A federal judge blocked a large portion of a law in Iowa on Friday that bans certain books from school libraries and stops teachers from talking about LGBT issues with elementary school students.
The new injunction stops the law, which was passed by the Republican-led state legislature and signed by Gov. Kim Reynolds (R-IA) earlier this year, from going into effect on Jan. 1, 2024. However, many books have already been pulled from school libraries across the state.
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Judge Stephen Locher claimed both portions he had blocked of the law were too broad and that the book ban resulted in the removal of classic novels, award-winning novels, history books, and “even books designed to help students avoid being victimized by sexual assault” from libraries and classrooms, according to the Associated Press. The law had intended to ban books that depicted sexual acts.
Lawyers who were against the book ban have claimed that educators should look at the content of the book as a whole rather than whether it included sexual content.
Locher also blocked the portion of the ban that stopped teachers from raising gender identity and sexual orientation issues with students through the sixth grade. But he did allow a portion of the law to remain that required schools to inform parents and legal guardians if a student wanted to change their names or pronouns.
“Instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation has no place in kindergarten through sixth grade classrooms,” Reynolds said in response to the ruling. “And there should be no question that books containing sexually explicit content, as clearly defined in Iowa law, do not belong in a school library for children. The fact that we’re even arguing these issues is ridiculous.”
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The portion of Iowa’s law limiting LGBT discussion in a school classroom followed a similar law in Florida, which was signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) in 2022. The Parental Rights in Education Act in Florida originally banned classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity through third grade but has since expanded to include other grades as well.
Other conservative states have also attempted to implement similar bans but have been met with court challenges.
