'PORN' signs divide an Orange County city already on edge

Campaign signs including the word "PORN" in big block letters were posted across Huntington Beach this week — and many have since been torn down — as the library culture wars heat up in Surf City.

What were the signs about?

The campaign signs were posted in the runup to a special election set for June 10 where the city’s voters will weigh in on two ballot initiatives, Measures A and B, that could determine who controls the city’s public libraries. The signs read “Protect our kids from porn” and urge a no vote on both measures.

What happened next?

The backlash was immediate. Residents, especially parents, criticized the prominent use of the word “porn” on signs placed near schools. One person fumed on a community Facebook group that the signs “got a whole city full of kids googling ‘What is Porn’ on their smart phones.”

What’s the backstory?

The beach city’s libraries have been a point of controversy since staunch conservatives took over city government and voted in late 2023 to establish a board of residents to review children’s books for the city’s public libraries and weed out ones they determine to have sexually inappropriate content — based on their own criteria.

Opponents say the job of choosing and classifying books for the library should be left to professional librarians — and they mounted a petition drive to get the board repealed, which resulted in Measure A.

Public library advocates mounted a second petition drive after the City Council flirted last year with outsourcing library operations to a private company. Measure B would prohibit the city from privatizing the city’s libraries.

Who put up the 'PORN' signs?

They’re from the "No on Measures A and B" campaign, paid for by a campaign committee opened by City Councilmember Chad Williams. Williams defended the signs in a video message posted on social media: “The people who are concerned about this word ‘porn’ being out in the public, I redirect your attention to the fact that this sexual content was pushed into the public library and that is what has pushed this into the public forum.”

Williams told LAist he won’t back down from the campaign.

“The bottom line is there’s pornography that’s available to minors in our public library,” he said. “I’m not going to dance around the subject, it needs to be addressed.”

He added that his own young kids had asked him about the word “porn” on the signs.

“I just told them it’s a bad thing they’re trying to protect us from," he said. "You don’t have to get into the details."

What has happened to the signs?

Some of the signs, which were put up over the weekend, had been taken down by community members by Tuesday morning. A spokesperson for the Huntington Beach Police Department said they had received four complaints of vandalizing political signs since Monday and that two people had received misdemeanor citations.

One of the sign vandals confessed in a video posted on social media, saying he supported Williams and voted for him in the last election, but that the ad campaign was “counterproductive.” He said he had removed the word “porn” from 12 of the signs.

“Frankly, it feels more like a tactic intended to provoke than a message grounded in conservative values,” the man, who said his name was Jason, said into the camera, quoting from an email he sent to Williams. “These signs, placed in clear view of elementary age children, may be legal, but it’s not appropriate."

How to keep tabs on Huntington Beach

• Huntington Beach holds City Council meetings on the first and third Tuesday of each month at 6 p.m. at City Hall, 2000 Main St.
  
• You can also watch City Council meetings remotely on HBTV via Channel 3 or online, or via the city’s website (you can also find videos of previous council meetings there).
  
• The public comment period happens toward the beginning of meetings.
  
• The city generally posts agendas for City Council meetings on the previous Friday. You can find the agenda on the city’s calendar or sign up there to have agendas sent to your inbox.

LAist take you deeper on the issues

• Why Huntington Beach keeps tackling library initiatives
• Why Huntington Beach residents want a say on libraries
• Huntington Beach pulls the plug on a controversial plan to have a private company manage its libraries