Congressional Republicans have introduced a nationwide book banning bill.

A group of right-wing Congressional Representatives introduced a federal book banning bill in Congress this week that would give book censors wide latitude to remove books from schools and libraries. The bill also explicitly targets trans people.

House Resolution 7661, introduced on Tuesday, would modify existing legislation from 1965 using language that is by now familiar from similar state legislation. As covered by Kelly Jensen in Book Riot, the bill would be a massive escalation in the right-wing assault on schools and students’ freedom to read.

Though the bill would at first only affect institutions receiving a certain subset of federal education funding, it’s easy to envision an expansion of this federal censorship, since it’s a dynamic we’ve seen at the state level all across the U.S.

HR 7661, euphemistically named the “Stop Sexualization of Children Act,” would

prohibit the use of funds…to develop, implement, facilitate, host, or promote any program or activity for, or to provide or promote literature or other materials to, children under the age of 18 that includes sexually oriented material.

The language in HR 7661 is broad, seeking to ban any “sexually oriented” children’s books, though as Jensen points out, “no such books for young readers exist, but facts don’t matter to a regime seeking total and complete control.”

The bill goes farther than just books and other materials available in libraries, and would also seek to ban “lewd or lascivious dancing,” a clear attempt to prohibit drag reading shows, which have been a constant obsession for Republicans.

HR 7661 is also deeply and pointedly transphobic, and would include in its definition of “sexually oriented material” anything that “involves gender dysphoria or transgenderism.”

It’s cruel. This language would give the federal government another tool to go after trans people, who are already under increasingly dangerous pressure. If we don’t stand up for our trans neighbors now, this will only get worse. Republicans, along with Democrats like Gavin Newsom who are all too eager to throw trans people under the grinding wheels of their ambition, are not only heartless but also can’t seem to envision that the attack on trans people is only the beginning. Anyone outside of a narrowly defined norm is under implicit threat.

This is the right-wing vision for America. There is no room for queer Americans, who will be forced out of public view, or worse. There is no room for children’s freedom to read and be curious. There is no room for compassion. It’s frightening, and if Trump’s State of the Union is any indication, their worldview is as boring as it is deadly. And it’s wildly unpopular.

But HR 7661 hasn’t passed yet, and the GOP is seeing the same polling as the rest of us. They can no doubt see that their hold on Congress isn’t likely to last long. If there’s the will, we can stop this bill. Call your elected representatives, and get organized. Groups like Authors Against Book Bans, EveryLibrary, and the American Library Association have ways to get involved, but look for the groups in your own backyard.