A bill to make school and public library staff criminally liable for distributing “sexual or gender oriented material” to minors without parental consent died in the Alabama Senate this week.

After hours of filibustering from Sen. Rodger Smitherman (D-Jefferson County), the Senate did not place HB385 on the agenda for Thursday – the final legislative day. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Arnold Mooney (R-Shelby County), would have placed libraries in the same category as “adult-only” stores, movies, and entertainment.

Smitherman didn’t understand why there was legislation portraying librarians as “villains.”

“I’m here to protect the librarians from going to jail,” he said. “That’s right. I’m here protecting the best I can. I’m going to make sure these librarians are not going to jail for some book.”

The bill would have allowed anyone to challenge a book or report behavior they consider obscene or harmful to minors. It also would have forced school and public librarians to remove the book or end the behavior within seven days of written notice or face a misdemeanor.

Mooney introduced the bill after months of book challenges and bans primarily targeting the LGBTQ community.

The bill deemed obscene conduct as “persons who are dressed in sexually revealing, exaggerated, or provocative clothing or costumes, or are stripping, or engaged in lewd or lascivious dancing, presentations, or activities in K-12 public schools or public libraries where minors are expected and are known to be present without parental consent.”

This section of the bill was particularly troubling for Peter Bromberg, associate director at EveryLibrary. The nonprofit tracks library-related legislation and advocates for local library funding.

“Not only is it overbroad, but it opens itself up to applying it very selectively,” Bromberg said. “Lawmakers have been pretty clear that they are targeting LGBTQ materials, voices. So that’s concerning.”

Academic librarian Jessica Hayes said the language in the bill would have banned drag events and silence the voices of trans people. She described having a “remarkable” feeling when the bill was not introduced in the Senate.

“I am still in a state of shock, disbelief,” Hayes said. “I think I am realizing that when people come together with their voices things can change.”

Bromberg isn’t sure if this bill will pop up again next year, but because groups that challenge books are organized and funded, there’s a possibility for future legislation.

“As long as there’s some perceived political payoff to this type of attacks on LGBTQ rights, on trans rights, as long as there’s a perception that this is a winner of a political strategy, we will keep seeing these bills.”

Bromberg said Alabama’s bill was intended to prohibit drag reading hours at libraries and is “egregiously unconstitutional” among other states that have passed legislation criminalizing librarians for obscene content like Arkansas and Indiana. He said this bill brought to mind the anti-loitering laws that targeted Black people during Jim Crow segregation.

Hayes said she isn’t an idealist and expects similar legislation to return in 2025. In the meantime, she hopes legislators and others who are concerned should visit their local library and speak with librarians and library staff.

Hayes is on the executive council of the Alabama Library Association, and part of the anti-censorship group Read Freely Alabama. She hopes to continue fighting for intellectual freedom and stop censorship attacks.

“I know that we’re not going anywhere.”