19-05-2025
Ohio library systems, advocates push back on House provision to hide certain materials
A book display in a California library. ()
As Ohioans pleaded for more support for the state's public libraries, there was also outcry against a provision that library staff and supporters say would add more work and unnecessary regulations to the local institutions.
The Ohio House added a provision to their budget draft that was not in the governor's executive proposal, one that would require public libraries to place 'material related to sexual orientation or gender identity or expression in a portion of the library that is not primarily open to the view of minors.'
As budget plans move through the Ohio Senate, state residents asked the chamber to push back on the House's proposal and eliminate the provision in their own draft.
Librarians who spoke at the Senate Education Committee last week noted the vague language of the provision, and tried to give legislators an idea of the heavy lift this might mean for libraries. Library visitors and advocates criticized the provision as targeted toward LGBTQ+ content, such as transgender issues.
'Books are an outlet, an escape,' said Bree Taylor, founder and executive director of the non-profit transgender advocacy groups Trans Unity Coalition. 'A children's book isn't going to turn a kid gay or trans, but it will bring comfort to a kid who already is.'
Toledo resident Erin Prestwich said the idea of separating out the content speaks not only to keeping children from accessing content some may find objectionable because of its connection to LGBTQ+ issues, but to simply keeping children from seeing perspectives that match their own.
'I 'acted like a boy' as a child, like climbing trees, playing with trucks in the dirt,' Prestwich wrote to the committee. 'I am not transgender, and never thought that I was, but I did enjoy reading books as a child (with characters) who did things that I wanted to do. That is normal. It is important for children to read about characters that are like them.'
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The libraries themselves spoke to the already existing ways in which parents can control a child's access to certain materials. Library systems have collections and purchasing policies that come with opportunities for public feedback and input, and many libraries have tiered library cards based on the amount of access a parent wants a child to have.
'While libraries do provide access to information, we do not act 'in loco parentis,'' said Jay Smith, director of government and legal services for the Ohio Library Council. 'We do not act in the place of the parent or guardian. Parents and guardians play a vital role in determining what their children are reading and have a right to determine what is best for their child.'
Amelia Green, who identified herself as a married transgender woman who plans to raise children in Ohio, agreed that parents should be the deciding factor in what children have access to, not state leaders.
'This provision is not just misguided – it is a violation of parental rights,' Green told the committee. 'As a future parent, it should be my right – not the government's – to decide how and when I introduce my children to stories about people like their parents, their friends and potentially themselves.'
Green also said the language contained in the state budget proposal would mean taking her children past 'actual adult material' just to find 'a simple picture book about a kid with two moms, or a young adult novel with a trans protagonist.'
'That's absurd,' she said. 'Queer stories are not adult content – they are human content.'
As libraries face an uncertain financial future while they wait for the state to decide whether or not to fund the Public Library Fund, the provision to separate out certain content could come with its own financial load.
The House budget draft noted 'potential costs' for identifying and relocating the 'restricted materials.'
With no additional funds added alongside the proposed changes, library staff said moving books based on their content would be extremely costly in some cases and in other cases nearly impossible, based on the limited space in branch libraries.
Paula Brehm-Heeger, director of the Cincinnati & Hamilton County Public Library, said she recently visited one of the smaller libraries in her system, and could see the entire library as soon as she entered it. Even if separating the materials is possible, the cost at the southwestern Ohio library system would 'likely be upwards of $1 million per year, adjusting for inflation and current library procedures,' according to Brehm-Heeger.
Having the provision in place with the vague language as it stands would lead to 'inconsistent and arbitrary enforcement across Ohio,' Lauren Hagan, CEO of the Columbus Metropolitan Library, told the committee. Her team could only make an 'educated guess' at the financial impact such a policy would have.
'We anticipate the initial cost for compliance at $3.14 million, with continuing costs of approximately $1.7 million every year,' Hagan said.
The Senate is still working on their budget draft, expected to be released in the coming weeks, with a deadline for a final draft combining the House and Senate priorities due by the end of June.
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