June 2022, according to PEN America, a nonprofit that advocates for free speech.

Some books — at least 174 titles — were banned more than once, including Kobabe’s Gender Queer and The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison.

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The DMN Education Lab is a community-funded journalism initiative, with support from Bobby and Lottye Lyle, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, Dallas Regional Chamber, Deedie Rose, Garrett and Cecilia Boone, The Meadows Foundation, The Murrell Foundation, Solutions Journalism Network, Southern Methodist University, Sydney Smith Hicks and the University of Texas at Dallas. The Dallas Morning News retains full editorial control of the Education Lab’s journalism.