CUYAHOGA FALLS, Ohio — Ohio's public libraries are in an urgent push to put pressure on Governor Mike DeWine to veto a provision in the Ohio budget.
Buried in HB 96 (ORC Section 3375.47), which would require public libraries to segregate materials related to sexual orientation or gender identity or expression, guaranteeing they are not visible to anyone under 18.
The Ohio Library Council argues the language "is dangerously vague, overly broad, and ultimately unworkable. It opens the door to unconstitutional censorship and undermines the core mission of libraries—to provide free and open access to information."
In a release, the organization calls on users to contact the governor.
"Legal experts have already raised constitutional red flags, warning that the HB 96 language could violate both state and federal free speech protections. In Arkansas, a similar law was struck down in federal court for violating the First Amendment," the release said.
Implementing this mandate in Ohio could come with an extraordinary cost, they argue, stating that some library systems estimate it would require up to six years of staff time and millions of dollars to audit and relocate materials. One large system project's compliance would cost over $3.1 million, which is additional funding not provided in the budget.
"We have over 100,000 items in our collection, just in this building alone," said Danielle Welling-Harris of the Cuyahoga Falls Library.
Items that staff would need to review one by one, ensuring the content and title are in compliance. The Cuyahoga Falls Library is setting up a display to show library patrons the books that may have to be moved to an "over 18" area of the library because of the words in their titles.
"For example one of our most popular books down here, all of the kids will recognize this one is 'Dog Man,' but it has the word 'man' in the title so because of the vague language in the bill this may be one that we need to move upstairs to the adult section," said Amy Galluch, the library's children's department manager.
"Little Women" is another, and something as simple as "Meet the Policeman." The library is also displaying what would happen to their hold section, which has been essentially self-serve: pick up your book on hold from the shelf and check yourself out. Under the new law, those books that fall into this category would need to be moved behind the front desk out of the view of minors, requiring staff to retrieve them.
"Not to mention, do we need to renovate our spaces to move teen books, and where are we going to put all of these children's books on the adult level?" Welling-Harris said.
The language was put in the budget by State Representative Gary Click, R-Vickery, after what he said he saw in his library's children's section.
"I found these books promoting the idea that girls could become boys and boys could become girls and putting all of this adult material in the children's section of the library," he said.
When he complained, he was told he could write a letter to the library's board and ask them to reconsider.
"I said to myself I got a better way, and its now in the budget that we're going to take the mature content, that mature material and we're going to put them in the section for the adults," he said.
In Cuyahoga Falls, the adult section would be located on the upper floor, separate from the lower level where the children's books are stored.
Grace Tame of Cuyahoga Falls said she visits the library several times a week with her three young kids in tow. She said the changes will make retrieving some of her books a lot harder.
"It would be very difficult to have to split between levels and try to find the books they want if everything was separated," Tame said.
That's why libraries across the state are educating their users and urging them to pressure DeWine to use his line-item veto to eliminate the provision before signing the budget into law.
It's something that Galluch said she honestly thought the legislature itself would have done when the language was first added in.
"I thought 'Oh, I'm not worried about this, this isn't going to get passed. This is so vague and so unbelievable there's no way,'" Galluch said. "It's shocking to me that its gone this far."
Editor's Note: A previous version of this story contained an incorrect quote. The story has been updated to reflect the corrected information.
