Indiana Senate Bill 12 a challenge for libraries, writers and readers, opponents charge

David Ivy, director of the Logansport Cass County Public Library, has been keeping an eye on anti-book legislation and rhetoric in Florida, Texas and many other states.

“I kept telling the (library) board members it could happen here,” Ivey said. “We have some of the same political angles that happen down there and might happen here, too.”

SB-12 was no surprise to him. He called the bill the newest version of a bill Republican leaders in the Indiana legislature have tried to pass in past years. Previous attempts have failed.

“This one may fail, too,” Ivey said. “The whole issue with librarians or school librarians is how are we supposed to manage in this environment if (the bill becomes law) and how will (the bill) benefit the kids it is supposed to be benefitting?”

Chad Heck, a co-chair of the Indiana Library Federation’s advocacy committee, described the bill as a scare tactic to get libraries to stop collecting diverse materials.

“And this is of course happening all over the country,” he said. “It’s an attack on the First Amendment and having free access to information.”

One of the concerns about the bill by many librarians and free speech advocates is that the bill is vague and does not define what actually is harmful to children and in what context it’s harmful. It also removes the right to use educational purposes as a defense for having a book in a library collection. An update to the bill added a committee to decide the fate of books that are challenged.

Indiana Sen. Stacey Donato (R-Logansport) voted in favor of the bill. When approached for an interview about her vote, Donato was unavailable but willing to consider written questions via email.

The deadline to move the bill through the House of Representatives is April 11.

The bill was authored by Sen. James Tomes (R-Wadesville). During a February Judiciary Committee, Tomes referred to many of the books being challenged as “raw pornography”.

One of the few books Tomes actually brought up by name in the hearing was Maia Kobabe’s “Gender Queer,” a comic book memoir about Kobabe’s struggle with gender. Tomes said the book belonged in an adult bookstore.

While the book does contain some sexual imagery, the author said it’s presented to tell their story, not to titillate readers.

Pornography is defined as something that intends to elicit sexual excitement.

In 1933, a decade-long ban of James Joyce’s novel “Ulysses” in the United States was challenged in court. The judge determined that “Ulysses” was written without pornographic intent and the questionable content, when the book was read in its entirety, was not meant to inspire impure thoughts. “Ulysses” is considered one of the important literary works of the 20th century.

“This particularly law targets books that have sexual content in them,” said Heck. “We get that not everyone wants their kids to have access to those materials and I think that is an individual family’s choice. We shouldn’t have Sen. Tomes making that choice for every family.”

Heck encouraged librarians to continue to collect books that are well reviewed and meet collection criteria.

“I do worry about the chilling effect that this would have on libraries and librarians who are making those selection choices,” he said. “This is criminal prosecution.”

Ivey said when considering a book for the library, librarians normally turn to the major publishers. They look at reviews and recommendations from the “Library Journal” and “Publishers Weekly”. So libraries are already considering books that have been vetted on a national level by a publisher and reviewers before placing an order.

Ivey’s worry is that, even if SB 12 doesn’t become law, it might have a subliminal affect on librarians and they may choose not to order a book because there is some controversy around it.

That could be happening now, he said.

‘They don’t read the books’

Lafayette native Julia Scheeres is the author of the New York Times bestselling memoir “Jesus Land.”

In October 2021, she took to the Lafayette Journal & Courier to discuss an attack on her book by right wing groups such as Purple for Parents of Indiana and Unify Carmel.

The groups objected to graphic sexual content in the book. A blog affiliated with Purple for Parents, called “Mary in the Library,” was so disgusted by the book passage that they posted it online so everyone could read it.

Scheeres grew up in a strict religious family. Her parents adopted two Black children into their white rural household. Julia and her adopted brother, David, were the same age and grew up together as best friends, eager for the day they could escape Indiana.

Scheeres wrote her memoir to memorialize David and the struggles he faced while attending Lafayette Harrison High School. The book touches on difficult topics ranging from racism, abuse, incest, rape and loss of faith.

The sex scene that angered groups in Indiana and beyond (the book has been challenged in five states) was borderline rape. Scheeres was taken advantage of and coerced into sex.

“Basically, what I’ve found with these groups is that they don’t actually read the books, they just trade lists of books that they think should be banned without reading them,” said Scheeres. “Why my book, I’m not quite sure. I have my suspicions that it (upsets) conservative people because it’s about a teenage girl who is anti-religion, who is pointing out the hypocrisy of the folks around her.”

Scheeres said that modern teenagers are not turning to books to find prurient passages. When Logansport high school students were asked where they go when they want information on a topic, they all unanimously agreed they go to the internet first.

Ivey also said that library usage has declined since 2014. And even then a lot of the traffic was for DVDs and video games, not books.

“This isn’t the 1980s,” said Scheeres. “Kids are going online.”

Scheeres said groups that go after books want to curtail difficult conversations such as those present in “Jesus Land.” While she admits there is graphic sex in the book, she said it’s nothing anyone would find sexy unless they are “really twisted.”

“And to me that is the tragedy here,” she said. “I have been contacted by so many people who have found that they have related to my book. Even to this day, girls have seen themselves in the pages and feel validated. It has sparked difficult conversations. These types of (problems) will continue, especially in conservative circles where everyone wants to pretend that they are perfect and march to church on Sunday in their finest clothes.”

Scheeres moved out of Indiana and now lives with her husband and children in San Francisco. David died in a car accident when he was 20 and is buried six miles away from their childhood home. Coping with that grief drove her to write the memoir.

“I wanted people to know that he existed and he was a beautiful person,” she said. “He didn’t deserve the way he was treated. I’m actually a private person. I never would have written a book about my own foibles but to have the context of the family, I had to write about everything including the poor choices on my part.”

Books for everybody

Along with “Gender Queer”, the majority of challenged books in 2022 were LGTBQ+ related or focused on non-white people. Books included “The Hate U Give”, “How to Be an Antiracist” and “All Boys Aren’t Blue.”

“We buy books for everybody in the community,” said Ivey. “We don’t censure any subject matter. It’s for you as a community to choose what you read. We don’t dictate what you read. We give you the broadest pallet possible. The reason we are limited at all is usually purely a function of budget. We can’t buy all the books. But anything on our shelves is defensible.”

Heck said libraries collect books that have authentic teenage experiences and those experiences aren’t so innocent.

“Some of those books have things in them that some families may not want their kids to have access to and that’s fine,” he said. “We would encourage those families to have conversations with their kids and be involved with what their kids check out from the library.”

Ivey said he was nervous about a lot of things happening in the state as an Indiana citizen and as a parent.

“But as a professional library director, I’m not as worried about (SB 12),” he said. “I think we are on very solid ground. What we are doing is First Amendment, United States Constitution stuff that says anybody can come in here. It’s a public library. We can’t keep anybody out and once you are in here you can read whatever you want. We won’t tell you that you can’t read something because you are a certain age. Kids can even go upstairs and grab something. We don’t watch that at all.”

Still, Ivey said he was prepared for some discomfort at some point in terms of SB 12 or from people like “the purple group.”

Scheeres was not so optimistic.

“My fear is that our country is turning into a fascist state,” she said. “Writing is about expressing ideas. Ideas should not be banned. I wrote a memoir. Lives should not be censored or banned. What happened to me, this is my life. You might not like it, you might have strong reactions to it, but I suggest you should reflect on why you are having such a strong reaction. What is it that makes you so uncomfortable that you can’t stand reading about someone’s life that is so much different than your own.”

Heck encouraged library users to contact their local legislators and tell them they want library collections that represent diverse people and diverse views.

“The First Amendment is there for a reason and families can make these choices for themselves,” he said. “We don’t need the government to make them for us.”