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We just warned you about the American Library Association ("ALA") last month, and how it's still pushing "diversity equity and inclusion" and encouraging librarians to practice reading sexual content out loud and what not.
So when we saw that ALA was holding a meeting on August 27th called Sharing Our Stories: School Libraries with a librarian from Connecticut, we couldn't resist tuning in to check it out.
The meeting was hosted by ALA President Sam Helmick, who previously served as the first "nonbinary, aromantic, asexual" president of the Iowa Library Association, and Amanda Kordeliski, the President of the American Association of School Librarians, along with panelists Deb Kachel from Philadelphia, and Jenny Lussier from Connecticut.
Helmick, a they/them pronoun user, started off the zoom by addressing everyone as "beloved" in a smug, morally superior kind of way, setting the tone for the meeting.
The first librarian up, Deb Kachel from the Philadelphia Alliance to Restore School Librarians, began her comments by specifically highlighting PARSL's position paper on "ensuring equity" in Philadelphia Public School libraries.
She's bent out of shape because the Trump Administration pulled a grant which was about recruiting library candidates based on things like diversity, cultural backgrounds, and personal characteristics.
Of course, even though the DEI grant got pulled and despite the Trump Administration's position on DEI hiring programs being discriminatory, the district is still planning to move full steam ahead on the plan as best it can.
Next up was our library activist from Connecticut, Jenny Lussier, who is the Past President from the Connecticut Association of School Librarians and a Prek-1 school librarian.
She was there to brag about the passage of Connecticut's new "freedom to read" law.
Lussier talked about how she lobbied State Rep. Corey "I didn't dox ICE" Paris, whose advocacy helped to pass the law... which wasn't able to pass on its own as a stand-alone bill, and ended up getting slammed inside the budget implementer bill instead.
Lussier started advocating for the law in 2023 after having a "weird feeling" that she couldn't explain, and after an ALA advocacy training session in Chicago. (We can't help but wonder if taxpayers funded that trip?)
Then she heard from a couple legislators in Hartford who wanted to talk about "freedom to read" issues. After that, it was a "listening" session. The next thing you know, legislators including State Sens. Bob Duff and Ceci Maher, were ready to step up and draft a "freedom to read" bill—music to ALA's ears.
"In the end, we did it. It took a lot of people," said a visibly proud Lussier. "Just so giddy and excited about the fact that it actually happened, and just to be at the State Capitol and hear them, you know, say those words and see the numbers up on the board was really an incredible experience."
Not everyone was thrilled about the bill's passage.
Leslie Wolfgang of the Family Institute of Connecticut told us that "the passage of this bill is nothing to be proud of."
"Despite over a dozen hours of concerned parents, grandparents, clergy and residents testifying against it, the sponsors used fear-mongering, name-calling and shady legislative maneuvers to pass the bill," continued Wolfgang. "Senator Bob Duff used his power to have the entire library bill stuffed into the state budget after it failed to garner enough votes to pass the Senate,"
"Through hard work, hundreds of letters and daily protests, we were able to remove the worst provisions that punished parents with lawsuits for the emotional distress of challenged librarians," said Wolfgang. "Unfortunately, the law now shields a book from being removed based on its viewpoints expressed - whatever that means."
Meanwhile, Lussier cited a long list of organizations supporting her side, from the teachers unions to well-funded library activists, like John Chrastka and the EveryLibrary folks, as being key to her success.
Also contributing to her success were the many events, BOE meetings, legislative meetings and other community events she attended, like the below event where you can see Lussier pushing sexually explicit books like Gender Queer and Flamer -- remember, she's a Prek-1 school librarian. Also, who paid for the travel and other costs for these efforts?
Lussier even appeared on a CEA teachers union podcast about "banned books" -- remember, these aren't banned books, the books are all still in print. The key issue has been about age appropriateness for sexually-explicit content.
"Some brave legislators were able to establish in the legislative record that the bill is not intended to protect sexually explicit images or passages and I encourage parents to continue to physically view the books their tax dollars have paid for," said Wolfgang. "Also, unfortunately, the bill restricts a person's ability to challenge a book based on their residency or whether or not they have a child in school."
By the way, the bill "is not done" in the eyes of Lussier and her library activist pals who want to expand it to ensure a connection between high school and higher education.
Fortunately, thanks to the efforts of Family Institute and its members, the new Connecticut law does not negate the ability of school boards to remove educationally inappropriate and pervasively vulgar books, per federal jurisprudence.
"Any librarian who thinks they can rely on this law to show students perverted books and retain their job will learn the hard way that school boards and their appointed superintendents retain ultimate authority over who works for the school administration as a librarian," cautioned Wolfgang.
After Lussier was done sharing her success story, the meeting turned back to Amanda Kordeliski to share her story.
And what a special story it was.
One of the key take-aways from her story was that librarians are still doing DEI, even in Oklahoma, but they're just changing up the words to hide it from the Trump Administration.
"Something, because I am in a red state, I have a couple of words that I know my legislators will stop listening if I use, and unfortunately, equity is one of them," explains Kordeliski. "And so instead of equity, we say opportunity. Instead of DEI, we say, emotional regulation and cooperation. And so we have gotten very, very creative, but know who you're presenting to, and understand if there are buzzwords that they're specifically looking for."
"If what they [Republicans] want to know about is workforce development, then I would blend that, and beyond life, beyond high school, I would say workforce development and college and career," advises Kordeliski.
So the gist is to watch out for buzzwords, but keep "doing the work" of pushing divisive, discriminatory DEI practices anyway -- gotcha!
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