The First Amendment doesn’t just protect what you say. It also protects your right to hear what others say. It guarantees a right to published information. It protects a whole lot of stuff ce…

A lawsuit, filed by patrons of a county library in Arkansas, has been allowed to move forward by a federal court. The First Amendment lawsuit plausibly alleges the library’s decision to move anything determined to be “LGBTQ” from the children’s section to the adult’s section violates the First Amendment right to equitable access to information. (via Courthouse News Service)

Here’s how this started, according to the decision [PDF] that moves this lawsuit forward:

[I]n late 2022 or early 2023 the Crawford County Library System implemented a policy under which its library branches must remove from their children’s sections all books containing LGBTQ themes, affix a prominent color label to those books, and place them in a newly-created section called the “social section.” Plaintiffs allege this policy was imposed on the Library System by the Crawford County Quorum Court in response to political pressure from constituents who objected, at least partly on religious grounds, to the presence of these books in the children’s section.

  • WHYAREWEALLCAPS@lemmy.world
    9·
    1 year ago

    These are children’s books, not “advanced sexual theory”, whatever the fuck that is. Learning about LGBTQ+ people is not inherently sexual. If it is, then any book showing any relationship, LGBTQ+ or cishet, is “advanced sexual theory”. LGBTQ+ people exist that way from birth just like cishet people do. The sooner children realize that what they are is not unusual and not “wrong”, the less emotional and psychological trauma they will face.

          • AnonTwo@kbin.social
            3·
            1 year ago

            I’d argue you’re treating your children like pets and not the human beings who have to grow up into this world without any actual knowledge, because you’re pushing them away not from advanced knowledge but in this case what should be basics knowledge.

            They have to learn about this stuff eventually, and teenagers are still not assumed adults legally. This would push them from that knowledge far, far, far too late.

          • RoquetteQueen@sh.itjust.works
            2·
            1 year ago

            The majority of people don’t want to subject their children to this stuff and that’s just the facts.

            Lol. Thanks, I needed a good laugh today.

      • Concetta
        3·
        1 year ago

        Maybe to a rock with a negative IQ, if you aren’t a bigot piece of shit you wouldn’t say things like that.