New Braunfels Parents Protest ‘Filthy’ Books in Public Library

Local and school librarians continue to use their profession to ramp up LGBT activism around Texas.

A crowd of concerned parents recently met at a New Braunfels City Council meeting to read excerpts from pornographic books that a local public library highlighted for “Pride Month.”

Initiatives like Unite Against Book Bans said that “dirty” books in the library were a “falsehood” and that the library staff does “an exceptional job maintaining collections representative of our community’s diversity.”

To assert the explicitness of the content, Joeylynn Mesaros, a resident and mother, read a segment of a book from the teen section that provided detailed instructions of ways to experience “self-pleasure.”

“May I just remind everybody, teens are kids, okay? That’s the children section,” Mesaros said.

Amanda Hunt, lead secondary school librarian for New Braunfels Independent School District, is also responsible for the district’s book selection and is the outgoing chair of the group that votes on a recommended reading list for the entire state of Texas.

With the help of public school librarians around the state, the Texas Library Association decides on a Texas Maverick Graphic Novels Reading List.

This year’s selection includes titles such as:

• “FINE: A Comic About Gender”
• “Welcome to St. Hell: My Trans Teen Misadventure”
• “Magical Boy,” a comic series on being transgender
• “Galaxy: The Prettiest Star,” about gender identity
• “Chef’s Kiss,” a queer adult novel
• “Doughnuts and Doom,” about witches and queer women

In total, about 25 of the books in the recommended reading list include sexual themes.

Novels listed with other extreme ideologies include: “RADICAL: My Year with a Socialist Senator” and “The Black Panther Party.”

Meanwhile, New Braunfels Democrat State Rep. Erin Zwiener has criticized school districts like Katy Independent School District on Twitter for pausing book purchases to review them for sexual material.

Zwiener also said that House Bill 900—legislation that bans explicit material from public school libraries—is about “silencing writers that make them uncomfortable,” claiming “it’s about silencing the voices of LGBTQ people and people of color.”

LGBT activists continue protesting against the bill, and the American Library Association has pledged to distribute $1 million to deflect censorship challenges and provide a network of lawyers to work with libraries in response to legislation regulating library materials.

Valerie Muñoz

Valerie Muñoz is a native South Texan and student at Texas A&M University, where she studies journalism. She is passionate about delivering clear and comprehensive news to Texans.