GOP lawmakers in several states have called for defunding the American Library Association because of Emily Drabinski's identity and political beliefs.
From early 2023, but I didn’t hear about it at the time.
LOS ANGELES — Emily Drabinski took over as president of the American Library Association in July with plans to tackle the pressing issues facing her profession, such as shoring up funding and fighting a record number of book ban attempts nationwide.
Conservative Republican lawmakers in Arizona, Idaho, Illinois, Georgia, Louisiana, South Carolina and Wyoming have pushed their states’ libraries to withdraw from the ALA, citing a since-deleted tweet Drabinski wrote after her election in April 2022.
Drabinski, 48, stepped into her year-long term as ALA president at a crucial time for libraries, which have become magnets for protests by right-wing activists and are fighting legislation that aims to restrict the books on their shelves, which frequently centers on objections to titles with LGBTQ-themes.
Marco Rubio of Florida, Kevin Cramer of North Dakota and Mike Braun of Indiana demanded last week that federal funds for the ALA be halted, and that the government investigate the organization for allegedly advising librarians to discriminate against a Christian book publisher.
Drabinski, who grew up in Boise, Idaho, and is a librarian at the City University of New York, sees these critiques as “organized pro-censorship efforts” by people who “want to erode support for public institutions that enable access to information for everyone.”
Bear’s sentiment has been echoed by his colleague, state Rep. Pepper Ottman, who claimed in a July 12 webinar that the ALA’s recommended reading lists were provided “to open children up to pornography” and to groom them for sex trafficking.
The original article contains 1,261 words, the summary contains 248 words. Saved 80%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
This is the best summary I could come up with:
LOS ANGELES — Emily Drabinski took over as president of the American Library Association in July with plans to tackle the pressing issues facing her profession, such as shoring up funding and fighting a record number of book ban attempts nationwide.
Conservative Republican lawmakers in Arizona, Idaho, Illinois, Georgia, Louisiana, South Carolina and Wyoming have pushed their states’ libraries to withdraw from the ALA, citing a since-deleted tweet Drabinski wrote after her election in April 2022.
Drabinski, 48, stepped into her year-long term as ALA president at a crucial time for libraries, which have become magnets for protests by right-wing activists and are fighting legislation that aims to restrict the books on their shelves, which frequently centers on objections to titles with LGBTQ-themes.
Marco Rubio of Florida, Kevin Cramer of North Dakota and Mike Braun of Indiana demanded last week that federal funds for the ALA be halted, and that the government investigate the organization for allegedly advising librarians to discriminate against a Christian book publisher.
Drabinski, who grew up in Boise, Idaho, and is a librarian at the City University of New York, sees these critiques as “organized pro-censorship efforts” by people who “want to erode support for public institutions that enable access to information for everyone.”
Bear’s sentiment has been echoed by his colleague, state Rep. Pepper Ottman, who claimed in a July 12 webinar that the ALA’s recommended reading lists were provided “to open children up to pornography” and to groom them for sex trafficking.
The original article contains 1,261 words, the summary contains 248 words. Saved 80%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!