A bill that aims to counteract book banning and protect public and school librarians passed the Maryland General Assembly Thursday, marking a bold statement from lawmakers in the face of a growing culture of book challenges locally and across the country.
The Freedom to Read Act sponsored by Montgomery County-based Sen. Nancy King (D-Dist. 39) in the Senate and by Anne Arundel County-based Del. Dana Jones (D-Dist. 30A) in the House also was supported by several major organizations, including the Maryland State Education Association, the Maryland Association of School Librarians and the ACLU of Maryland.
The bill now heads to Gov. Wes Moore (D), who will decide whether to sign it into law.
The legislation sets standards for county and public school libraries, including that “a library should not exclude material from its catalogue because of the origin, background, or views of a person who created the material” and also that “a library should not prohibit or remove material from its catalogue because of partisan, ideological, or religious disapproval.”
If any county library does not uphold these standards, the state librarian has the authority to direct the state comptroller to withhold state funding.
The legislation also tasks public school systems with developing uniform policies for submitting objections to school library materials, as well as prohibiting boards of education from taking retaliatory action against school librarians for performing their job duties.
“There are some bills that I just wish were not necessary and this is one of them,” King told the Senate Education, Energy and the Environment Committee during a Feb. 23 hearing. She said the rise of book challenges across the state deemed the legislation necessary in her view.
Locally, a young adult novel about a high-schooler who writes a sex column for LGBTQ+ teens was pulled in October from Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) libraries. It is unclear who challenged it.
MCPS has been in the spotlight when it comes to LGBTQ+ books and curriculum after three parents filed a lawsuit against the school board and the district’s superintendent in May over the school district’s decision not to provide prior notice or allow parents to remove their students from the classroom when an LGBTQ+ inclusive storybook is used as part of the lesson.
In August, a federal judge denied a motion for an injunction that would have temporarily forced MCPS to rescind its no-opt-out approach to reading elementary-level LGBTQ+ inclusive materials in class, stating that exposure to LGBTQ+ texts doesn’t violate parents’ First Amendment rights. The litigation is ongoing.
“In the last two years, we have watched as a politically motivated movement has repeatedly attempted, sometimes successfully, to remove books from the shelves of school libraries. School librarians never thought this would happen–until it did,” Jacob Gerding, executive board member of the Maryland Association of School Librarians, testified during the Feb. 23 committee hearing. “Efforts at censoring and restricting access to a high-quality school library collection prevent school librarians from fulfilling a key duty – curating a robust, up-to-date collection that meets the needs of our students and the community.”
In Carroll County, The Baltimore Banner reported that at least 56 books have been temporarily removed from library shelves as of September 2023, in large parts due to an onslaught of challenges brought forward by the Carroll County chapter of Moms for Liberty.
Moms for Liberty is a conservative political organization that advocates for parental involvement in school curriculum decisions. The organization has been designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center due to anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric.
The group’s efforts mirror a nationwide uptick in book challenges in public school systems. According to the American Library Association, there were more book challenges in 2022 than the organization has seen in its 20 years of existence.
The Maryland chapter of Moms for Liberty strongly opposed the Freedom to Read Act, arguing that this legislation would allow sexually explicit books in school libraries.
“When it comes to the professional best equipped to determine what is appropriate for children, parents trump librarians every time,” the organization wrote in a letter to the legislature. “Please respect parents’ rights to direct the education and upbringing of their children and to retain local standards for school and public libraries.”
But supporters of the bill, including the Maryland Commission on LGBTQIA+, argued that the legislation was necessary to prevent challenges of books that reflect diverse perspectives.
“The Commission is deeply concerned about the recent wave of book bans targeting materials with LGBTQIA+ content or characters,” the board wrote in its testimony on the bill. “Such censorship not only restricts access to important literary works but seeks to erase LGBTQIA+ individuals and families from public life, perpetuating discrimination and marginalization.”