5/7/2023 0 Comments A time to kill bookCensoring books at schools and libraries is never a good ideaĪccording to PEN America, more than 1,600 book titles have been banned across the country.Florida specifically has enacted a notorious “Don’t Say Gay’’ bill, which prohibits “classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity in certain grade levels.” Six states have proposed legislation to ban books. It is intentional and willful discrimination, erasing people and their identities from our society. The attacks on books today are unlike anything I’ve seen in my lifetime. The proposal would explicitly protect the kind of books that have been under attack in our schools and libraries - books that explore race and ethnicity, sexual orientation and gender identity, sexual health and reproductive health, religion and faith background, biographies, autobiographies, and memoirs about rights and activism. Reading with comprehension is a crucial developmental milestone, and books broaden perspectives, exercise minds, challenge biases and prejudices, and provide the important opportunity to process information independently.Īs chair of the Illinois Senate Human Rights Committee, I proudly sponsored a bill that would outlaw book banning in our state, which passed the Senate recently. Every person, but especially every child, has the right to free and robust access to books, just as I did. Books opened doors and changed the course of my life.
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