Huntington Beach City Council Looks To Restrict Minors' Access To Books With Sexual Content

The Huntington Beach City Council is set to vote on a resolution stating that no city library will allow minors access to books with any sexual content. The proposal would also establish a committee to review children's library books for sexual content, and give it the power to accept or reject books proposed for library acquisition.

The proposal was spearheaded by Councilmember Gracey Van Der Mark, who has made it her political mission to root out content she feels is inappropriate for minors and give parents more control over their kids' choices of what to read.

"This is actually how I got involved in politics," Van Der Mark told LAist. The first-time council member said years ago she had found links to "pornography" in materials given to students at her local middle school, and that some books recommended by the state education department were "sexually-explicit" and "very inappropriate for children."

"I started fighting this seven years ago," she said. "But once again, the state of California unfortunately doesn't listen to parents a whole lot and now that I'm in a position where I can do something to protect children, I figure this is the time to step up."

Carol Daus, a board member for the nonprofit booster group Friends of the Huntington Beach Public Library, said she was "outraged" by the proposal and that it amounted to banning books.

"This resolution, if implemented as stated, would decimate our library system," Daus said.

The background

Van Der Mark initially brought forth a proposal in June that would've had the city attorney review children's library books for obscene or pornographic content and decide whether they should be made unavailable to minors.

Ultimately, Van Der Mark and the council's other three conservative members voted to study the idea and come back with a new proposal, which is now on this week's agenda. That June vote came after nearly six hours of public testimony, most of it against the censorship measure.

The strongly conservative council majority — all newly elected in 2022 — has consistently voted together to push through controversial agenda items opposed by the three minority, liberal councilmembers. These include suing the state of California over its requirement that the city zone for significantly more housing, and, earlier this month, voting to put an initiative on next year's primary ballot that would require city voters to show ID when casting ballots.

Elsewhere in Orange County — and across the nation — school libraries have become a target for conservative "parental rights" activists, including those looking to curb LGBTQ+ content in public schools.

Earlier this year, the Orange Unified School District briefly suspended student access to an online library because a few parents complained about two books they said contained inappropriate content. Both books had LGBTQ+ protagonists.

The state of California has fought back, recently passing a law that imposes fines on schools that ban books based solely on the inclusion of race, gender, or other identity groups.

Details of the Huntington Beach proposal

The resolution up for a vote in Huntington Beach would declare that "No City Library or other City facility shall allow children ready access to books and other materials that contain any content of sexual nature." It would also require that all books with any sexual content be placed only on shelves designated for 18 and older.

And it would require parental or guardian consent before children under 18 can access or check out any library material "that contains any sexual writing, sexual references, sexual images, and/or other sexual content."

[Read the full resolution here.]

If passed, a "community parent/guardian review board" would be composed of up to three members appointed by each councilmember, for potentially 21 members total. The board would review childrens' books "that may contain sexual content" proposed for acquisition by the city library and existing library books flagged by review board members.

The Huntington Beach library system acquired about 9,000 books last year, according to library personnel.

The city is also considering adding a "parental control" library card that would allow parents to opt out of letting their teens check out books from anywhere in the library, and flag librarians if they try to check out adult books at a library kiosk.

'We're not banning anything'

Van Der Mark told LAist her proposal was "a labor of love, you can say, to protect our children."

She said she anticipated that the parent/guardian committee would start by reviewing some books already in the library and evaluating whether they "meet our community standards."

At the June city council meeting where Van Der Mark first proposed restricting books for minors she showed a slide presentation that highlighted what she said was inappropriate children's content from books including Gender Queer, the kids' picture book Grandad's Pride, and the adolescent sex education book It's Perfectly Normal.

Van Der Mark had previously lodged a complaint with the library about Gender Queer, and librarians decided to move the book from the young adult section to the adult section.

From Grandad's Pride, Van Der Mark showed an illustration of two men about to kiss at a Pride celebration. From It's Perfectly Normal, the council member showed an illustration of a couple in bed, naked, and one of a girl using a mirror to look at her vagina.

Asked whether books about sexual health and sexual development could be banned under her proposal, Van Der Mark said no. But she said she objected, for example, to puberty books that include information about orgasms. "Why would you want to teach [minors] what an orgasm feels like? You could get that on Amazon or in a sex shop. Why should it be in our libraries?" she said.

Van Der Mark said her proposal is not intended to ban books, but rather to make sure that books in the city's five libraries reflect community values.

"We are, you know, a beachy, sleepy, conservative community," she said. "There are books that would be perfectly fine in Hollywood or Los Angeles where the community vibe is different. So we should have a right as Huntington Beach residents to have a library that is reflective of our community."

Library supporters are alarmed

Like many communities in traditionally conservative Orange County, Huntington Beach's demographics and politics are increasingly diverse. Together, registered Democrats and No Party Preference voters now outnumber Republicans, who make up 40% of the electorate, according to data from the Orange County Registrar of Voters.

Daus from Friends of the Huntington Beach Library said librarians are trained to curate books for diverse interests, and that's not a job that should be given over to untrained members of the public. Daus said Van Der Mark's proposal threatens the "whole idea of intellectual freedom."

"I wouldn't want to be somebody determining what goes into a library," Daus said, "because I know the books I would select for myself aren't the books that Gracey [Van Der Mark] would probably select."

She said Van Der Mark had blown something that isn’t a problem out of proportion — the library already has a process by which patrons can file complaints about books or request that they be reclassified. According to library personnel, just five complaints have been filed in the past five years, one of them by Van Der Mark.

The city's own presentation for the library discussion notes that publishers put proposed books through a vigorous review process, including the so-called "Miller test" for obscenity. But Van Der Mark said that review process has "failed."

"We now have sexually explicit books that children have access to through that vetting process," she said, referencing some of the books she brought up in her June city council presentation. "So now what we're doing is just giving our local community more control."

What's next?

The Huntington Beach City Council has scheduled a study session on the proposal for Tuesday at 4 p.m. The regular city council meeting, which includes a vote on the proposal, starts at 6 p.m.

You can find the study session materials and proposed resolution here. Submit comments to the city council about the proposal here. And watch the city council meeting here or here.