Local libraries are quickly becoming the latest battleground in today's culture war, but State Rep. Susan DuBose (R-Hoover) is determined to keep them a safe place for children to hang out, study and learn without being exposed to sexually explicit books.
"Every day I get more and more upset about what is going on in our libraries," DuBose said Friday on "Rightside Radio." "[I]t was a safe place to be. You could pick up any book and start reading. You could have the librarian help you find a book. But today, I'd be scared to ask a librarian in some library to help my child find a book. Now, they aren't all that way. We have some fabulous libraries with real good conservative librarians, and we have some I would not let my child loose in."
DuBose recently wrote an opinion piece calling for all Alabama libraries to disaffiliate from the "toxic" American Library Association (ALA), which she said is the primary source for the "woke" ideologies and inappropriate books being pushed on local libraries.
"I feel like everything that's going on in our local libraries, the problems are being pushed down from the American Library Association. Most of these local libraries copy their bylaws, their guidelines from those that the American Library Association puts out and the Alabama Library Association, in turn, copies guidelines from the American Library Association.
"So our Alabama Library Association is just as woke."
She said too often, libraries follow ALA guidelines even though they aren't required to.
"This is just an activist organization that puts out these guidelines," she said. "Local libraries need to be having books, they need to have guidelines that represent their community, not these woke standards going on nationwide."
DuBose said one way to encourage libraries to remove or relocate inappropriate books would be to defund or deny grants to libraries that continue to affiliate with ALA.
"I would hate for it to come to that. But, you know, it could. We do have the power of the purse," she said.
She encouraged citizens to look at their local library board to make sure it's filled with "good, conservative, common sense" board members who will, in turn, hire the right library directors.
"We have caught on to what's going on, and we're not going to allow this to continue," DuBose concluded. "And I'm not going to be intimidated by this wordsmith that the American Library Association and the Alabama Library Association says we're trying to infringe on their First Amendment rights and their rights to free speech. That is bologna. I think our First Amendment rights are of utmost importance, but children need to be protected… They want to throw out all these transgender words and racist words and all this stuff. It's not about that. It's about protecting our children, and it's about keeping books in libraries that people want to read."
To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email daniel.taylor@1819news.com.
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