*The Citizens Defending Freedom ALA Guidance resource can be viewed here*
HOUSTON, Texas. — The Texas State Library & Archives Commission (TSLAC) has announced it will sever ties with the American Library Association (ALA).
The ALA, one of the oldest and largest non-profit library associations in the world, has come under fire recently for its election of a self-proclaimed “Marxist lesbian” president, as well as its efforts to silence conservative voices at the nationwide “See You at the Library” events.
Emily Drabinski, who took to Twitter to announce her appointment as ALA president in 2022, has used her position to censor conservative viewpoints and promote radical ideological agendas.
“I just cannot believe that a Marxist lesbian who believes that collective power is possible to build and can be wielded for a better world is the president-elect of @ALALibrary,” Drabinski wrote. She has since deleted the tweet.
Additionally she was interviewed by Red Fault, the Austin Democratic Socialists of America’s news publication, for an article titled Creating a Socialist Vision for Public Libraries: A Conversation with Emily Drabinski. In this interview Drabinski spoke on “the importance of libraries as part of what you and I might call a socialist vision.”
Texas Representative Brian Harrison called for TSLAC to sever ties with the ALA stating “Texas should be leading the fight against dangerous Marxist ideology - not subsidizing it with my constituents’ hard earned tax dollars.”
For the past several months Texas members of Citizens Defending Freedom have been working closely with some of the members of theTexas State Board of Education and Texas legislators to encourage the state to end its relationship with the woke organization. The Texas State Board of Education voted to cut ties with the ALA in April 2023. Additionally, Citizens Defending Freedom has provided talking points for those seeking to terminate their membership with the ALA and their state counter parts in a resource that can be found here.
Texas is not the first state to take issue with the radical ideologies that the ALA is promoting.
In June, members of the Montana State Library Commission voted in a 6-1 vote to “immediately withdraw” from the ALA after state representatives raised the alarm, making them the first state to officially withdraw from the organization.
Brave Books recently hosted a nationwide "See You at the Library" book reading event that saw thousands of families show up at local libraries across 46 states to participate in story hours that focus on Christian and American values. In a video presented to librarians on June 8, the ALA schemed with its local library officials to skirt the events. The presentation reportedly included a slide that specifically described “how to prevent Brave Books story hours from happening at libraries across the country.”
One story hour hosted in Georgia, saw librarians schedule a disruptive Nerf gun battle during the story hour's scheduled time. This has led to citizens in the state calling on withdrawal from the ALA.
In Idaho, 13 legislators have called on the Idaho Commission for Libraries to also withdraw from the ALA citing their concerns over their “involvement in exposing children to explicit materials and injecting hard-left politics and sexuality into publicly funded libraries."
“We applaud our leaders in Texas and other states who are choosing to break away from the American Library Association,” stated Stephanie Holderfield, Executive Director for Harris County Citizens Defending Freedom, “The ALA is using our own libraries to indoctrinate our children and it is time for public libraries, school districts, and states to complete disentangle themselves from this dangerously woke organization.”
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