Lambda Legal and the ACLU of Iowa have filed a lawsuit seeking to block Iowa’s newly-enacted “Don’t Say Gay” law which restricts schools from mentioning LGBTQ people and has led to the removal of hundreds of books from school libraries. Lawyers for the two groups say the law (Senate File 496) discriminates against LGBTQ students and violates their rights to free speech, equal protection and due process under the 1st and 14th Amendments. https://twitter.com/DMRegister/status/1729564116358934779 From the Des Moines Register:
The groups are representing eight Iowa students and their families, along with Iowa Safe Schools, a nonprofit that advocates for LGBTQ students.
“SF 496 is a clear violation of public school students’ First Amendment right to speak, read and learn freely,” said Thomas Story, a staff attorney for the ACLU of Iowa. “The First Amendment does not allow our state or our schools to remove books or issue blanket bans on discussion and materials simply because a group of politicians or parents find them offensive.”
In response to the law, schools around Iowa have removed hundreds of books from their shelves. The books include many that feature LGBTQ characters, as well as popular young adult books like “The Fault in our Stars” and classics like “Brave New World,” “The Color Purple” and “Beloved.”
Gov. Kim Reynolds has defended the law saying it “protects” children from “pornography.” Read the full report here. “When I couldn’t yet figure out who I was, it felt important to answer that question before I could start answering other questions about my life,” Maia Kobabe told the Register about writing Gender Queer, one of the books frequently targeted by “Don’t Say Gay” laws. “I did not write it to arouse a reader. I did not write it to titillate a reader. I wrote it to educate and explain,” Kobabe added. https://twitter.com/DMRegister/status/1729840178909372772
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