ALGOP chair responds to call for ethics investigation | News | #republicans | #Alabama | #GOP

ALGOP Chair John Wahl recently responded to calls for an ethics investigation into his perceived affiliations with the conservative “parental rights” group Clean Up Alabama.

The request was sent to both the Alabama Public Library Service Board of Directors — of which Wahl holds the District 5 seat — and Gov. Kay Ivey, by the recently formed library advocacy group Read Freely Alabama. In the letter, RFA expressed concern about Wahl’s public comments which have been seemingly in-line with CUA’s ongoing efforts to remove or relocate books containing LGBTQ content in Alabama Public Libraries, as well as CUA billing him as a featured guest during an upcoming roundtable discussion scheduled for Nov. 2 in Prattville.

RFA Alabama said they “cannot fathom” why Wahl was allowed to “publicly affiliate with and promote” a group which has “terrorized Alabama libraries” by calling for government intervention and encouraging withholding state funding for libraries that do not remove content they have deemed as “sexually explicit.”

When reached by phone on Monday, Oct. 16, Wahl told The Times he felt as though the letter very much “mischaracterized” both his views and his affiliation with CUA.

“I think that is the saddest part for me in this whole thing. That letter very much mischaracterized me and my demeanor and what I try to do as a public servant. My goal is to help people be successful and provide good policy for the state of Alabama. I have no desire to be against our libraries, I would not have taken the position on the state library board if I didn’t believe in our libraries and want them to be successful,” Wahl said.

Wahl said that while he did accept an invitation to attend CUA’s roundtable event, he was not speaking at the event and was not involved in the group’s decision to list him as a member of the APLS board.

“I was invited just to listen to concerns. I’m not supporting, endorsing, nor am I a member of Clean Up Alabama. I’m going to only hear the concerns of parents around a roundtable as I would for any other group,” he said. Wahl said he has not received a formal invitation to meet with the members of RFA.

While CUA have described any policy suggestions which fall short of removing books they have judged to be inappropriate for children as “weak” or “watered down” solutions, Wahl said the group’s request for “all sections of the library accessible to minors should not contain sexual content, period,” was “impossible.”

He said he was a firm supporter in the First Amendment and conceded how at times that that can mean advocating for those he might personally disagree with. Wahl did express his concerns over the possibility of inappropriate material being located in children’s and young adult sections, but said he was in no way supportive of removing any books from public libraries.

He said his ideal scenario would be to relocate books containing “sexually explicit” content to a more adult section where individual families would have access to books they felt were appropriate for their children.

“I think the best middle ground would be to place content in more adult sections and require a parental signature where parents could still check out content for their children if they wanted to, but that a child couldn’t accidentally find it,” Wahl said.

In an emailed statement sent to The Times, RFA said they understood Wahl’s concerns about the content read aloud by CUA director Hannah Rees during a recent APLS board meeting, but said those passages were taken out of context in an effort to misconstrue the books’ content.

“We understand that Mr. Wahl has concerns about some of the materials that were read aloud recently at an APLS board meeting by members of CUA. It is important when evaluating books, that someone reads the entire book to ensure they are judging the content as “a whole and not in part” which is a requirement for a library’s reconsideration process.”

Wahl also said he felt as though dividing young adult sections into two separate categories could be a “healthy” decision for local libraries because of the discrepancy as to what is appropriate for preteens versus 18-year-olds.

RFA did not dispute Wahl’s take and said several Alabama libraries were already discussing the idea, but those policies might be slow to implement.

“Many teen and youth services librarians have already been discussing this idea, including Alabama libraries like North Shelby Library, with professional best practices suggesting the development of a Tween Section or an older New Adult section. Implementing these changes take time and many Alabama libraries lack sufficient funding and staffing to quickly implement these ideas. They would love to, but are limited,” RFA said.

As for who would be the governing authority as to what content would be deemed inappropriate, Wahl said he felt as though it was the government’s duty to protect children, but that “local library boards should be respected.”

“As a Republican, I like to see government be left up to local authorities as much as possible,” Wahl said.

One of CUA’s most hardline stances has been in its calling for all local libraries and the APLS to disaffiliate from the American Library Association, and while Wahl has not publicly endorsed an outright separation, he did not shy away from his “deep concerns” over the organization which he felt was pushing a “Marxist agenda.”

Wahl’s concerns largely focused on comments made by ALA president Emily Drabinski in 2022 via social media in which she described herself as a “Marxist lesbian.” Drabinski has also said on her website that her vision for the ALA was for the group to use its “collective power” to address several controversial culture war issues such as climate change, class war, white supremacy and imperialism.

Wahl attributed the cancellation of two events at the Millbrook and Madison public libraries to ALA’s influence about the libraries’ decision making process. The event at Millbrook was hosted by CUA, while the event at Madison was hosted by a similar Tampa, Fla. based “parental rights” group, Moms for Liberty. Both events were set to feature readings from the Christian oriented publishing company Brave Books.

Both libraries cited capacity concerns for the events’ cancellations — the decision to cancel the event in Madison was overturned — Wahl said this was described in an ALA program advising local libraries in how to prevent faith-based groups from holding events.

“I have a problem with this idea. Supposedly, the ALA is against censorship and yet they are educating local libraries on how to censor and disenfranchise religious groups. Why? I have a serious problem when they want to stand up for non-censoring, but want to purposely educate local libraries on how to censor people. There is a double standard here that is very concerning to me,” Wahl said.

The Times has not been able to independently verify the existence of the ALA program mentioned by Wahl.

RFA said it was ultimately happy to learn Wahl was not planning to speak as a representative of the APLS during CUA’s upcoming event and was planning to reach out to him in order to express their concerns and clear up any potential misunderstandings.

“We at Read Freely are happy to hear that Mr. Wahl has clarified that he did not plan to attend the Clean Up Prattville roundtable event with the intent to speak in his capacity as an APLS board member. We understand that he has primarily only heard from the members of CUA on this issue, and we feel this may be an opportunity for a fruitful conversation and a clearing up of several points of misinformation. If Mr. Wahl still plans to attend the CUA roundtable, Read Freely Alabama will reach out to his team to schedule a meeting. We are happy to speak to him about concerns and give him the opportunity to hear from professional librarians and concerned parents.”