FRESNO COUNTY – In a direct rebuke to Supervisor Steve Brandau’s “Parents Matter Act” (PMA), which created a citizens review board to vet library materials for obscenity and the like, Assembly Bill (AB) 1825 would prohibit any governing board, body or commission from doing exactly what Brandau wants.
AB 1825, the “California Freedom to Read Act,” was introduced Jan. 11, 2024 by Democrat Al Muratsuchi, Torrance. Muratsuchi chairs the Committee on Education. According to the bill’s text, AB 1825 would prohibit any entity from preventing the circulation or procurement of, or access to, library materials in a public library.
In an April 11, 2024 press release Muratsuchi’s office published after the bill passed the committee, Muratsuchi said, “I am introducing the California Freedom to Read Act to fight book bans at public libraries. Libraries provide a special place in the public’s civic education and the free exchange of diverse ideas and information. Book banning proponents are disproportionately targeting materials containing the voices and lived experiences of LGBTQ and communities of color.”
According to the American Library Association, the number of books challenged at libraries rose to over 4,000 in 2023 – a 65% increase. Half of these books featured LGBTQ+ characters or had racial themes.
The impetus behind the PMA came after Brandau was alerted by a constituent who was upset by materials included as part of Pride Month at the Clovis Library. Brandau was similarly upset. At a Nov. 2, 2023 press conference to announce his Parents Matter Act, held in front of the downtown branch of the Fresno County Library, Brandau produced a handful of books he said were readily available in library branches. All of the books he referenced dealt with LGBTQ+, gender identity and sexuality issues.
Citing a section from “Pink, Blue, and You!: Questions for Kids about Gender Stereotypes,” Brandau said the book wanted to “drive a wedge between parents and children because it questions what parents are telling children.” He referred to a chapter in the book where a young boy asks, “What does it mean to be a boy or a girl? Or to be one or the other? Can’t we be both? Can’t we be neither?”
“This book is very political,” Brandau said. “A woke book that begins to talk about political stuff.”
NOT A BOOK BAN
Brandau has steadfastly maintained since he introduced the act that it is not a book ban. Books and materials deemed offensive or controversial by the 11-member review board would be shelved in a separate area of the library. Children would only be able to browse and/or check out materials after a parent or guardian has approved the content.
According to critics of PMA, Brandau is missing the big picture. Their first complaint is the 11-member citizens review board, which has yet to be assembled, lacks the knowledge, experience and training to decide for the population at large what is and is not offensive. According to the revised act which the Fresno County Board of Supervisors passed in a 3-2 vote at its Nov. 28, 2023 meeting, each supervisor selects two members from his district with County Administrative Officer Paul Nerland selecting the 11th member.
The second complaint involves semantics. For Brandau, a book ban equates to books and materials being physically removed from the library; thus, being inaccessible. For critics of PMA, the simple fact that certain materials will be off-limits to all children – the emphasis on all – because they have been deemed age inappropriate and/or offensive by a potentially biased committee does constitute a book ban. Lastly, according to critics, PMA is yet another arrow in a quiver aimed at erasing LGBTQ+ members – adults and children – from society.
At the Nov. 28 meeting, Fresno resident Grace Miller said, “Book bans are popping up around the country as a larger attack on queer and transgender youth. By banning books that represent queer and transgender people, you send the message to LGBTQ youth that they should not exist. But they do exist.”
On May 23, 2024, Muratsuchi’s office issued a press release after AB 1825 passed the Assembly. In the release, Muratsuchi echoed most of what he said in the April 11 release.
In the May release, Equality California Executive Director Tony Hoang spoke directly about what he says is the true harm PMA and other measures pose.
“Across California, we are seeing growing efforts to ban books and restrict the freedom to read, learn, and think, resulting in harmful policies that misleadingly characterize books as ‘age inappropriate’ or ‘obscene’ to censure materials that humanize LGBTQ+ people and experiences,” he said.
He added, “AB 1825 is an important and timely measure to ensure that our public libraries remain committed to intellectual diversity and grant all Californians the ability to see their own stories and communities reflected in the books they read.”
