Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

North Dakota GOP Bill Would Send Librarians To Jail If They Don't Remove 'Sexually Explicit' Books From Shelves

North Dakota Legislative Assembly hearing on HB 1205
North Dakota Legislative Assembly

North Dakota house committee considered a Republican bill that would allow up to 30 days of prison for librarians who refuse to remove 'sexually explicit' material from public libraries.

A bill introduced in the North Dakota House of Representatives would not only ban books it deems inappropriate from public libraries—it would also allow prosecutors to charge anyone not complying with the law with a Class B misdemeanor.

That would mean the possibility of up to 30 days imprisonment and a $1,500 fine for any librarians who do not comply with the law.


North Dakota's HB 1205 has a section titled "Public libraries prohibited from maintaining or promoting certain books" which defines what the lawmakers who introduced the bill consider "explicit sexual material."

Their definition is probably quite different from what most people would include under their idea of "sexually explicit."

It includes the things one might expect, like sexual activities and human genitals, but also includes completely not obscene topics like sex-based classifications, sexual identity and gender identity.

While the bill as-written only applies to visual representations of the banned subjects, it is unknown whether it would be enforced only on books containing images if it were to become law.

There was a public hearing for HB 1205 held on Tuesday, January 17. The hearing ended without a vote either for or against by the North Dakota House Judiciary Committee.

As of time of writing, the committee had not made a recommendation on the bill.

You can watch the full hearing here.

Many people were horrified by the bill's potential repercussions.

Several people pointed out the major flaws in the proposed legislation.

According to the American Library Association (ALA) public libraries share a common mission to "provide free, equal, and equitable access to information for all people of the community that the library serves."

Unrestricted access to information and anti-censorship are cornerstones of library ethics.

The point of bills like HB 1205 are often more about making the fear of potential repercussions causing people to comply. Just because the law doesn't explicitly ban books that describe the banned subjects—rather than depicting them visually—doesn't mean someone won't use the law as precedent to try to go after a library anyway.

If HB 1205 becomes law, public librarians will have to weigh their professional ethics against the possibility of imprisonment.

More from News/lgbtq

Signal app logo; J.D. Vance
Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images; Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Signal's Founder Epically Roasts Vance Over The Disastrous Group Chat Debacle

Signal founder Matthew Rosenfeld, better known by the pseudonym Moxie Marlinspike, mocked Vice President J.D. Vance after the app found itself at the center of the Trump administration's group text scandal.

Rosenfeld's post came amid revelations that Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg was invited into a Signal chat with high-level Trump administration officials, particularly Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, discussing military strategy surrounding war strikes in Yemen.

Keep ReadingShow less
MTG, Martha Kelner
C-SPAN

MTG Blasted For Her Unhinged Reaction To A UK Reporter Asking Her A Question

Far right Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene was bashed for viciously shutting down a British reporter who had a question about the Signal group chat scandal, AKA "Signalgate."

Republican President Donald Trump's administration continues to downplay concerns after The Atlantic'seditor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, was mistakenly added to the Signal messaging app's group chat in which U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth shared with top intelligence officials the specific weapons programs regarding the U.S. war strikes on Houthi rebels in Yemen.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshot of Rachel Maddow
MSNBC

Rachel Maddow Gives Trump A Blistering Reality Check After His 'Perfect' Presidency Claims

MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow criticized President Donald Trump after he claimed "we've had two perfect months" to start out his presidency—conveniently downplaying "Signalgate" and ignoring all the scandals that have thus far struck his administration.

You can see his comments to reporters in the video below:

Keep ReadingShow less
train crossing in small town
craig kerwien on Unsplash

People Share Their Most Embarrassing Small Town Stories

I lived most of my life in a very small town in Northern Maine. There were about 200 kids in my high school and there were 56 kids in my graduating class—we were tied with the class of 1961 for the largest class ever.

When the primary employer in town—Pinkham Lumber Mill—shut down, the town got even smaller. Now the senior class is considered large if it reaches double digits.

Keep ReadingShow less
A post-it with "I Quit" written on it over a computer keypad
a yellow notepad on a keyboard
Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash

People Reveal Why They Quit Their Job On The First Day

As much as anyone may want to quit a job, at the end of the day it's easier said than done.

For one thing, even if people are working soul-sucking jobs that barely cover expenses, they still can't afford to lose the paycheck, until something better comes along.

Keep ReadingShow less