Florida AG Compares LGBTQ Books to Nazi Propaganda
metroweekly.commakes it easier to remove books from libraries that are deemed to have “sexual” content or are considered “inappropriate” for minors.One of the books removed from shelves was And Tango Makes Three, a children’s story based on real-life events about a same-sex penguin couple that hatches an egg together and raises its chick.The book was recently banned by Lake County Public Schools in central Florida, only to be returned to shelves after the book’s authors filed a lawsuit.While Lake County has permitted Tango to return to shelves, the overall law still allows for other titles with LGBTQ themes or characters to be restricted, and the authors’ lawsuit has been transferred to U.S.
District Court for the Northern District of Florida, due to Escambia County’s decision to remove the book from its library collections.At the same time, the county faces a separate lawsuit from free speech and expression advocate PEN America, publishing house Penguin Random House, LLC, authors whose works have been removed from libraries, and the parents of children in the county who object to the removal of those books.The lawsuit contends that the book removals in Escambia County are a form of viewpoint discrimination based on ideological objections to the books’ contents or disagreement with their messages, violate the First Amendment rights of the parent plaintiffs and their children by restricting their right to receive information, and violate the Fourteenth Amendment by disproportionately targeting books by non-white and/or LGBTQ authors or books with themes relating to race, gender, or sexual orientation.But Moody argues that Escambia County’s removal of books with LGBTQ content is justified, and the lawsuit against the county should be dismissed.“Plaintiffs challenge ‘the decisions of the Escambia County School Board (“the School Board”) to remove and restrict’ certain materials in ‘public school libraries within the Escambia County School District.’ The restrictions, Plaintiffs say,.
