Posted in: Comics, Comics Publishers, Current News, Oni Press | Tagged: cbldf, gender queer

Arkansas Judge Strikes Down Act 372, Keeps Gender Queer On Shelves

An Arkansas Judge has struck down two provisions of Act 372 as unconstitutional, and keeps Gender Queer on the shelves.

Published Wed, 01 Jan 2025 10:57:08 -0600

Article Summary

Arkansas Judge declares Act 372 unconstitutional, striking down key provisions of the "harmful to minors" law.
Act 372 targeted librarians and booksellers, threatening jail for shelving "inappropriate" books.
Critics argued the act targeted LGBTQ+ content; Gender Queer became central in the debate.
ACLU hails the ruling as a victory for free speech; AG Tim Griffin plans to appeal the decision.

A federal judge in Arkansas has struck down two provisions of Arkansas' "harmful to minors" law, known as Act 372, and signed by Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders on the 30th of March, 2023, as unconstitutional. Writing in a 23rd of December summary judgment, Judge Timothy Brooks wrote that if the Arkansas legislature's goal was "to protect younger minors from accessing inappropriate sexual content in libraries and bookstores," and that it would "only achieve that end at the expense of everyone else's First Amendment rights… The law deputizes librarians and booksellers as the agents of censorship; when motivated by the fear of jail time, it is likely they will shelve only books fit for young children and segregate or discard the rest."

: Gender Queer cover

: The new Comic Book Legal Defense Fund membership card

Section one would have imposed a misdemeanour penalty of up to one year in jail for librarians and booksellers who have books deemed inappropriate on the shelves. Section five would have mandated "a new procedure for libraries, city councils, and county quorum courts to follow when evaluating a citizen's request to move or remove a book from a public library's permanent collection".

Proponents of Act 372 claimed that the law was needed to keep pornographic material away from children. However, critics of the law stated that it was a disguised attempt to remove constitutionally protected books about or by LGBT people. Amongst the opponents was the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, especially as the graphic novel Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe has become a totemic graphic novel in this fight. Entire political campaigns were organised, promising that the book would be banned from schools, libraries and even bookstores.

In his original 2023 decision to preliminarily block two key provisions of the law, Brooks prefaced his opinion with a quote from Fahrenheit 451's Ray Bradbury, saying, "There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running about with lit matches" before writing "For more than a century, librarians have curated the collections of public libraries to serve diverse viewpoints, helped high school students with their term papers, made recommendations to book clubs, tracked down obscure books for those devoted to obscure pastimes, and mesmerized roomfuls of children with animated storytelling. So, the passage of Act 372 prompts a few simple yet unanswered questions. For example: What has happened in Arkansas to cause its communities to lose faith and confidence in their local librarians? What is it that prompted the General Assembly's newfound suspicion? And why has the State found it necessary to target librarians for criminal prosecution?"

"This was an attempt to 'thought police,' and this victory over totalitarianism is a testament to the courage of librarians, booksellers, and readers who refused to bow to intimidation," said Holly Dickson, executive director of the ACLU of Arkansas. Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin told the Associated Press, "I respect the court's ruling and will appeal".

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