Fresno County Book Committee Stirs Concerns Over LGBTQ+ Censorship
9/6/2024 | 1m 50sVideo has Closed Captions
Fresno County's book committee raises concerns over censorship and LGBTQIA+ representation.
Fresno County's proposed citizen review committee for library books has become a battleground over censorship, parental rights, and LGBTQ representation in children's literature. Supporters argue it's about protecting children from inappropriate content, while critics say it risks marginalizing LGBTQIA+ voices.
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SoCal Matters is a local public television program presented by PBS SoCal
Fresno County Book Committee Stirs Concerns Over LGBTQ+ Censorship
9/6/2024 | 1m 50sVideo has Closed Captions
Fresno County's proposed citizen review committee for library books has become a battleground over censorship, parental rights, and LGBTQ representation in children's literature. Supporters argue it's about protecting children from inappropriate content, while critics say it risks marginalizing LGBTQIA+ voices.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorshipLast year, after a controversy over a pride display at a local children's library, Fresno County Supervisor Steve Brandau led Fresno County in creating one of California's first citizen review committees for library books.
Once established, the committee could decide whether to move material with sexual references and gender identity content to a restricted area, where it could only be checked out with the parents' permission.
The committee has become a lightning rod for fears about parents' rights, censorship, the politicization of libraries, and LGBTQ people being pushed out of public life again.
Some of the children's books that Brandau and others object to are about transgender people and gender identity, so the debate over the book review board has become deeply enmeshed with anxieties around LGBTQ rights and transgender youth.
Supporters of the committee say they are simply concerned about young children being exposed to sexual content, not LGBTQ themes, and they do not want to ban books from the library entirely.
Brandau said critics fundamentally misunderstood his proposal, known as the Parents Matter Act.
He said the committee will allow Fresno County to set its own community standards for what books should be readily available to children.
"I'm not against this material," he said.
"I'm against it at the wrong age."
Besides Fresno County, the city council in Huntington Beach has also voted to create a citizen committee to review children's library books.
These incidents caught the attention of Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi, a Torrance Democrat, who said public libraries should provide readers with a diverse range of perspectives.
His proposal, Assembly Bill 1825, passed the legislature this August and is now on the governor's desk.
The bill requires public libraries in California to establish a clear policy for choosing books, including a way for community members to voice their objections.
But it would prohibit banning or restricting material because it deals with race or sexuality.
With CalMatters, I'm Alexei Koseff.
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SoCal Matters is a local public television program presented by PBS SoCal