During the first 8 months of last year, the American Library Association recorded 681attempts to either ban or restrict books and periodicals at public libraries. Over 1,600 titles were targeted with L.G.B.T.Q themed books among a sizable percentage of those hidden from students.
North Dakota seems to be leading the trend with its Senate Bill 2360 that prohibits any organization open to minors from housing "objectionable materials", which may include "nude or partially denuded human figures", describing such things as “less than completely and opaquely covered human genitals, pubic regions, female breasts or a female breast, if the breast or breasts are exposed below a point immediately above the top of the areola, or human buttocks; and includes human male genitals in a discernibly turgid state even if completely and opaquely covered.” Librarians who flaunt these rules can be fined up to $1,500 and receive 30 days in the slammer.
North Dakota isn't alone. West Virginia, Texas, Mississippi, Montana, Iowa, Wyoming, Missouri and Indiana have either made laws to restrict materials or are considering similar bans.
In fact, schools in Missouri have had to remove works by Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Batman and X-Men comics, literature by Shakespeare, and the book, "Maus", the Pullitzer Prize winning novel about the Holocaust.
I agree that it's probably not a good idea to put Hustler Magazine on library shelves (and no library does this), but don't these legislators have anything better to do? Never mind that any kid can go online at home and within seconds find pictures of people fucking, so what's the point?
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