Texas ‘Sexual Content’ Bill Would Criminalize Literary Works
A proposed Texas law could jail adults for allowing minors to access books with "sexual" content, including The Odyssey and The Color Purple.
Texas lawmakers proposed a slew of bills that would criminalize providing access to books or learning materials containing “sexually explicit content,” including some iconic literary works, to minors.
Currently, if someone is accused of providing sexually explicit content to a child, they can argue, as an affirmative defense, that the content of the novel or work in question has scientific, educational, or literary purposes.
But the bills introduced in the Texas Legislature seek to eliminate that defense, reports the independent news outlet Popular Information.
The bills could potentially penalize anyone who lends a minor any work of literature containing some adult content — regardless of a book’s educational merit — with a prison sentence of up to 10 years.
Examples of books that could be banned include The Odyssey, Catcher in the Rye, Brave New World, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, The Handmaid’s Tale, and The Color Purple, to name a few.
The measures target teachers and librarians — both those working in schools and those in public libraries — as well as potentially bookstore owners who fail to censor or limit the types of works that minors can access.
Under the portion of the Texas Penal Code that the bills seek to amend, “harmful material” is defined as material that “appeals to the prurient interest of a minor in sex, nudity or excretion,” is “patently offensive to prevailing standards in the adult community as a whole with respect to what is suitable for minors,” and has no redeeming social value.
A person violates the law if they sell or distribute such material, possess the material with the intent of selling or distributing the material to minors, or make the material available for viewing by minors.
Two exceptions allow adults to avoid prosecution: if they are a law enforcement official or judge who distribute or make the material available to the public while discharging their official duties (such as a court order overturning a book ban); or if an adult is married to a minor and if that minor is at least 16 years old.
The bills are examples of the types of legislation that Republican lawmakers in various states have been pushing in response to anger from conservative parents over the ease with which their children can potentially access material that they believe constitutes sexually explicit content, including but not limited to LBGTQ-related themes or characters.
In 2023, a Texas county removed books dealing with race, racism, sexual orientation, and gender identity on the grounds that they were inappropriate for children to read. The county also blocked access to thousands of digital books available through an online database. A federal judge ultimately ordered the county to restore 12 books that had been yanked from shelves, finding that the ban had violated the First and Fourteenth Amendment rights of seven county residents who sued over the removal of the works in question.
In December, a Texas school district restricted access to the Bible to comply with the state’s 2023 law, making it easier to challenge and remove objectionable literary works from library shelves.
Sen. Mayes Middleton (R-Galveston), the sponsor of the Senate version of the liability bill, has sponsored several other measures regarding schools and libraries.
One proposed bill introduced by Mayes overhauls the process by which books are selected for school libraries, overriding the expertise of librarians by granting politically-motivated school board members the final say on what can remain on shelves.
Another measure would defund any public library that hosts a “Drag Queen Story Hour” event, while a third explicitly bans schools from teaching about gender identity or sexual orientation and from adopting DEI hiring practices or policies.
Those bills were approved by the Texas Senate last week, along with a bill setting aside time for teachers and students to pray and read the Bible, and another requiring the display of the Ten Commandments in classrooms.
All are expected to ultimately be signed into law.
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