https://newrepublic.com/post/179132/west-virginia-republicans-house-bill-librarians-jail
West Virginia GOP Passes Deranged Bill That Could Put Librarians in Jail
State Republicans are taking the war on books to the next level.
JOSHUA LOTT/THE WASHINGTON POST/GETTY IMAGESThe Republican-controlled West Virginia House of Delegates has passed a bill that could see librarians facing jail time.
House Bill 4654 passed the chamber Friday by a vote of 85–12, along party lines. The bill would remove criminal exemptions for schools, public libraries, and museums that distribute or display “obscene matter” to a minor, even if the minor’s parent or guardian is present. Any employees of those institutions found guilty of giving minors obscene matter can face fines of up to $25,000, up to five years in prison, or both.
The incredibly short piece of legislation gives no indication of how the new rules would affect paintings or sculptures that feature nude figures, or books that include descriptions or definitions of sexual conduct. Obscenity laws are incredibly hard to enforce, because definitions of obscenity still largely come down to individual interpretation.
As a result, there will likely be more reports of obscenity, made by people who are either more conservative or just nervous about accidentally breaking the law. And since libraries and public schools often operate on very tight budgets, they are unlikely to have the budget to fight a surge in lawsuits.
“It is going to cost our counties and our librarians when these matters go to the court system,” House Minority Leader Sean Hornbuckle told The Parkersburg News and Sentinel. “Because this is still vague, I’m scared.”
“This is a very dangerous bill.”
House Minority Whip Shawn Fluharty warned that the legislation could inspire many lawsuits over books that staff members don’t even realize are problematic. “The librarians on staff might not know if a book has obscene matter in it or may or may not have shown it to someone, but because it was in the facility and it was sitting on a shelf, it could still be prosecuted,” he said.
The bill has now been sent to the state Senate, which the GOP also controls (along with the governor’s office).
Republicans across the country have increasingly sought to ban books, claiming they are protecting minors from seeing inappropriately sexual content. But most of the books being pulled from shelves tend to discuss race, gender, and sexuality.
Seemingly innocuous texts have also gotten caught up in the fray. School districts in Florida have pulled the dictionary from library shelves for including definitions of sexual conduct and have drawn over children’s picture books.
JFC!!! The main reason I’m alive today is that I figured out I was gay and OK from library books! I was 14 so I guess I was a minor. 50 years ago!
Me too. The book that saved me was entitled “Society and the healthy homosexual” by George Weinberg. That book was my lifeline to sanity.
That’s why the bigots want those books outlawed.
They want LGBT kids to hate themselves.
Apparently, they’re not getting enough of that outward and inward hate in church.
Obscene = LBGTs exist
Scottie's Playtime 
smh.
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Hello Ali. Seriously, right? How can anyone think that librarians are dangerous. It comes from thinking the information in books is dangerous. If you read the comments in some of the Joe My God posts, you see that can see that a lot of people first learned that they were not alone, that what they were feeling was normal, that there was a name and information for how they felt / were. For me personally, it was the librarians at the local town library that gently directed me to books that showed what was happening to me at home and that my abuse was not my fault. They couldn’t say more, do more, but they provided me my first steps. The quiet help they gave a little, scared, and hurt little boy the first understanding it was not his fault and he was not alone because it also happened to other little boys. Hugs. Scottie
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