Texas Advances Bills to Criminalize Providing Books that Contain Sex Scenes

Bills advancing through the Texas legislature would punish librarians and teachers with prison terms of up to 10 years if they provide to children reading materials that contain sexually explicit content, regardless of educational or literary merit.

SB 412 and HB 267 would remove the current defense that such books or learning materials are in pursuit of a scientific, educational, or governmental purpose.

Classic literature to be banned by the proposed law include:

• Brave New World
• Catcher in the Rye
• One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest
• The Odyssey

The law exempts law enforcement officials, judges, and an adult who provides the material containing sexually explicit content to a child to whom the adult is married. The latter is is legal in Texas when the child turns 16 years old, with a judge’s approval.

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