Publishers could face jail time and multi-thousand-dollar fines under a new GOP-led bill that seeks to crack down on the distribution of “sexually explicit materials” to schools and educational agencies.
A bill introduced this month by Rep. Cory Mills (R-Fla.) would amend the federal criminal code to prohibit a publishing house from knowingly furnishing “sexually explicit material” — a term that the legislation does not clearly define — to an elementary school or high school.
Publishing houses that violate the proposed law would be subject to a maximum $500,000 fine, while individuals in the company’s higher management would face similar monetary penalties, as well as up to five years imprisonment.
Mills’s bill, a copy of which was shared with The Hill, would also withhold federal funds from elementary or secondary schools that obtain or distribute published materials that contain a “sexually explicit visual depiction of any kind,” including photographs or drawings until those materials are “relinquished or destroyed” by the school.
State and local educational agencies, including school boards or boards of education, would also be barred from providing schools with books, magazines, newspapers or e-books that contain content deemed sexually explicit.
Restrictions do not apply to materials with “serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value,” according to the bill.
Mills said in a statement earlier this month that his bill is a response to what he described as a coordinated effort by Democrats to “sexualize children in schools across the U.S.”
“The battlefield for the future of our society is being fought within the classrooms of American schools,” Mills said.
“From school board meetings to new representation in local, state, and federal levels, Americans are waking up to the grim reality of woke indoctrination guised as a normal education,” he said. “No more.”
Republicans in state legislatures across the country have also argued that children are in need of protection from a liberal agenda they say is being pushed in schools, especially as it pertains to LGBTQ issues and identities.
More than 100 state bills filed this year would limit how educators and students can talk about sexual orientation or gender identity within school walls, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.
Others seek to remove books from school libraries over alleged inappropriate content.
A whopping 1,600 books were banned in over 5,000 schools over the past year, according to a September PEN America report. More than 40 percent of the banned materials included LGBTQ characters or storylines.
“While we haven’t yet seen this particular legislation, it appears to be the latest salvo in a cross-country effort to strip away access to information in public education at every level through vague, ill-defined terminology,” Nadine Farid Johnson, managing director of PEN America Washington and free expression programs, told The Hill in a statement.
“Publishers, teachers, and librarians use established systems to determine the material appropriate for use in schools, and constitutional parameters already exist for determining what materials are not protected by the First Amendment,” she added.
Bills similar to Mills’s, introduced last year by Sens. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) — seen as a potential GOP contender in the 2024 presidential election — and Mike Johnson (R-La.), were viewed by LGBTQ advocates and allies as attacks against the community.
“In the past year, we’ve seen similar state-level laws result in removals of books about everything from art, to sexual education, to even the Holocaust,” Johnston wrote. “Unfortunately, those who push for censorship tend not to be concerned with how these kinds of laws can be broadly weaponized. They should be.”
A spokesperson for Mills told The Hill in an email on Friday that the new bill is not targeted toward any particular group.
“Preventing pornographic materials from being taught in classrooms is completely distinct from naming freedom of expression or conversations being had across our society about gender and sexuality,” the spokesperson said. “In our view, any interpretation of this bill as an ‘assault’ on LGBT+ individuals is reading through biased lenses and are disconnected from reality.”
The bill currently has seven GOP co-sponsors, including Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.), who is the first openly gay nonincumbent Republican elected to Congress.