Across America, people are celebrating our nation’s birthday with barbecues, museum exhibits, and sailing on the high seas.
The country’s largest library membership association – celebrating its own 150th anniversary – has instead chosen to double down on radical activism. From Illinois to Ohio and Utah, the American Library Association and its most outspoken librarians are promoting sexually explicit content to children and vilifying the parental objectors as “book banners.”
Lost in the shuffle of America’s July 4 preparations, the ALA hosted its annual conference in Chicago last month, gathering thousands of librarians, teachers, and activists for a strategy session. While ALA librarians were secretive about their discussions at the conference, hiding behind private Facebook groups, one hot discussion topic was the fight against so-called “book bans,” with Jill Biden and Rachel Maddow joining as featured speakers.
Nonpartisan and apolitical the ALA is not. ALA President Sam Helmick (they/them) recently joined a “No Kings” protest in Washington, D.C., defending the “freedom to learn” and touting libraries as “one of the few places left in our society where people can encounter perspectives they did not expect,” as she and her fellow protestors gleefully attacked Republicans. Following their lead, the Massachusetts House of Representatives voted to make it virtually impossible for parents to challenge controversial books in public schools and libraries.
Why? Is it because parents suddenly oppose the “freedom to learn”? Not quite.
The ALA may claim hundreds of books are being “banned” by parents who apparently object to children studying. Spreading the propaganda to millions of fans, pop star Dua Lipa has opened a library in Portugal that is dedicated to “banned books,” not realizing the oxymoron.
Dive a little deeper, and the challenged titles actually have to do with sexually explicit themes and otherwise inappropriate topics that have no place in the hands of an elementary school student. While it is inarguably critical for students to broaden their horizons about history, race and ethnicity, gender, sex, and other potentially controversial topics, there is a fundamental difference between a high school student learning more and an ALA-backed librarian recommending this material to a 10-year-old.
Another featured speaker at ALA’s Chicago conference was LGBTQIA+ activist George M. Johnson, author of “All Boys Aren’t Blue.” More subtle than a cameo from Biden or Maddow, it is no less telling.
Johnson’s book – promoted by ALA librarians to kids – discusses lube, masturbation, and oral sex at length. Quote: “I put some lube on, and I got him on his knees.” Another quote: “‘You are fully erect at this point. You promise that you are not going to tell anyone?’ I promised. He then grabbed my hand and made me touch it. It was the first time I’ve ever touched a penis that wasn’t my own. I knew that what was happening wasn’t supposed to happen. Cousins weren’t supposed to do these things with cousins.”
Simply objecting to a child reading these passages, as most parents (Democrat or Republican) would, is seemingly a “book ban.” Book burner! Bigot! Fascist!
Faced with lawsuits and countless waves of online harassment, I have borne the cost of objection for a long time. For decades, I have monitored the ALA’s activities online and shared updates with social media users, knowing they are too significant for parents to ignore.
In October 2024, I filed an ethics complaint against members of the North Hunterdon-Voorhees Board of Education in New Jersey over their handling of school library materials – texts like “All Boys Aren’t Blue” and many others. Last month, I was barred from discussing my own ethics complaint at a board meeting, despite the board allowing a previous speaker to criticize my same complaint. The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) – our nation’s leading free speech advocate – came to my defense.
But other parents are not so lucky. School may be out this summer, but ALA librarians and other activists are openly joining forces to silence those who dare to speak out against sexually inappropriate content in public schools and libraries, creating straw man arguments to vilify good-faith, good-hearted Americans as supposed Nazi book burners. Despite every “banned” book being readily available for purchase, the library-industrial complex’s mission is to gain power over the U.S. education system, exert control over parents who conscientiously object, and promote their worldview to kids who don’t know any better. Helmick and her allies harken to the First Amendment as justification, while stifling speech they don’t like.
I call it “grooming,” which doesn’t have to be sexual (but often is). Supported by allies in the mainstream media, the ALA’s “Unite Against Book Bans” campaign is a concerted, well-funded ideological grooming effort all too happy to trample on parental rights along the way. The ALA routinely receives eight-figure donations from politically aligned donors, including George Soros, bankrolling pressure campaigns against parents who have nowhere to turn. Object too loudly, and the law becomes lawfare.
If parents are unaware of the American Library Association, it is time to get acquainted. The ALA is quickly, quietly becoming America’s most radical activist, drawing battle lines against American parents and their kids. The first step to winning this ideological war is identifying the enemy, then joining the fight.
