by Jim Gaston
The Fontana Regional Library (FRL) Board should be commended for their recent acknowledgment of obscene materials not belonging within the teen section of the library. On June 5, 2023, the FRL Board called a special meeting at the Jackson County Library in Sylva to respond to a patron's request to relocate a book. The board voted 5-2 to move the book Let's Talk About It by Erica Moen and Matthew Nolan out of the Teen/YA section into the Adult section of the Fontana Library system. Board member Ed Trask cited that the book is in violation of NC obscenity statute 14-190.7 involving dissemination of obscenity to minors because of its sexually explicit pictures. He also noted that the book educates readers about sexting which is illegal for minors under the age of 18.
It is encouraging that once FRL board members became educated on what activist librarians were doing by promoting sexual and confusing materials, that a majority sided with concerned citizens. Numerous patrons are thankful the FRL has finally admitted with this recent democratic vote that certain materials are not suitable for young children and teens. Wood Lovell, a board member, stated,
"As a father of 2 boys and grandfather of 5 grandchildren, I don't think that young teenagers are anywhere close to absorbing this material and understand it and relate properly to this."
He also noted that he had a long conversation with a child psychologist who agreed with him that young people are not mature enough and added that,
"We (the FRL) have a responsibility to recognize what's for young people and what's for adults, and I think we have failed at that mission if we put this book in the Young Adult section. That's our responsibility."
With this acknowledgment by the FRL, it should go without saying that there should be no future promotions or biased celebrations within public libraries that lead youth to sexualization and unscientific confusion at any time of year; not just a particular month. Note: The current FRL director has gone on record stating that librarians do in fact "promote and bring awareness" to certain issues which amount to subjective bias behavior. When this activism harmfully targets our youth, it is unacceptable and should be held accountable moving forward. Libraries have 1 job: simply to be neutral caretakers of resources.
There are many other obscene and sexually confusing books
on the shelves that need to be removed from the children's and teens' sections
to be placed elsewhere; however, an ultimate solution that the FRL should
consider is simply labeling materials like the music, movie, and video game
industries already practice. Opponents of any commonsense solutions or
compromises will mistakenly cry foul that labeling is unconstitutional or
restricts free speech. False. Patrons do not believe this red herring. Other libraries across the country do in fact
have labeling on sexual/gender materials, so why can't our local libraries be
progressive to categorize resources more efficiently?
Materials within the FRL system are already labeled "Christian Fiction" as a genre label instead of merely "Fiction," so the argument against labeling is faulty at best, and hypocritical at worst. We see "MA for Mature audiences" or movies rated R, and "E" for explicit lyrics and no one is combating those labels. Why would libraries want to prevent parents and children from having content information with a label? Labeling even allows for better access for those who want these materials. The real reason libraries and public schools do not want labels is so that the recent nationwide child sexual agenda flies under the radar to indoctrinate impressionable youth while attempting to keep it hidden from parents and guardians. The American Library Association (ALA), of which FRL admin staff are members, has said their goals are to bring public libraries "more to the Left." That is about as blatantly biased as it comes, folks. Pure agenda. Why would librarians be usurping the public's choices by attempting to think for others? There would be far less controversy if libraries remained neutral on all political and social issues and stopped targeting youth with a trendy, yet immoral, agenda.
It is interesting that those with a sexual agenda for our children keep arguing that libraries and schools are exempt from NC obscenity laws concerning minors. Shouldn't we be erring on the side of caution when it comes to our children? Why has there been such a rabid push by activists to indoctrinate children and teens to pursue unnatural behavior that statistics prove many times leads to unwanted pregnancies, STDs, mental problems, and suicide? If we truly want to support our youth, we should be setting a moral example instead of promoting materials dealing with sexual experimentation which has obvious negative consequences. We can easily do that without outright banning books-another of the Left’s red herrings to gin up emotions.
Again, a big thank you to the 5 FRL board members who voted in the majority to move sexually explicit material out of the teen section. Now, it is time to discuss common sense labeling of all books with sexual content and make sure librarians remain neutral. The most disturbing trend in the last few years has been the destruction of the innocence of childhood in an attempt to validate insecure adults. No doubt this writer will be labeled all the trite buzzwords or get lectured with DEI word salad used by the Left who would rather name call than have a civil debate. But, when there is accountability for public entities, everyone wins. The FRL board’s recent decision is a step in the right direction.