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Georgia’s Senate handed a invoice Thursday that might ban libraries from spending public or personal funds on providers supplied by the American Library Association, which a Republican member of the chamber known as a “Marxist and socialist” group.
The measure, Senate Bill 390, handed by a vote of 33 to twenty. Democrats opposed it, saying the ALA supplied libraries invaluable providers and had lengthy defended free speech and inventive expression.
But one of many invoice’s authors, Republican Sen. Larry Walker III, mentioned the group’s agenda and politics had been inconsistent with Georgia’s conservative values.
NEW GEORGIA LEGISLATION INTRODUCED AFTER LAKEN RILEY MURDER
“This is not an attack on libraries,” he mentioned. “It doesn’t ban any books.”
An aerial {photograph} reveals the Georgia State Capitol in Atlanta. (Joe Sohm/Visions of America/Universal Images Group by way of Getty Images)
Right-wing lawmakers in different states have additionally moved to sever ties with the ALA, partly due to its protection of disputed books, a lot of which have LGBTQ+ and racial themes. A tweet by ALA President Emily Drabinski in 2022 through which she known as herself a “Marxist lesbian” additionally has drawn criticism.
Georgia Sen. Randy Robertson, one other Republican, mentioned the state didn’t want “a Marxist and socialist organization infecting” its library system.
But state Sen. Elena Parent, a Democrat, mentioned the invoice was placing librarians “on the entrance strains of a tradition warfare.” Lawmakers, as a substitute, needs to be focusing on enhancing the state’s low studying scores, she mentioned.
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The invoice now goes to the state House of Representatives for consideration.
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