Illinois Makes History as First State to End Book Bans: Democratic Governor Signs Landmark Law

All smiles, sitting in the middle of a library in downtown Chicago, the Democratic Governor of Illinois, Jay Robert Pritzker, signed Monday, June 12 the first law of its kind in the United States. “Today, Illinois makes history as the first state in our nation to officially end book bans once and for all, he explains on his Twitter account. We show everyone what it’s like to stand up for freedom. It’s as simple as that. » Almost all of the elected Republicans in the state voted against this law.

From 1^is January 2024, public libraries will be required to adhere to the charter of the American Library Association (ALA) whose first article establishes that ” the documents (of a library) should not be set aside or prohibited on the pretext of partisan or doctrinal disapproval.. They may also adopt their own charter defending this principle. Those that do not adopt it will be deprived of the $61 million distributed annually to Illinois’ 1,600 public and school libraries.

Complaints against books addressing gender identity or racism

Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias, maneuvering for the signing of this law, assures that he does not want “to say that all books should be in all bookstores”but it is necessary “trust librarians to decide which books should be in circulation”.

In a report published in March, the ALA announced that it had received more than 1,200 complaints concerning 2,500 books in 2022. It had never received so many since it began compiling statistics on the subject, a few years ago. twenty years. Half of the complaints relate to books studied in schools and available in school libraries. In Illinois, 43 complaints were sent to the ALA. A figure higher than the average for other US states, but far behind Texas, which had 93 complaints last year.

Some of the complaints come from the left and concern works containing racist remarks. But the majority targets books that address topics such as gender identity, racism, emotional relationships and sexuality education in all its forms, especially among LGBT people.

Pressure groups, such as the conservative association Moms for Liberty, organize the sending of complaints and sometimes win their case. Laws facilitating the banning of books have even been passed or are in the process of being passed in Arizona, Iowa, Texas, Missouri and Oklahoma, as well as in Florida.

The presidential campaign in the background

A campaign clip released after the announcement of Democratic President Joe Biden’s candidacy for re-election in 2024 warned of “an extremist movement seeking to overturn elections, ban books and eliminate women’s right to control their bodies”. Superimposed on images of the invasion of the Capitol in January 2021, these accusations directly target former Republican President Donald Trump, also a candidate in 2024 despite his numerous indictments. In a tweet, the current tenant of the White House had castigated the « Maga extremists (1) that tell you what books should be in your children’s schools”.

Joe Biden and his teams want to impose this debate in the electoral campaign. Several polls conducted in recent months by American media report that a majority of respondents find it problematic to remove books from library shelves.