Idaho Republicans Push Breaking Away From American Library Association
The American Library Association (ALA) continues to face the wrath of parents and lawmakers over peddling inappropriate materials to minors. This time the pushback came from over a dozen Idaho Republican legislators furious over inappropriate books targeting children.
Thirteen members of the state’s Freedom Caucus on Monday issued a statement calling for the Idaho Commission for Libraries to sever its relationship with the ALA.
The group cited the organization’s election of a self-described “Marxist lesbian,” Emily Drabinski, as its next president. Lawmakers said the choice sparked concerns over “exposing children to explicit materials and hard-left politics” in these publicly funded facilities.
Drabinski tweeted a congratulations to herself last year on her election.
She posted, “I just cannot believe that a Marxist lesbian who believes that collective power is possible to build and can be wielded for a better world is the president-elect of [the ALA]. To signify her commitment to the thoroughly disgraced ideology she added, “Solidarity!”
That tweet has since been deleted.
However, it gained new life in recent days as the Montana State Library Commission decided on Tuesday to sever ties with the ALA. GOP leaders in Wyoming, Georgia and Mississippi have also called for their states’ libraries to part from the national organization.
On a more local level, the Wyoming Freedom Caucus reported that the Campbell County Library Board decided to divest from the ALA.
And the push by Idaho GOP political leaders gained support from the Idaho Freedom Foundation, a libertarian think tank.
The Freedom Caucus members wrote that Drabinski claimed that librarians are not helping children access pornography. However, “her writings and public presentations reveal that she has dedicated her professional career to precisely that while using taxpayer resources.”
They further noted her support for utilizing “queer theory” to determine how books are cataloged on library shelves.
Idaho Republicans asserted that the ALA distributes LGBT resources. It accused the group of urging local libraries to provide explicit materials covering transgenderism and “deviance targeting young children.”
The ALA has a list of 13 books it promotes teens and young adults reading to fight for “the freedom to read.” They are described as the “most challenged” by parents, and those actions are blamed on anti-LGBT sentiment.
