The Etowah County Republican Party is the latest conservative group to voice concerns about the state of libraries in this country and express concerns that the institutions are being used to indoctrinate children in age-inappropriate sexually explicit content. The group is calling for Alabama’s libraries to disaffiliate from the American Library Association (ALA).
At their November meeting, the Etowah County Republican party unanimously passed a resolution condemning exposing minor children to inappropriate content in public libraries and calling for the Alabama Public Library Services (APLS), the Alabama Library Association (ALLA), and all seven local Etowah County libraries to individually disassociate from the American Library Association.
The Etowah GOP said in a statement, “The ALA has long been a conduit to allow libraries across the county to bring in pornographic and age-inappropriate books. Parents are called “Book Banners” when they advocate to relocate inappropriate books in the children and youth section of local libraries to the adult section of the library as the American Library Association Bill of Rights deems this as censorship.”
Amy Dozier Minton is the Secretary of the Etowah County Republican Party.
“It should be known that we are in support of and greatly appreciate the majority of the services and programs provided by our Etowah County libraries,” Minton said in a statement. “The library directors and staff have always been very professional and courteous. However, some of our local Etowah County libraries are full of books, paid for by our tax dollars, that the ALA recommends on “gender identity,”; choosing your own pronouns; and transgenderism that have been recommended by the ALA even for children 0-5 years old. An online search in the library’s card catalog under the search of “gender identity” will lead to a full listing of many of these books in the children and young adult sections.”
“Why does the ALA feel it necessary to encourage books on sexualizing our children and teens?” Mintor continued. “Why does it include a section under intellectual freedom on how to advocate for “Drag queen story hour” in our libraries with our children?” And why should our tax dollars in Alabama be funding ALA?”
“Our children are called dependents for a reason,” Minton concluded. “We don’t allow children to drive, carry a firearm, drink alcohol, vote, marry, join the military, attend certain rated movies before they are physically and/or mentally capable, and being exposed to some information should also not be freely available to wander upon in the children or young adult sections of a library but rather at the time of their parents choosing. We are not in support of “banning books” in America, so adults should be able to check out any books they want in the adult section.”
Minton was recently appointed to the Etowah County Library Committee.
The group cited the fact that ALA’s President Emily Drabinski, who is a self-proclaimed Marxist, in her words stated she wants to “turn libraries into spaces of Queerness and difference rather than democracy and Citizenship.” Drabinski called herself a Marxist in a now-deleted post on X.
In an interview in August, Drabinski said of the post, “I was excited to highlight and celebrate two aspects of my identity that are really important to me and are often under a lot of scrutiny. I didn’t anticipate these kinds of targeted attacks being used as a bludgeon against library workers across the country. I really think that is regrettable, and I wish that wasn’t happening right now.”
The group also claimed that the ALA has long been a conduit to allow libraries across the county to bring in pornographic and age-inappropriate books and that parents are called “Book Banners” when they advocate relocating inappropriate books in the children and youth section of local libraries to the adult section of the library as the American Library Association Bill of Rights deems this as censorship.
The Resolution urges, “The Directors of local libraries as well as those in leadership to appoint candidates to local library boards who reflect conservative values and will ensure that sexually explicit, obscene content or gender ideology/transgender material not be available within reach to children, teens or young adults nor accessible on the internet on public computers, and will encourage reading instead of indoctrination. (While we do not support ‘book banning,’ any books could be available in the adult section of the library and may be checked out by an adult over the age of 18.)”
.It also urges that the “Alabama Public Library Service (APLS) and the Etowah County public libraries to disaffiliate from the American Library Association (ALA) and its affiliates which espouse a philosophy of collectivism, i.e., communism and Marxism and who have stated in their Library Bill of Rights that the rights of minors to retrieve, interact with and create information posted on the Internet in libraries are extensions of their First Amendment rights.”
The Resolution further expresses support for “legislative action to make it a policy in Etowah County that all elected officials may not allow or authorize the display, promotion, or availability of obscene, sexually explicit, gender ideology/transgender materials to minor children, teens or young adults and are directed to remove the aforesaid.”
Governor Kay Ivey and Alabama Republican Party John Wahl, both APLS board members, have denounced the ALA and expressed support for disaffiliation in recent weeks.
The Alabama Public Library Service is expected to vote on whether or not to disaffiliate from the American Library Association at their next meeting.
This is likely to be an area that the Legislature will address in the 2024 Alabama Regular Legislative Session.
Critics argue that this amounts to censorship and is an effort on the part of conservatives to silence the LGBTQ+ community and limit their influence on children.
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