As parents across the country grapple with claims that the First Amendment protects pornographic materials in public and school libraries, citizens in Llano County are on the frontlines of the fight.
Llano County officials were sued for removing explicit books from the children’s section of the library last year.
U.S. District Court Judge Robert Pitman ruled in March that the Llano County Library System must return all of the removed books and barred the county from taking any more books off the shelves until the lawsuit ends.
The county appealed Pitman’s decision to the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. The Fifth Circuit heard oral arguments in June, and both parties are awaiting the court’s decision.
As Llano County awaits the decision of the court, local conservative activists are holding an event to raise funds for the costly lawsuit and inform citizens of the “pornography book battle happening throughout Texas and the nation.”
Political strategist Luke Macias will moderate, while speakers for the event include:
- Dr. Kevin Roberts, President of the Heritage Foundation
- Gene Hamilton, Vice President of America First Legal
- Matt Rinaldi, Chairman of the Republican Party of Texas
- Pastor John Amanchukwu, who travels the country speaking against porn in children’s spaces
- Rick Green, Founder of Patriot Academy
- Mary Elizabeth Castle, Director of Government Relations for Texas Values
- Brady Gray, President of Texas Family Project
- Christin Bentley, State Republican Executive Committeewoman and founder of the Filthy Books Campaign
The event flier states, “The FCC monitors network television for profane and indecent speech between the hours of 6 am and 10 pm. Why do they do this? Because a child might be present. Well, we are certain there ARE children present in the children’s section of public libraries and in every school library so why are we not monitoring for profane and indecent content?”
Event organizer Bonnie Wallace told Texas Scorecard, “What we need is more people to stand up—most people, especially conservative Christian people, are hesitant to question other people’s motives, maybe to judge other people, maybe to offend other people—they don’t want to do that. But I think that the protection of children is our highest priority.”
“The time for sitting on the fence has passed. We must take a stand, either FOR children or AGAINST children. So my question to everyone now is ‘Are you standing FOR children?’”
“If we lose the children, then we lose everything. The family crumbles, the states, the nation,” said Wallace. “The left has a targeted agenda to steal our children’s minds. And I don’t think anybody can debate that comment. It’s the truth.”
Wallace says she hopes the event encourages everyone in the fight, “Because when you look around the room, and there’s two or 300 people who agree and are willing to link arms in the battle—it’s encouraging.”
The Protect Our Children event will be held on Wednesday, November 29 from 2-6 p.m. at the Sandstone Mountain Ranch Center. Tickets can be purchased here.
