He US Department of Education is creating a new position to address efforts by local and state officials to restrict access to books with certain lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) content in schools, the White House said on Thursday
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 08th June, 2023) The US Department of Education is creating a new position to address efforts by local and state officials to restrict access to books with certain lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) content in schools, the White House said on Thursday.
"The Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights is announcing that to support its ongoing work to defend the rights of LGBTQI+ students and other underserved communities, it will appoint a new coordinator to address the growing threat that book bans pose for the civil rights of students," the White House said in a fact sheet on new actions to aid the LGBT community, announced during so-called Pride Month.
The Education Department coordinator will help to provide training to schools nationwide on how book bans that "target specific communities and create a hostile school environment" may violate Federal civil rights laws, the statement said.
The United States has seen an increase in school book restrictions that disproportionately target LGBT communities and communities of color, the statement said.
Last month, a group of organizations led by free expression advocacy group PEN America launched a lawsuit in the state of Florida to prevent a local school district from restricting books based on state laws.
The school district targeted in the lawsuit restricted access to certain books that could be challenged under Florida laws banning the distribution of materials "harmful to minors" and guaranteeing parental rights in education.
The lawsuit alleges violations of the plaintiffs' First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and information, as well as violations of their Fourteenth Amendment right to equal protection under the law.
The lawsuit comes amid a number of efforts around the US to restrict access to books with explicit sexual content and controversial gender ideology in school libraries and curriculums.
Earlier this month, the Southern Poverty Law Center civil rights organization included a number of groups involved in the effort, the largest being Moms for Liberty, on its list of extremist anti-government groups.
