Banning books is just NOT, at all, about pornography

If you ask the politicians banning books why they are doing it, most will say they are just trying to protect children.

But is that true?

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A quick look at most lists of books being banned or removed from school libraries would reveal otherwise. More often than not, politicians are trying to ban books they do not like or think should not exist. And they often use the thinnest of excuses to have those books banned— sometimes, they make up the rules as they go along.

But what is consistent is that they're attempting erase the lives of millions of Americans that they disagree with based on their political ideologies, sexual identity, or their race.

You do not have to look further than what is happening in Duval County, Florida, to see this happening. Florida Governor, Ron DeSantis, said that his state was not banning books: they were protecting children from having access to porn.  But in Duval, they use the ‘porn’ label to ban any book they do not like. Like fairytales. Or books about homes from around the world.

That is not an exaggeration. One of the books recently banned was “Houses and Homes” by Ann Morris, a picture book about homes from around the world that Parents Magazine named one of the ‘best books of the year.’ Another book that was banned was “Sleeping Beauty,” as well as “Guess What?”, a children’s book by Mem Fox. “Jalani and the Lock” by Lorenzo Pace and “Beloved” by Toni Morrison were also banned.

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And in every case, they were cited as having pornography in their content. These books are not pornographic. Most of them are children’s books. 

Florida defines content that is harmful to minors as being “prurient, shameful or morbid” and having no “serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value.”

Is “Sleeping Beauty” shameful or morbid?

Apparently, some politicians in Duval County, Florida, thought so.

They are banning award-winning books, children’s books, fairytales, and literary classics under the guise of being pornographic, but the truth is that these politicians don’t like these books. They don’t want them to exist. So they make up any excuse to ban them— even if the very laws they are using don’t apply to what they are trying to remove from library shelves.

Bans like this cannot be allowed to go through. They are not targeting books that are shameful, morbid or have no literary or artistic value, and it is absurd to interpret them that way.

We need people like you to take action against these outrageous book bans today! Please sign the petition against book bans here.