Moms for Liberty wants to defund libraries that let kids check out grown-up books

Moms for Liberty (M4L) is now demanding the state of Alabama defund libraries that don’t have a system in place to only allow children to check out books from the children’s section. M4L also says that all books recommended by the American Library Association (ALA) should be moved out of the children’s section.

Two chapters of the extreme anti-LGBTQ+ organization sent a letter to the Alabama Public Library Service (APLS) asking for software to prevent minors from checking out books from outside their age range. They want the library service to withhold funds from local libraries that don’t use the software.

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While the group generally targets books about LGBTQ+ people and anti-racist issues, this time M4L says that they want every book recommended by the ALA removed from the children’s sections of libraries. They said they don’t want a ban but “rather that books be placed in a manner that allows parental oversight when sexually explicit material is included.”

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Their issue with the ALA? Emily Jones of the Madison County, Alabama chapter of M4L said that the librarian association is “pushing for books that sexualize and groom children.”

“Any book that sexualizes children, exposes children to sexual content to include incest and rape, should raise concerns for any adult regardless of their political beliefs or organizational associations,” she told Al.com.

But when asked for examples of books that show that the ALA is trying to groom, the group brought up nonbinary author George M. Johnson’s memoir All Boys Aren’t Blue, which they claim a nine-year-old was recently able to check out at an Alabama library. The group said that the book is “pornographic” even though it is not. The book, which is often recommended for teens, does depict sexual abuse the author lived through when he was younger.

“I love my country and the principles on which it was founded, which includes a limited role of the government,” Jones said, despite asking a state agency to increase regulation of reading material.

APLS director Dr. Nancy Pack said that even if software preventing teens and children from checking out books outside of their age range were installed, minors would still find a way to read those books.

“The only way that you are going to keep children from checking out materials that the parent feels are inappropriate for their child is to have parental guidance and for the parents to have a sit-down talk with their children saying, ‘This is what you may check out,’” she said.

All Boys Aren’t Blue was the second most banned book of the 2021-2022 school year, according to PEN America, after nonbinary author Maia Kobabe’s memoir Gender Queer.