**Previously Recorded by Phyllis Schlafly**
Mrs. Laura Kostial and her 11-year-old daughter went to their local public library, St. Louis County’s Daniel Boone Branch, and discovered a display of books promoting homosexual and heterosexual teen sex in a separate teen department for kids aged 11 to 16. The display welcomed teens to “Check out These Titles!”: Making Sexual Decisions: The Ultimate Teen Guide, Homosexuality: What Does it Mean?, Prostitution and Sex Trafficking, Growing up Gay in America. Some of these books graphically describe sexual acts and how to perform them, step-by-step.
The books also offer generous helpings of very bad advice. Here is a quote from Growing up Gay in America: “Do you have to date guys your age? Of course not! … It’s common and perfectly normal for teen guys to be attracted to people who are older or even a few years younger.” Here is a quote from the book Making Sexual Decisions: It “may help” teens to feel less guilty about their sexual decisions if they lmow “they may not always agree with their family or church and that does not make them a bad person.”
Mrs. Kostial and another homeschooling mom led a community effort to question the presence of these books in a section of the library dedicated to children as young as eleven. After initial setbacks, they were able to engage in a productive conversation with library personnel. The library is now creating a committee to review the age-appropriateness of the books in question. The library has now promised to reclassify explicit books as “Adult” and remove them from the library’s teen section.
Laura Kostial says, “The number of titles containing obscene material in our libraries and bookstores is proliferating exponentially. I strongly encourage parents to become actively involved in their children’s reading selections.”
This post originally appeared at https://phyllisschlafly.com/family/what-is-your-child-is-reading-in-the-library/
Ryan Hite