For some time now, Mississippi parents have struggled with stupidity. Fortunately, they have the Mississippi Legislature to protect them from their ignorance.
There is a great example of this in this year’s legislative session. House Bill 610 will make sure library content designed for children under the age of 15 is free of obscene content.
The bill, sponsored by Rep. Jill Ford, a Republican from Madison, will create a Commission on Age Appropriateness to determine what materials will be excluded. The bill also allows parents to sue local libraries if they don’t conform with the commission’s decrees.
On its face, there is nothing particularly troubling about this legislation. Does anyone believe kids should be exposed to graphic depictions of sex in all of its manifestations? Unlikely.
But, as is often the case, there may be more than meets the eye here.
Over the past few years, there have been concerted efforts to control content in our school and public libraries, much of it focused on LGBTQ or race-related materials. Republican-controlled legislatures across the nation have launched a frenzied campaign of book banning. The American Library Association reported a record-breaking number of attempts to ban books in 2022— up 38 percent from the previous year. Most of the books pulled off shelves are “written by or about members of the LGBTQ community and people of color” according to the ALA data.
HB 610 doesn’t make any reference to LGBTQ or race, instead focusing more broadly on depictions of sex that kids may have access to. Apparently, only a 17-member commission of appointees from the Governor, Lt. Governor and Speaker of the House can determine this. Certainly, parents and librarians are just too dumb to know obscenity when they see it.
Rather than form a bloated commission, why not talk to librarians and ask them not to expose kids to obscene materials? You know what they would say? “We don’t and we won’t.”
Imaginary problem solved.
It may seem benign, but establishing a commission to do what we have always trusted parents and librarians to do is troubling because of the precedent it establishes. If the state can give that kind of authority to a commission on Age Appropriateness, it may also establish a commission on Race-Related Appropriateness or commission on Sexual Orientation Appropriateness.
Don’t believe me? There are no fewer than six bills in the legislature that address issues of race, sexual orientation or gender identity. Some of them are simply cruel.
HB 176 would require school personnel to notify parents of any student who requests to be referred to as different gender or “nonhuman.” How incredibly dangerous, misinformed, ignorant and insulting is that?
HB 127 would prohibit colleges from spending funds on DEI programs, another product of right-wing kook conspiracy.
HB 585 would require inmates to use the appropriate “biological gender” restroom.
HB 725 would prevent the IHL Board from ensuring fraternities and sororities don’t prevent transgenders from joining their ranks.
It’s open season on these minority groups. Establishing hand-picked commissions to punish people they hate is just another tool in the kit.
What we are seeing in this bill is a cynical effort to undermine confidence in our librarians to further a right-wing political agenda. This isn’t about sexual content, at least not at its core. It’s about ideological control, disguised as a harmless effort to shield our kids from information they are not equipped to handle.
From a practical standpoint, there is simply no way a Commission on Age Appropriateness can review the contents of hundreds of thousands of books and decide which ones can or can’t be available at our libraries.
The person best equipped to manage what a child is exposed to is a parent.
We’re not as stupid as Jill Ford and the legislature assume us to be.
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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