More than 50 left-wing Democrats in Congress have proposed a bill that seeks to stop something that is not happening.
But in doing so they signaled that they are willing to condone pornographic literature being made available to school children.
Reps. Maxwell Frost of Orlando and Frederica Wilson of Miami Gardens are two of the three main sponsors of the “Fight Books Bans Act.”
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The bill, which is also backed by the other six Florida Democrats in the U.S. House, sets aside $15 million to fund expenses of school districts that challenge laws or policies that remove objectionable books from libraries, according to a press release from Frost’s office.
If enacted, the bill would enable the U.S. Department of Education to give grants to school districts to pay for costs such as lawyers, travel and other logistics associated with hearings on proposed removals, and expert research and consultation.
The bill caps the costs at $15 million over five years.
“Book bans in Florida and in states across the nation are a direct attack on our freedoms and liberties everywhere. As my home state shamefully leads the country in book bans, we cannot let this censorship and dismantling of our education system go unchecked,” Frost said in a statement.
“What we are seeing in Florida and states like Texas, Utah, and Missouri are loud and clear attempts by far-right conservative leaders to silence and erase our Black, brown, Hispanic, and LGBTQ+ communities. The Fight Book Bans Act takes a stand against censorship to firmly stand on the side of history, education, our students, teachers, and schools who don’t deserve to suffer the consequences of radical politics in the classroom. This is about protecting our libraries and protecting truth and history.”
This alleged anti-censorship bill was proposed by the same party that supports the federal government funding agencies that work to discredit and bankrupt conservative media outlets.
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Yet the bill presents two problems for Frost, Wilson, and the rest of its champions, including those from Florida: Reps. Kathy Castor, Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, Lois Frankel, Jared Moskowitz, Darren Soto, and Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
For one thing, not a single book has been banned anywhere in America.
Parents who want their children to access and read the books that conservative communities are removing from schools remain available for sale at both online and brick-and-mortar retailers.
The issue in these areas is whether taxpayers should fund purchases of such materials and, in many cases, make them available to children in most grades, sometimes in elementary grades.
The other problem for the sponsors is that their advocacy demonstrates they support books like “Gender Queer,” “Flamer,” “This Book is Gay,” “It’s Perfectly Normal” and other works that offer content, either in text or illustrations, that graphically describes sex acts.
These would include not just heterosexual or homosexual acts, but also incest, rape, pedophilia, and bestiality.
Read: California Gov. Newsom Signs Law Barring Removal Of LGBTQ Books From Schools
In some cases in Florida and elsewhere school boards shut down parents who attempted to highlight this issue by reading aloud passages of some of the objectionable books.
But those Democrats did not stop there.
The Hill reported on Thursday that Cherfilus-McCormick, Wasserman Schultz, Frankel, Frost, Soto, and Castor signed a latter to DeSantis demanding that he end book “bans” in Florida.
The lawmakers argued DeSantis was fomenting “a noxious climate of repression and marginalization that degrades learning, understanding and undermines all Floridians’ basic freedoms.”
“We strongly urge you to end this campaign of censorship in schools and substantively engage with educators, librarians, and parents to protect our students’ rights to an inclusive, comprehensive education.”
DeSantis has rejected the idea that books are being banned, as he did so last week during his debate with California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Back in March he released a video of the materials the state wanted out of schools. He called the argument that Florida was banning books a “hoax.”
“And that’s really a nasty hoax, because it’s a hoax in service of trying to pollute and sexualize our children,” DeSantis said at the time.
The governor noted that 153 of the 175 books, or 87%, removed from school libraries across the state at that point were pulled because of “pornographic, violent, or inappropriate” content for their grade levels.
Even with that number, DeSantis pointed out at the time that just 23 of Florida’s 67 counties reported that they had in fact removed books, and that the leaders in that group, Duval and St. Johns counties, had each pulled only 19 books.
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