Missouri Lawmaker Targets Drag Queen Story Hour, LGBTQ YA Books

A Republican lawmaker in Missouri is making a thinly veiled attempt at preventing children from accessing LGBTQ content at public libraries — and threatening to jail librarians who don’t fall in line.

Rep. Ben Baker is proposing that all libraries in the state create review boards to regulate “age-inappropriate sexual material.” Anything the review boards deemed inappropriate, after a public hearing, would have to be moved to a restricted adults-only section of the library that children and teens could not access, under Baker’s plan.

What this would ultimately mean is that if the review board decided YA books containing LGBTQ content, regardless of whether that content is sexual in nature, are age-inappropriate, teens would have to have their parents check them out for them.

“The main thing is I want to be able to take my kids to a library and make sure they’re in a safe environment, and that they’re not gonna be exposed to something that is objectionable material,” Baker said.

“I’m trying to figure out a way for parents to have recourse if something’s happened and actually the library board is saying ‘Hey, we’re OK with this’ or even promoting it, which has happened,” he added. (In other words, if librarians are doing their jobs.)

Unsurprisingly, his plan appears to be in response to some libraries hosting Drag Queen Story Hour, something else that would fall under the jurisdiction of these new library review boards if the bill is passed. So rather than put the onus on parents to just not take their children to events they deem inappropriate, or not allow them to check out books they deem inappropriate, Baker would prefer to just make a blanket judgment and make events and books inaccessible for all children and teens.

He is also proposing that libraries refusing to comply would lose access to state money, and librarians could be fined or face up to a year in jail.

Librarians are pushing back against the bill, as books are already vetted and libraries can help parents decide what's appropriate for their children without “infringing upon the rights of other patrons or restricting materials." Libraries also already hold public meetings where people can -- and do -- make their opinions known about books and events they find inappropriate.