Florida’s fascist book ban campaign has spread like a virus around the state. There are more than 500 entries for Florida in PEN America’s ever-expanding list of books banned in American schools. These include what should be obviously innocuous titles like the “Zen Shorts” series by Jon Muth, which are some of the best children’s books available to parents and teachers. This effort to remove books about Black and LGBTQ+ people and characters from schools and libraries is a part of a larger effort to sanitize our country’s history. Like almost all efforts that pass for conservative “policies” these days, citizens of all ages are widely opposed to the bans.
The lack of popularity doesn’t matter to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, though. During the first quarter of 2023 he began a disinformation campaign, telling reporters that the idea of banning books is “a hoax.”
“And that’s really a nasty hoax, because it’s a hoax in service of trying to pollute and sexualize our children,” DeSantis claims. But that claim belies the information available to anyone reading about the various books being pulled off of shelves for supposedly being “pornographic.”
DeSantis and his team of book-banners also highlighted the need to criminally punish teachers or librarians who give out books people like DeSantis deem pornographic. Mind you, our federal government (and Florida itself) already has laws outlining what is and is not considered pornographic. And there are also laws that prohibit books, images, and videos that sexualize minors—just ask former Republican National Committee aide Ruben Verastigui, who is serving a 151-month sentence for being involved in a child sexual abuse materials ring.
Judd Legum over at Popular Information has gotten his hands on some of the Florida books that have been banned and the stated reasons they were banned. You would be hard-pressed to figure out how the previous statements above have any bearing on the decisions being made about libraries in the Sunshine State.
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