Alabama lawmaker & Moms for Liberty want to expand “Don’t Say Gay” law to all grades

Five-year-olds in the state are watching sexually explicit X-rated movies in school libraries, according to Republican state Rep. Mack Butler of Alabama.

“Parents have lost a lot of say in education,” says Butler, who authored Alabama’s copycat “Don’t Say Gay” legislation last year. He wrote another bill extending the legislation through the 8th grade, and he’s now back at the trough to ban mentions of LGBTQ+ people and history in Alabama’s schools through the 12th grade.

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He says both groups are negatively influencing students with a “dangerous” ideology.

“I just want to give breath and life to the parents’ wishes,” Butler told the Alabama Political Reporter. “Just like with books in the library — nobody wants to ban any books. But your 5-year-old can’t go to R-rated or X-rated movies. This puts the adults back in charge.”

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There have been no credible media reports or documented evidence of five-year-olds watching sexually explicit movies in school libraries. However, right-wingers and conservative politicians have repeatedly claimed that young children have access to sexually explicit materials in schools as a justification for banning LGBTQ+-inclusive books.

Butler says Alabama is infected with “an agenda” in the public school system, and he’s ready to “get the conversation started” on purging it with his new legislation. He’s prepared to go as far and wide as necessary, he said.

“I’m supposed to meet with some people pretty soon on that, some different groups,” Butler said.

One of those groups is Moms for Liberty, the collection of angry mothers wreaking havoc at local school board meetings in pursuit of their agenda to expel LGBTQ+ identity from classrooms. Butler is scheduled to hear from the group at a November 2 meeting.

A flyer for the event advertises that the Butler will share his thoughts and solicit advice about “his ‘age-appropriate curriculum’ bill which would ban gender ideology, religion, race, and sexual orientation from being taught in K-12 for all educational institutions.”

“Just like America was founded on freedom of religion, we’re not picking winners and losers on any religion or races,” Butler said. “I see us as all part of one race: the human race.”

Also on the chopping block: the gays and trans people.

“Gay people have been around since the beginning of time,” he said. “The new fad is to push people towards this transgender — which I think is probably a fad. If you want to pretend you’re a woman, have at it, but that doesn’t mean I have to go along with it. There is definitely a difference between men and women.”

Numerous medical professionals and biological researchers have acknowledged that human sex traits and gender identity exist on a spectrum that isn’t always strictly male or female. Also, studies have debunked the conservative claim that “social contagion” influences people to identify as transgender.

Nevertheless, Butler claims his agenda is all about protecting the “innocence of children.”

“Most parents would not like their children exposed to that stuff early. It keeps the school from making an agenda out of it with assignments,” Butler said. “Most of us feel pretty strongly about protecting our children’s innocence.”

He didn’t specify who the rest of “us” are.

Along with Moms for Liberty, Butler’s other allies include the far-right organization Clean Up Alabama, who demanded “the immediate removal of pornographic, obscene, and indecent books from sections of the libraries that are designated for minors.”

The group believes far-left Alabama librarians are “stocking their shelves with books intended to confuse the children of our communities about sexuality and expose them to material that is inappropriate for them.”

Clean Up Alabama is also advocating for the removal of a criminal exemption for providing obscenity or “material harmful to minors” in the state, opening up librarians and teachers to criminal prosecution. Alabama GOP chairman John Wahl, another Butler supporter, agrees, saying the legislature should look into whether libraries are going to “do obscenity.”