Policy

Amid library culture war, Illinois bans book bans

It is the first state to do so, as books are increasingly being targeted for censorship.
FILE – Amanda Darrow, director of youth, family and education programs at the Utah Pride Center, poses with books that have been the subject of complaints from parents in Salt Lake City on Dec. 16, 2021. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)

Illinois will become the first state to require library systems to adopt policies against book bans if they are to receive state funding, a measure Democrats portrayed as a pushback against conservative states where the culture war has come for controversial titles.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) signed the legislation Monday at the Harold Washington Library in Chicago alongside Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias (D), who carried the bill through the legislature.

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