There are two house bills that are stuck in the Senate State Affairs Committee. We need your help to bring them to a vote!
A bill has passed the Idaho house to remove protections for libraries and schools for displaying indecent, inappropriate and sexually explicit materials to children. Currently Idaho state law prohibits disseminating materials harmful to minors with several exceptions. Among the exceptions are: "The defendant was a bona fide school, college, university, museum or public library, or was acting in his capacity as an employee of such an organization or a retail outlet affiliated with and serving the educational purposes of such an organization."
This exception has been used by schools and libraries to provide sexually explicit books to minors claiming that they are protected by this exception and that the materials are simply biology.
Click here for a video from Representative Heather Scott that explains what this bill is about.
Here are some talking points that you can use in your emails.
· Some will argue that repeal of the obscenity exemption is “anti-LGBT.” The truth is that repealing this exemption is pro-child and pro-parent. Why are LGBT groups so determined to push sexually explicit images onto children in the schools and in the libraries?
· If an adult showed any of these terrible books to children walking on a sidewalk, he or she would be arrested. But because of this terrible exemption, these same adults can show this terrible stuff to children in a school or a library without any consequences. That is wrong! We need to protect children in all settings, including libraries and schools.
So-called free speech activists and libertarians will contend that there is no legal precedent for removing obscene materials from schools or libraries. That is not true:
a. Evans-Marshall v Board of Education:
· https://www.opn.ca6.uscourts.gov/opinions.pdf/10a0334p-06.pdf
· In Evans-Marshall v. Board of Education of the Tipp City Exempted Village School District, the 6th Circuit Court ruled unanimously that "[t]eachers have no First Amendment free-speech protection for curricular decisions they make in the classroom.”
b. BOARD OF EDUCATION v. PICO(1982)
· https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/457/853.html
· Pervasively vulgar books may be excluded from public schools.
c. Miler v. United States (1971)
· https://www.oyez.org/cases/1971/70-73
· "[t]he basic guidelines for the trier of fact must be:
· whether 'the average person, applying contemporary community standards' would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest. . .
· whether the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by the applicable state law; and
· whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value."
Email the members of the committee and let them know that you want them to remove this exemption. In the subject line of the email write: Vote YES on House Bill 0666
In addition to this bill, House Bill 0675 which bans transgender surgeries for minors is also stuck in the Senate State Affairs committee. There is no reason what-so-ever for minors to be able to get these surgeries without parental involvement. Here are some talking points that you can use in your emails to the Senators on this bill:
1. Puberty Blockers and Cross Sex Hormone treatments create irreversible effects on children. Contrary to the talking points of LGBT activists, the damage down to minor’s hormones, physical development, and even their mental health capacities diminish permanently. Sex Change Regret is real. Do not discount the voices of those who have detransitioned:
2. 96% percent of children who struggle with gender dysphoria resolve their issues after the natural course of puberty. Don’t take away from those children the chance to grow up into healthy adults who can start families on their own.
3. Researchers confirm that transgender treatment does not treat or remove suicidal ideation, but actually makes it worse. In one Swedish longitudinal study, the suicide rate reached 41%, and these staggering numbers occurred in one of the most LGBT friendly countries in the world.
Email the members of the committee and let them know that you want them to protect children from genital mutilation. In the subject line of the email write: Vote YES on House Bill 0675
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