Oklahoma Bill Would Ban LGBTQ Books from Schools and Libraries

This month, the Oklahoma Senate Education Committee passed a bill to ban LGBTQ books and books on LGBTQ-inclusive sex education. It’s currently headed to the Senate. 

The bill, SB 1142, prohibits certain schools and libraries from maintaining or promoting certain books. The bill would allow parents or guardians of students to submit a request to the school district to remove certain books, “requiring removal of the book within certain time period.”

As stated in the bill, public school districts, public school libraries, and public charter schools shall not maintain or promote books which features the study of sex, sex-based classifications, and sexual activity as their primary subject; the book(s) violating the policy and requested for removal must be removed within 30 days of receiving the request. 

The bill was introduced on March 2 with an “effective date emergency.”

If the employee does not remove the book(s) within the period of time of 30 days, the employee shall be dismissed or not reemployed, and “the employee shall be prohibited from being employed by a public school district or public charter school for a period of two years.” 

Should the school or librarian not follow these rules, parents or guardians can take action against the school district, which would result in a minimum fine of $10,000 a day for the school.

The bill states that these rules should become effective July 1, 2022, “for the preservation of the public peace, health or safety.” 

The ACLU of Oklahoma Policy Director Cindy Nguyen expressed concerned about this measure and tells 9 News: 

“We know that young people deserve to have a factual and age-appropriate resource, especially when they have health-related questions.” 

Nguyen is tracking other bills that seek to regulate classroom content about race and gender. “Last year, we saw HB 1775 pass, and this year, because of that, we’ve seen a surplus of classroom-censorship bills. We’ve seen about 25-plus being introduced this session alone,” she says.

In a Senate committee meeting, Chair Adam Pugh voted against the bill, arguing that districts already have processes in place at the local level to handle concerns about classroom content.