Turning the Page on a Bad Court Ruling: Arkansas A.G. Continues the Fight to Protect Kids
Last week Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin’s office filed paperwork in federal court indicating it will appeal a bad court decision that blocked key parts an Arkansas law intended to protect children from harmful material in public libraries.
Act 372 of 2023 protects children from harmful library material. the law also eliminates exemptions for public libraries and schools in the state’s obscenity statute, and it clarifies how library patrons can work to remove objectionable material from a library’s catalog.
However, a coalition of libraries in Arkansas led by the ACLU filed a lawsuit challenging part Act 372.
As a result, U.S. District Judge Timothy Brooks in Fayetteville blocked two important sections of Act 372 — Section 1, which makes it a Class A misdemeanor to give or send a child harmful sexual material that contains nudity or sexual activity, and Section 5, which clarifies how library patrons can work to remove objectionable material from a library’s catalog.
Fortunately, Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin is appealing the decision to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals — meaning the fight to protect children under Act 372 is far from finished.
Act 372 isn’t just about library books — it’s about standing up for children. Family Council has heard repeatedly from people who are deeply troubled by obscene and inappropriate children’s books that some librarians have placed on the shelves of their local libraries.
For example, the Jonesboro public library has been at the center of multiple controversies over its decision to place books with sexually-explicit images in its children’s section and for failing to adopt a policy that separates sexual material from children’s content.
The library in Jonesboro even went so far as to post on Facebook that it isn’t the library’s responsibility to protect kids from obscenity. Following the controversy in Jonesboro, voters opted to cut the library’s millage in half.
Other public libraries in Arkansas have included graphic children’s books in their catalogs and failed to separate sexual material from children’s material as well.
Some of the people who testified publicly against Act 372 in 2023 signaled that they actually wanted to be free to share obscene material with children. That simply isn’t right.
Libraries ought to be held to the same standards as everyone else when it comes to giving harmful or obscene material to a child.
Families should be able to take their children to the library without worrying what they might see, and taxpayers should not be forced to subsidize graphic novels that depict explicit images of children engaged in sexual acts.
We are grateful to Attorney General Griffin for defending Act 372. This is a good law that protects children in Arkansas. We believe higher courts ultimately will recognize that fact and uphold Act 372 as constitutional.
Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.
Target Becomes Latest Retailer to Drop DEI
On Friday retail giant Target announced it is ending its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion goals and will no longer participate in the Human Rights Campaign’s pro-LGBT “Corporate Equality Index.”
In a memo to its employees, Target wrote,
Throughout 2025, we’ll be accelerating action in key areas and implementing changes with the goal of driving growth and staying in step with the evolving external landscape. We will continue to monitor and adjust as needed. Current actions include:
- Concluding our three-year diversity, equity and inclusion goals.
- Concluding our Racial Equity Action and Change (REACH) initiatives in 2025 as planned.
- Ensuring our employee resource groups are communities fully focused on development and mentorship. These communities will continue to be open to all.
- Further evaluating our corporate partnerships to ensure they are directly connected to our roadmap for growth.
- Stopping all external diversity-focused surveys, including HRC’s Corporate Equality Index.
- Evolving our “Supplier Diversity” team to “Supplier Engagement” to better reflect our inclusive global procurement process across a broad range of suppliers, including increasing our focus on small businesses.
Target joins a growing list of major corporations that have changed course on DEI and cut ties with groups like the Human Rights Campaign.
Many companies established DEI goals a few years ago to create an equal playing field for racial and ethnic minorities, but it did not take long for LGBT groups to hijack those corporate programs.
Today, DEI tends to promote divisive ideologies like critical theory, and it has become a tool that pro-LGBT groups use to promote gender-identity politics in the workplace. Under these policies, employees who hold a biblical view of gender or marriage may risk losing their jobs.
But backlash and boycotts over DEI and pro-LGBT activism have prompted many companies to change course.
Walmart, Toyota, John Deere, Lowe’s, Tractor Supply, Harley Davidson, and other corporations have chosen to eliminate DEI policies in recent months.
Target’s decision to drop DEI and distance itself from pro-LGBT groups is particularly significant, because the company has a longstanding history of embracing these ideologies.
In 2016 Target made headlines when it announced men would be able to enter women’s restrooms and changing areas at its stores.
On its website, Target sells products that promote the LGBT lifestyle — although it recently scaled back its “Pride” selection.
As far back as 2017, Target executives admitted that these corporate policies were unpopular and costly, but the retailer refused to change course — until now.
It’s deeply troubling when multimillion dollar corporations use their wealth and influence to promote radical, pro-LGBT ideas. But it’s encouraging when companies like Target reverse course. With that in mind, we believe Target is making the right decision.
Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.