A local group has filed paperwork to dissolve the Meridian Library District because they say the library allows children to access obscene materials. The library district, which serves 117,000 residents at four area libraries, says that is not true.
The Concerned Citizens of Meridian group was formed in the fall of 2021 and its mission statement says it wants the city to be a community of impeccable morals and strong family values.
Michael Hon, a member of the group and a real estate developer based out of Eagle, says libraries used to be safe places. As a kid, he remembers getting dropped off at the library by his mom and reading Dr. Seuss while she went shopping. He says things are different now.
“From our perspective, if a parent has to follow a kid through the library, it's not a safe place anymore,” Hon said.
Ninety-three Meridian residents signed a petition in February asking the Ada County Commissioners to completely dissolve the library district. In their petition, they accused the district of letting children access “obscene and sexually explicit materials.”
They also called out the library for providing meeting rooms to the Queer Straight Alliance student club, which the group claims sexually indoctrinates minors.
“We're trying to save the children of Meridian by limiting their access to this material directly,” Hon said. “And if parents want to educate them on whatever lifestyles are out there, that's fine.”
The Concerned Citizens group did not release a full list of the materials they object to but in a press release mentioned the illustrated memoir “Gender Queer” which explores themes of gender and sexual identity, and the movie "Fifty Shades of Grey," based on the bestselling erotic novel.
Board Chair of the Meridian Library District Megan Larsen said the board has met with the petitioners multiple times over the past year and shared resources to access and keep track of materials for children that fit their values.
“If you don't want your children to read certain books, talk with your children, monitor what they're checking out, be engaged with what your kids are reading and make those choices,” she said.
Larsen added the library checks out some 1.3 million items per year and serves roughly 43,000 cardholders.
“We do not feel that there is anything in the library that meets the legal definition of obscenity,” she said. “That does not mean that every single item in the library is appropriate for every single reader.”
Defining what constitutes obscenity is at the heart of the two parties’ disagreement. Hon says Idaho state law backs the petitioners’ demand.
“Obscene and sexually explicit material is obscene and sexually explicit material, whether it looks lifelike or is drawn like a cartoon, and that’s that.”
But while obscenity is not protected speech under the First Amendment, explicit or graphic sexual content is not in and of itself obscene, unless it also fails a three-prong test.
Named after a 1973 Supreme Court decision, the Miller Test asks:
- Whether an average person would find the material in question salacious according to community standards
- If the work is patently offensive as defined by state law
- If taken as a whole, it lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value.
In other words, descriptions of sex, nudity or violence, in a movie or a book do not automatically make them obscene. Idaho code uses similar language to define obscenity. Peter Bromberg is the Associate Director for the national non-profit EveryLibrary.
“They're just calling it obscene because they don't like it. Right? They're calling it pornographic because they don't like it,” Bromberg said, adding that public entities cannot restrict access to published materials based on content or viewpoints alone without interfering with people’s first amendment rights.
“What we don't have a right to do as Americans is limit what other people have access to and to limit other parents freedom to parent their kids,” he said.
Bromberg said library items reflect people’s many lived experiences and that can include depictions of sexuality. “A public library is there, by definition, for everyone and has a mission that is very closely tied to our democracy,” he said.
But Hon said the group doesn’t want to ban books.
“We just want them to label it so parents know that, hey, this has got some explicitly sexual material in it, right?” he said. “Just like if you walked into a video store or a game shop.”
Bromberg said rating systems for movies or video games are voluntary and created by the private sector, not the government, in response to consumer demand. He added materials are already carefully vetted by the time they make it onto shelves, and categorized for targeted audiences.
The petitioners are not the only ones bringing attention to Idaho’s libraries and their role in the community. On Thursday, a bill that would ban libraries from lending materials deemed “harmful” to minors without parental permission passed the committee. It is now headed to the house for a full hearing. If passed, families could sue trustees in civil court for $2500.
“Dissolving the district is the mechanism that they want to use to undermine the vote of the people, to take away the choices that voters have already made for their elected officials and instead put in trustees that are more to their own personal liking,” said Larsen.
The next Library trustee election is May 16. Two seats out of five will be on the ballot, one for a full term of six years and another to backfill a position for its remaining four years.
The Ada County Board of Commissioners will hear public comments Monday evening, after which the board could decide to ask the clerk to hold an election. If voters side with the Concerned Citizens group, the library district would be dissolved, its Trustee board disbanded and its materials disposed of. Any remaining money would go to the county’s general expense fund.
In a statement, the Concerned Citizens group said if the board does not want to drag the community through this conflict, they should submit their resignations so they can be replaced by a board that “doesn’t cry “censorship” where there is none and doesn’t argue for “First Amendment rights that don’t actually apply to children.”
It remains unclear how the group envisions reviewing the library’s 150,000 plus items, or whose standards would be used to determine which materials minors cannot access.
“Obviously there'll be some bumps in the road,” Hon said. “But, you know, again, we're not looking to get rid of the library. We love it. They are the problem.”
The Concerned Citizens of Meridian and the Library District will speak in front of the Ada County Board of Commissioners at 6 p.m. on Monday.
Find reporter Julie Luchetta on Twitter @JulieLuchetta.
