Committee Passes Bill to Address Obscenity in Libraries

Current Events, , ,

On Monday the Senate Judiciary Committee passed a measure addressing obscene material in libraries across Arkansas.

S.B. 81 by Sen. Dan Sullivan (R – Russellville) and Rep. Justin Gonzales (R – Okolona) prohibits giving or sending harmful sexual material to a child. The bill also eliminates exemptions for libraries and schools in the state’s obscenity statute, and it clarifies how library patrons can go about contesting objectionable material at a library.

As we have written before, 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 while failing to adopt a policy that separates sexual material from children’s content.

Librarians have made it clear that they want to be free to share obscene material. The library in Jonesboro went so far as to post on Facebook that it isn’t the library’s responsibility to protect kids from obscenity.

Other public libraries in Arkansas have failed to separate sexual material from children’s material as well.

Public libraries are supposed to be for everyone. More and more, Family Council is hearing from people who are deeply troubled by the obscene children’s books that librarians have placed on the shelves of their local libraries.

Bills like S.B. 81 help address those problems.

The bill now goes to the Arkansas Senate for a vote.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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Bill Would Repeal Alcohol Delivery Law in Arkansas

Alcohol, Legislation,

A new bill at the Arkansas Legislature would address alcohol delivery in the state.

S.B. 284 by Sen. Jane English (R – North Little Rock) would prevent retail liquor stores, microbrewery restaurants, and small breweries from delivering alcohol to private residences in the county where the store is located.

The Arkansas Legislature passed a measure in 2021 that permitted these types of alcohol deliveries in the state.

S.B. 284 would repeal that law from 2021.

You can read S.B. 284 here.

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Italian Psychoanalytic Society Expresses “Great Concern” Over Puberty Blockers

LGBT, Transgender,

Mental health experts in Europe continue to be troubled by the practice of giving puberty blockers to children with gender dysphoria.

In a recent letter to Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, the Italian Psychoanalytic Society expressed “great concern” over the use of drugs that block puberty in boys and girls.

The society’s letter calls the practice of giving puberty blockers to children “experimentation.”

The letter notes that gender-identity is self-identified, which makes it difficult to evaluate scientifically, and it calls for more rigorous, scientific discussion about gender dysphoria in children.

The Italian Psychoanalytic Society is the latest group in Europe to voice concerns about giving puberty blockers to children.

In 2021 a major hospital in Sweden announced that it would no longer give puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to kids.

Last year the U.K.’s National Health Services closed its Tavistock gender clinic that gave puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to children for many years. Many families have indicated their children were subjected to sex-reassignment at that clinic despite an obvious lack of scientific evidence in favor of the procedures and inadequate mental health screenings for children with gender dysphoria.

A gender-identity clinic in Scotland faces similar accusations from former patients who say healthcare professionals rushed them into sex-change procedures.

Concerns about puberty blockers are growing in the United States as well.

Research published just last month calls into question the original studies that encouraged doctors to give puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to children with gender dysphoria.

And last summer the U.S. Food and Drug Administration finally added a warning label to puberty blockers in America after biological girls developed symptoms of tumor-like masses in the brain.

That is part of the reason why the Arkansas Legislature has taken steps to protect children with gender dysphoria.

In 2021 the Arkansas Legislature overwhelmingly passed the Save Adolescents From Experimentation (SAFE) Act. The SAFE Act is a good law that protects children in Arkansas from cross-sex hormones, puberty blockers, and sex-reassignment surgeries. However, the law has been tied up in court since the summer of 2021. We expect a decision over its constitutionality in the coming months.

Right now lawmakers are considering S.B. 199 by Sen. Gary Stubblefield (R – Branch) and Rep. Mary Bentley (R – Perryville).

This good law clarifies that a child who undergoes a sex-change procedure can sue the healthcare provider who performed procedure if the child suffers any physical, psychological, or emotional injury as a result.

Our state laws should protect children from dangerous sex-reassignment procedures, and they should provide children and their families with legal recourse if they are injured by a sex-change procedure.

Laws like the SAFE Act and S.B. 199 help do exactly that.

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