Officials in Texas’ Llano County have said public libraries will remain open while a court battle continues over whether local officials can remove books deemed inappropriate
The Llano County commissioners in central Texas held a special meeting to consider closing the three public library branches after a federal judge's ruling to return banned books to shelves and not censor any more.
The four commissioners and judge of the Llano County commissioners court, as the governing body is known, heard from 15 members of the public during a tense meeting before going into executive session. Most who spoke wanted the libraries to remain open. But others said they wanted the libraries shut until books they labeled "pornographic" were out. They read aloud explicit sex scenes from books.
Over 1,600 titles, mostly addressing racism and LGBTQ issues, have been removed from libraries in 32 states in the past year, according to the writers' organization PEN America."Public libraries are not meant to serve particular ideological factions," said Kasey Meehan, who directs the "Freedom to Read" project of PEN America. "They are meant to serve the community.
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