Minnesota and other Democratic-led states lead pushback on censorship. They’re banning the book ban

ST. PAUL, Minn. — As a queer and out youth, Shae Ross was alarmed to hear that conservative groups in her community were organizing to ban books about sexuality, gender, and race. So she and her friends organized themselves and helped convince their school board to make it much more difficult to remove books and other materials from their libraries and classrooms.

Ross, an 18-year-old senior in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, is happy to see her governor and leaders in several other states fighting the trend playing out in more conservative states where book challenges and bans are at their highest levels increased in decades.

“For a lot of teens, LGBT teens and teens who might not feel like they have a lot of friends or are very popular in middle or high school… literature becomes a kind of escape.” said Ross. “Especially when I was in sixth or seventh grade, I would say that reading books, especially books with gay characters… was a way for me to feel seen and represented.”

Minnesota is one of several Democratic-leaning states where lawmakers are now pursuing bans on book bans. The Washington and Maryland legislatures have already passed them this year, while Illinois did so last year. It was a major highlight of Oregon’s short session, where the legislation passed the Senate but died without a vote in the House.

According to the American Library Association, more than 4,200 works in school and public libraries were targeted in 2023, a jump from the old record of nearly 2,600 books in 2022. Many challenged books – 47% in 2023 – had LGBTQ+ and racial themes .

Restrictions in some states have increased so much that librarians and administrators fear crippling lawsuits, steep fines and even jail time if they make available books that others consider inappropriate. This year, lawmakers in more than fifteen states have introduced bills to impose harsh penalties on libraries and librarians.

Conservative parents and activists argue that the books are too sexually explicit or otherwise controversial, and are inappropriate, especially for younger readers. National groups like Moms for Liberty say parents deserve more control over the books available to their children.

But there is a backlash. According to EveryLibrary, a political action committee for libraries, different states are considering bans on books to varying degrees. A sample includes California, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Kansas, Massachusetts, Missouri, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont, although some of these seem unlikely to succeed in conservative states. One also died in New Mexico this year.

One such bill awaits Democratic Gov. Wes Moore’s signature in Maryland. Washington Governor Jay Inslee signed a bill last month that sets a high bar for removing disputed material, especially when it comes to race, sexual orientation and gender identity. A version pending in New Jersey would protect librarians from civil or criminal liability.

Some proposals are labeled ‘Freedom to Read’.

“That is what is so crucial here. The voluntary nature of reading,” says Martha Hickson, librarian at North Hunterdon High School in New Jersey. “Students can choose to read, not read, or completely ignore everything in this library. No one asks them to read anything.”

Hickson recalled how parents first suggested her book collections contained pedophilia and pornography at a 2021 school board meeting. She watched the livestream in horror as they objected that the novel “Lawn Boy” and the illustrated memoir “Gender Queer ‘ were available to students and suggested they might be criminally liable.

“The tears were welling up and shaking,” said Hickson. “But once my body finished that, my normal attitude, the fighting side, kicked in and I picked up my cell phone while the meeting was still going on and started reaching out.”

Book bans have been a sore point for Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, a former high school teacher. The Minnesota Senate passed his proposal this month. It would prohibit book bans in public and school libraries based on content or ideological concerns, and require that key decisions about which books to offer or not be made by library professionals.

The state House is considering a more toothy approach, including fines and allowing private citizens to sue to enforce it.

“I am working with stakeholders, with the Department of Education, librarians, school districts and their representatives,” said Democratic Rep. Cedrick Frazier of New Hope. “We’re working on tightening up the language, making sure we come to a consensus and just making sure everyone is on the same page.

Because of her activism, Ross, a student at Jefferson High School in Bloomington, was invited when Walz went to Como Park Senior High School in St. Paul last month to view an exhibit of books banned elsewhere. The governor called book bans “the antithesis of everything we believe” and denounced what he portrayed as a growing effort to bully school officials.

At a House hearing last month, speakers said books by LGBTQ+ and authors of color are among the most frequently banned. Karlton Laster, director of policy and organizing for OutFront Minnesota, who identifies as black and queer, said reading their works helped him “convey my hard feelings and truths to my family and friends,” and helped him come out to get to his family.

Kendra Redmond, a Bloomington mother with three children in public schools, testified about efforts to push back against a petition by conservatives to remove about 28 titles from the city’s school libraries.

Pushback from Ross, Redmond and others succeeded. The Bloomington School Board made it much more difficult to request expulsion last month. Parents can still restrict their own children’s access to material they deem objectionable.

Many challenges in the district came from the Bloomington Parents Alliance. One of the leaders, Alan Redding, recalled how his son’s ninth-grade class was discussing a book a few years ago when poignant passages about date rape were read in class. He said his son and other children were not prepared for something so explicit.

“They were clearly bothered and disgusted by this,” Redding said. “My son completely dropped out this semester.”

Republican Minnesota lawmakers have argued that rather than worrying about book bans, they should instead focus on achievement in a state where just under half of public school students can read at grade level.

“Every book is off limits to a child who can’t read,” said Republican Rep. Patricia Mueller, an Austin teacher.

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Catalini reported from Trenton, New Jersey. Associated Press reporters Claire Rush in Portland, Oregon, and Brian Witte in Annapolis, Maryland, contributed to this story.