Thread by @jonfreadom

A new bill in Texas, SB 1443, looks to take the censorship crusade in schools to another level.
It would ban LGBTQ topics and sex from books in schools, prohibit referrals to websites, ban drag or other forms of performance in school plays, & penalize publishers 🧵/1

The first part of the bill details topics to be barred from all books in schools, incl:
- "any any type of romantic or sexual attraction
between individuals of the same sex"
- "transgenderism"
- "sexual intercourse"
/2
capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/88R/bi…

Don't miss the part where it would also BAN referring to websites that contain these topics. Breathtaking when you think about it: could students be referred to a news site? wikipedia? Pretty sure there's a lot of the web that acknowledges LGBTQ people exist and sex is a thing /3

Next, the bill apes anti-drag legislation around the country, applying it to school plays. Once again a set of vaguely defined prohibitions. Bans a person wearing "clothing, makeup, or physical markers associated with a sexually oriented performance". What does that mean? /4

And then it brings in a provision from other bills about maintaining a list of banned book vendors. Here, the offending action would seemingly be just having sold a book with any of the prohibited topics to a school. Clearly, it's meant as a threat to publishers /5

Will the bill go anywhere? Hard to say. But it illustrates clearly the cutting & pasting of legislative provisions taking place, and the fluid nature of these censorship proposals, as elected officials continue to seek to prohibit and ban anything they disagree with. #EdScare