North Dakota’s Got Some Crazies In It!!!

So one of our handy-dandy state legislators read a book that made them all clutch their pearls, and they decided to ban all naughty books everywhere!

Had they restricted themselves to regulating public-elementary-school libraries, I would not be quite so irate.  But they did not limit themselves to public elementary schools, they decided to go after private bookstores and public libraries as well.
It gives not just fines, but criminal penalties with this Bill.

And THIS poorly written section, this one really, really long 95-word sentence, is the biggest problem:

A person is guilty of a class B misdemeanor if the person willfully displays at newsstands or any other business establishment frequented by minors, or where minors are or may be invited as a part of the general public, any photograph, book, paperback book, pamphlet, or magazine, the exposed cover or available content of which either contains explicit sexual material that is harmful to minors or exploits, is devoted to, or contains depictions or written descriptions of nude or partially denuded human figures posed or presented in a manner to exploit sex, lust, or perversion.

Because of how this very long sentence is worded, this law could apply to adult romance novels or R-rated DVDs with love scenes or any other book that mentions sex… both at public libraries and privately owned bookstores.

The way this law is worded, our adult Sunday School class, reading “The Bad Girls of the Bible” becomes a criminal enterprise!!! Because of the wording in here, the actual BIBLE is criminalized!

So we “friends of the librarian” have been contacting all of the state lawmakers. Some of them are sane. Sadly, I’m just not finding much sanity or reasonableness to be found in the majority of those serving in the ND.

I sent them all a very polite emailed note:

As a Christian Grandmother, I object to the book banning bills HB 1205 and SB 2123. These bills both need a loud and clear vote NO!!!!
The way these bills are written is extreme overreach of censorship.
Vote NO on both bills.

Short and sweet, because I learned long ago that they are not going to read a long letter. Identify the bill in question, state your voting request, give a valid reason. Boom! Check. Done.

I have received a few sermons in response:

VanWinkle, Lori <lvanwinkle@ndlegis.gov>
That’s kinda strange to accept what Christ does not! It would be better to tie a milestone around one’s neck and be thrown into the sea, than it will be for anyone who causes these little ones to stumble in sin!

And some are downright rude:

These books are not “historical romances.” It is flat out obscenity and probably child pornography. As you study the bible, don’t you think we need to protect kids, have boundaries to what they see and hear and say no to pornographic filth that leads to an incredibly damaged soul?

Christian? You’ve seen these books we are talking about?
Rep. Austen Schauer
District 13 – West Fargo
Industry, Business & Labor
Government & Veterans Affairs
(701) 730-4474

Some seem to not quite understand what law they are voting to pass – one thinks it only applies to children under the 4^th grade, and one clearly does not realize that privately-owned commercial bookstores will also fall under this law:

Dear Ms. Paulsen,
It’s not book banning, but banning pornographic children’s books that encourage sexual activities at an inappropriate 4th grade level and encourage the use of pornography to these youths.  Best, Vicky
Rep. Vicky Steiner
District 37
N.D. House of Representatives
2021 Vice-Chair Finance and Taxation Committee
2011 – present Government and Veterans Affairs Committee
Ethics Committee 2019
National Council State Legislatures Energy Supply Taskforce
2018 Legislative Energy Horizons Institute certificate
EPSCOr University State Committee member
Badlands Advisory Group
DSU Nursing Program Advisory Committtee
Real Estate Realtor Home and Land Company, Dickinson, N.D.
Mobile 701-290-1376
vsteiner@ndlegis.gov
Twitter: @SteinerVicky
Instagram:  vicky_lynn_steiner
Facebook: Representative Vicky Steiner
Honored to serve District 37 and the Great State of North Dakota!

Not sure where we can buy books when they are also outlawed in the bookstore…

McLeod, Carrie <cmcleod@ndlegis.gov>
I plan to vote yes.  People can purchase what they will, but taxpayers do not need to fund this pornography.

And this is the guy from my district. He likes it so well that he says if the other guy had not written this bill, he would have done it himself…

Nikki,
Thanks for reaching out!  Always good to hear from District 3 folks.  I have attached an amendment to 1205 that I think will likely be adopted.  I am in support of SB 2360 and HB 1205.  SB 2123 was killed.  Here’s my reasoning:
I became aware of the issue of objectionable books and an agenda to sexualize our children via books in the library last fall.  There was a presentation at Minot State that I attended, and one of the issues that they addressed was the books that our children are exposed to in our public libraries.  The suggestion was made that we find out what objectionable books were in the school libraries, get copies and meet with the leadership of our public schools to discuss it with them.  I did just that, taking three books:  Flamer, This Book is Gay and Queer.  I copied sections of the books for them to read.  I met with the Superintendent and the school board president.  They were unaware that books of this type were in the library, and one of them remarked, “This makes me sick to my stomach.”  Neither one thought it was OK.
Many folks have said, “This all started with one book”.  That is not accurate in my case.  I had not heard of the book Let’s Talk About It until a hearing on SB 2123.  So I found a copy of that book and took a look at it, and could not believe it was in the Children’s section in a library in Dickinson.  When I Googled the images from the book, they were blurred out on the internet (I assume because they violated Google’s obscenity policy?), but the book was in the children’s section of one of our taxpayer funded libraries.  So when I am told about the librarians with masters degrees and special training, and policies that prevent this, the facts don’t align with that argument.

If others had not brought these bills, I would have.

Some have inferred that the legislature has no role here.   Legislators have a fiduciary responsibility to ensure that state money that is expended is being spent in a manner that aligns with state guidelines.  Setting those guidelines is the job of legislators.  It is completely appropriate for the legislature to regulate organizations that it funds.  In fact it is the responsibility of the legislature to do so.
Some indicate that it is not a problem because there are no pornographic books in our public or school libraries.  I have absolutely seen pornographic books that are available at the Minot High School library.  Not only pornographic, but unsafe.  Again, one of these books was in the children’s section in Dickinson.  These books are being recommended for our public and school libraries by the American Library Association, and lead to the sexualization of our children and normalization of transgenderism. 
I used to believe that our librarians would prioritize the safety of our children.  I no longer believe that.  The book This Book Is Gay highlights an app called Grindr.  Grindr is a hook-up app for homosexual men.  It has an age requirement of 18, but they do not enforce it.  If you will Google Grindr and human trafficking, you will find a dangerous connection that puts the safety of our kids in North Dakota at risk.  I have not heard any librarian even acknowledge that this danger exists.  Instead, they argue to keep this book and others like it in the library.  That is extremely disappointing to me.
Some regulation is necessary, especially where public funds are concerned.  There must be accountability.  If someone starts a private library, you will find I don’t care at all what books they have there, unless they are somehow luring/grooming minors.  We regulate other harmful things to minors like alcohol, cigarettes, vaping, etc.
I am getting all kinds of emails from folks in support of these bills.  Most of them say something along the lines of “This agenda to sexualize our children and normalize things like transgenderism has gone too far.”
I would challenge anyone to show me in SB 2360 where the bill bans books.  The bill is about willfully displaying them to minors.  On 1205, those concerns have merit.  However, on the Constitutional issue, courts have found as follows:
Decisions on which books populate school library shelves are largely a local matter. Local boards of education and librarians are free to decide, and once the books are on the shelves, they can only remove them under certain circumstances. They can remove books if the decision is “content neutral” — for instance, if a book has become damaged or outdated — but removing a book based on its content could be a violation of the First Amendment.
That is because the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that students have the same First Amendment rights as anyone else in school libraries, and removing books based on content is unconstitutional censorship. Writing for the majority in that 1982 case, Board of Education v. Pico, Justice William J. Brennan Jr. concluded that school officials may not exercise their discretion to remove books based on “narrowly partisan or political grounds,” because that would amount to an “official suppression of ideas.”
Still, that doesn’t mean that books on the shelves can’t be banned. The Pico decision only said officials can’t remove books if they disagree with the ideas within. They can, however, if a book is pervasively vulgar. When it comes to books with strong sexual themes, “courts have told public officials at all levels that they may take community standards into account when deciding whether materials are obscene or pornographic and thus subject to censor,” according to the Free Speech Center at Middle Tennessee State University.
HB 1205, from my perspective, is not proposing to remove books on “narrowly partisan or political grounds”, but rather on the grounds of community standards on whether materials are obscene or pornographic, which is clearly the intent of 1205.  There is an amendment being proposed to HB 1205 which will make the bill even better.
Best regards,
Bob Paulson
State Senator
District 3 – Minot
Cell:  701-833-4752
bpaulson@ndlegis.gov