A lawsuit, filed by patrons of a county library in Arkansas, has been allowed to move forward by a federal court. The First Amendment lawsuit plausibly alleges the library’s decision to move anything determined to be “LGBTQ” from the children’s section to the adult’s section violates the First Amendment right to equitable access to information. (via Courthouse News Service)

Here’s how this started, according to the decision [PDF] that moves this lawsuit forward:

[I]n late 2022 or early 2023 the Crawford County Library System implemented a policy under which its library branches must remove from their children’s sections all books containing LGBTQ themes, affix a prominent color label to those books, and place them in a newly-created section called the “social section.” Plaintiffs allege this policy was imposed on the Library System by the Crawford County Quorum Court in response to political pressure from constituents who objected, at least partly on religious grounds, to the presence of these books in the children’s section.

  • @GeneralVincent
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    English
    131 year ago

    Yeah, the US has a great history of moving certain demographics to a separate section in order to appease bigots.

    The government has never done anything bad by censuring certain people due to their identity. It’s the government, and they’re making dozens of small decisions in small, right leaning rural areas which has no effect on the people there.

    • Throwaway
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      fedilink
      -171 year ago

      Moving a few books 20 feet is a little different than forcibly moving minorities into shanty towns.

      • sharpiemarker
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        81 year ago

        You made it pretty clear in your original comment that you don’t see the issue.

        And then you provided evidence to support that.