Missouri House Republicans Vote to Defund Public Libraries After School Libraries Sue Over ‘Sexually Explicit’ Book Ban

Republican lawmakers in Missouri voted to defund public libraries this week, cutting all $4.5 million in state funding that libraries were slated to receive in the next fiscal year.

The Missouri state House of Representatives were following through on threats they made after state and school libraries sued to overturn a new Missouri law that banned “sexually explicit materials” in school libraries.

“Explicit sexual material” is defined in Missouri Revised Statute § 573.550 as “any pictorial, three-dimensional, or visual depiction, including any photography, film, video, picture, or computer-generated image, showing human masturbation, deviate sexual intercourse as defined in section 566.010, sexual intercourse, direct physical stimulation of genitals, sadomasochistic abuse, or emphasizing the depiction of postpubertal human genitals.” ---More...