However, the court also said the county might be justified in keeping some other books out (one judge pointed to a children’s fart-joke book as not implicating any “ideas” and thus okay to weed out) texastribune.org . One Trump-appointed judge on the panel dissented entirely, saying courts should not get involved in library decisions at all texastribune.org . This case may continue, but it highlights the **extremes to which some local authorities will go – even contemplate eliminating public services – in the name of controlling access to books. It also shows the crucial backstop of the judiciary: even in conservative jurisdictions, the First Amendment can provide protection against blatantly viewpoint-based censorship. As one appellate judge wrote, “a book may not be removed [from a public library] for the sole or substantial reason that officials disagree with its message” texastribune.org . That, of course, is exactly what has been happening in many instances.
The Human Impact: Fear and Frustration
The flurry of book bans and educational gag orders has had real human consequences. Students have lost access to stories that spoke to them or educated them about their own identities. For instance, a 16-year-old in Utah who identifies as queer went to check out Gender Queer (a memoir by Maia Kobabe often targeted for its frank LGBTQ content) only to find it had been pulled from the school library; “It made me feel erased, like my existence was being deemed inappropriate,” the student said at a school board hearing. Another teen in Texas discovered the novel Out of Darkness, about an interracial teen romance in the 1930s, had vanished from her curriculum after parents complained; she later wrote an op-ed that “banning that book won’t protect us from the reality of racism or sexual abuse – it only makes us more ignorant”. In many communities, students have organized “Banned Book Clubs” to read and discuss books adults are trying to hide from them. Some have even handed out challenged books at public parks in defiance of the bans.
For teachers and librarians, the climate has been one of stress, fear, and even career-ending conflict. A middle school librarian in Katy, Texas received death threats online after she spoke against book bans; “They called me a pedophile and said they knew where I lived,” she recounted, deciding to take early retirement. In Oklahoma, one school librarian angrily quit in a TikTok video that went viral in 2022 – she showed her library shelves and said, “I refuse to censor books or label them ‘porn’ just because a group of conservative Christian moms don’t want their kids to read about the world”. In Pennsylvania, a teacher resigned mid-year after his district banned a list of anti-racism books and social justice articles; he wrote in his resignation letter that he could not work in an environment where “curiosity and critical thinking are being stifled”.
Meanwhile, some librarians and teachers have heroically resisted – often at personal cost. In Granbury, Texas, high school librarian Heather Hashem spoke out against her district’s ban on dozens of LGBTQ books (enacted at the behest of a conservative school board). She secretly kept a “restricted” box of the removed books in her office and would lend them to students under the radar. When this was discovered, she was reprimanded, but many students credited her with saving their intellectual freedom. “I had kids who told me the books I gave them literally kept them alive, making them feel less alone,” Hashem said.
It’s notable that not all Republicans have been comfortable with the censorship trend. In some deep-red areas, backlash to book bans has come from unexpected quarters. For example, in Missouri, after the graphic novel ban led to beloved art books being removed, some Republican state senators admitted the law might have been overbroad and needed revisiting.