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Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker is about to sign a bill that would block community and public-school libraries in the state from receiving certain types of funding if they ban books. Illinois is the first state in the U.S. to take such a stance in response to a recent wave of book banning.
It’s also the first time a monetary penalty would be levied on institutions that go along with book bans, which have been happening more frequently in some parts of the U.S. — including in Florida under the leadership of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who recently declared his candidacy for president.
On the 2024 White House campaign trail last week, DeSantis said he would look to make book bans like those that have been carried out in Florida under his leadership easier to execute in other states with social conservatives in power.
With some exceptions, bans of books on topics ranging from African-American history to memoirs by LGBTQ+ authors have typically been sought by just a few parents or other community members, yet even small numbers of complaints often get libraries to respond.
“In Illinois, we don’t hide from the truth,” Pritzker, a Democrat, said in a statement when the legislation, House Bill 2789, was introduced earlier this year. “We embrace it and lead with it. Banning books is a devastating attempt to erase our history and the authentic history of many.”
The Illinois law will take effect on Jan. 1, 2024.
Book bans in U.S. public schools increased by 28% in the first half of the 2022-23 academic year over the same period a year earlier, according to PEN America, a writers’ organization that tracks such actions nationwide.
The American Library Association’s Chicago chapter said there were 67 attempts to ban books in Illinois in 2022, up from 41 the previous year. The public at large objected to more than 2,500 books across the country last year, according to the ALA, but objections don’t automatically lead to bans.
The Illinois initiative was started by Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias, also a Democrat, whose office oversees the Illinois State Library and administers several grant programs for public and school libraries.
The bill requires that as a condition of qualifying for those grants, libraries either adopt a written policy prohibiting the practice of banning books or follow the American Library Association’s Library Bill of Rights, which includes a statement that “(m)aterials should not be proscribed or removed because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval.”
“This right-to-read legislation will help remove the pressure that librarians have had to endure from extremist groups like the Proud Boys that have targeted some of our libraries and their staff,” Giannoulias said during a news conference after the Senate vote. “This first-of-its-kind legislation is important because the concept of banning books contradicts the very essence of what our country stands for.”
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In June 2022, the school board of Illinois Community High School District 99 came under pressure to remove the young-adult illustrated memoir “Gender Queer” from its library shelves. According to a Chicago Sun-Times article, pressure for the book’s removal came from a group of conservative parents as well as members of the far-right Proud Boys.
According to the ALA, “Gender Queer” was the most frequently challenged book in 2022, drawing 151 requests for its removal because of its focus on LGBTQ+ issues and what critics said was explicit sexual content.
Demonstrators who support banning books gathered during a protest outside of the Henry Ford Centennial Library in Dearborn, Mich., in 2022. Protests on both sides of the issue emerged after Dearborn Public Schools temporarily restricted access to seven books following a parent’s complaint about their content.
AFP via Getty Images
Earlier this month, a poem written for President Joe Biden’s inauguration was placed on a restricted list at a South Florida elementary school after one parent filed a complaint. In a Facebook post, the poem’s author, Amanda Gorman, vowed to fight back. Her poem, “The Hill We Climb,” and several other books were challenged by the parent of two students at Bob Graham Education Center in Miami Lakes.
In Illinois, Senate Republicans argued that the bill would put too much power into the hands of the ALA and that enshrining the group’s Library Bill of Rights into law would force local libraries to enact extreme policies, even beyond book bans.
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GOP state Sen. Steve McClure said that prohibiting libraries from banning books for any reason would mean they could not reject the donation of books from the public, including books that are purely hate speech or books offering directions on how to build a bomb, according to coverage of state politics on the Capitol News Illinois site.
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At his news conference, Giannoulias described those arguments as “ludicrous” and said the legislation does not deal with drag shows or dictate to librarians. Like some books, drag storytelling hours at libraries have come under scrutiny in some states.
“We’re not telling you what books to buy or not buy,” Giannoulias said. “What we’re saying is, if a book is in circulation as determined by the libraries and the librarians, that book cannot be banned because a group of individuals don’t like or want that book in their library. That’s what the legislation is all about.”
