Not even Little Free Libraries are safe from book bans.
Book bans are far too common these days, and a recent development has added a new and disturbing wrinkle: right-wing censors in Utah have set their sights on Little Free Libraries.
Typically these censorship efforts have focused on public libraries and schools, where Republicans are at least abusing a legitimate oversight role. But this latest attack on books is targeting Little Free Libraries, which are privately run on private property.
“Don’t tread on me” only applies to guns, I suppose. When it comes to books, tread away.
Last week, Salt Lake City’s Democratic State Representative Sahara Hayes posted a video on Instagram announcing that she was marking Banned Books Week by sharing some books that Utah had banned from public schools, by putting the books in Little Free Libraries. The trolls quickly responded, as covered on Axios and Utah’s KUTV, accusing the Representative of violating a Utah law against distributing certain books in schools.
In fact, the books Rep. Hayes picked came from the list of books now banned by that same law. All but one of the 13 banned books are by women, and six of them are by Sarah J. Maas — Rupi Kaur’s Milk and Honey and Craig Thompson’s graphic novel Blankets also made the list. These selections feel more arbitrary than usual, beyond the sadly typical targeting of non-normative voices. In a further twist of the knife, Utah’s law requires school libraries to throw out the books — they can’t be sold or given away.
It remains to be seen if Utah’s right-wingers will be successful in prosecuting Representative Hayes, but Utah’s Republicans are going further than I’ve seen before. When right-wing book bans are moving into private libraries, I have to wonder if there’s a limit for these censors.
