New Billboard in Texas Urges, "Ban Censorship, Not Books"

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression is a nonprofit devoted to defending free speech. To draw consideration to the censorship occurring in Texas colleges and libraries proper now, they’ve put up two billboards. The first, which is up in Keller now, says “Free Speech Makes Free People.” The second will go up December 18th, and it reads, “Ban Censorship, Not Books.”

The Keller Independent School District board voted final month to ban any e book that comprises “discussion or depiction of gender fluidity.” “Gender fluidity,” like “Critical Race Theory,” is an present time period that conservative teams have co-opted and redefined as a fear-mongering tactic. While gender fluidity has been used for many years as a label for individuals who expertise their gender as unfixed — altering anyplace between sometimes to every day — it’s been (incorrectly) outlined by Keller ISD as:

“any concept or ideology that: (1) espouses the view that gender is merely a social assemble; (2) espouses the view that it’s doable for an individual to be any gender or none (i.e., non-binary) based mostly solely on that particular person’s emotions or preferences; or (3) helps hormone remedy or different medical therapies or procedures to briefly or completely alter an individual’s physique or genetic make-up in order that it ‘matches’ a self-believed gender that’s totally different from the particular person’s organic intercourse (as decided by the particular person’s beginning certificates made at or close to the time of the particular person’s beginning).“

In brief, it has banned any e book that acknowledges the existence of transgender or nonbinary folks from colleges, together with excessive colleges. FIRE argues this could possibly be used to additionally ban any media that reveals gender nonconforming characters, and will even be utilized to Disney’s Mulan.

FIRE legal professional Adam Steinbaugh explains,

“The bottom line is that Keller is prohibiting books based on the politics of the ideas they contain. You can’t ban books because they argue gender is a social construct any more than you can ban books arguing there are only two genders. Students in Keller will suffer from this ideological book ban, which sends a clear message that neither free speech nor different viewpoints are permitted.”

They are hoping that these billboards draw consideration to this violation of the First Amendment. This coverage isn’t in isolation, both: Texas has banned essentially the most books of any state in 2022, and Keller ISD has been one of many greatest gamers in this surge of censorship.