The article itself is somewhat thin on the details. Would anyone who knows more about the situation be able to give some nuance? I have a feeling this is brinkmanship at play.
In recent years, public libraries across the US and UK have hosted a number of Drag Queen Story Hours. These are events where men dressed as sexual parodies of women read books to young children. Sometimes the men dance provocatively for the kids, or wear revealing outfits, or have kids climb all over them:
https://alphanews.org/drag-queen-flashes-crotch-to-children-...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VA72t7o24I
https://www.lifesitenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Drag...
Several performers and sponsors of these events have turned out to be sex offenders:
https://www.khou.com/article/news/local/houston-public-libra...
https://reduxx.info/drag-queen-charged-with-25-counts-of-fel...
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/second-drag-queen-story-ho...
Across the pond, the founder of Drag Queen Story Hour UK has tweeted "love has no age" and openly associates with pedophiles:
https://thepostmillennial.com/founder-of-uk-drag-queen-story...
At the same time, "child-friendly" and "all-ages" drag shows have popped up at gay bars and clubs across the US. These are often much more sexually provocative than shows hosted in libraries:
https://reduxx.info/children-tipped-drag-queens-during-perfo...
https://twitter.com/MrAndyNgo/status/1543662744616013825
https://twitter.com/TaylerUSA/status/1538733481492094977
Far-left militia armed with AR-15s have shown up at some all-ages shows to "protect" them from protestors. The armed militants in these photos are self-identified anti-fascists:
https://www.axios.com/local/dallas/2022/08/30/drag-brunch-ro...
These events have become the focus intense polarization. Republicans say they're sexual performances designed to desensitize kids to advances from adults. Democrats say they're expressions of LGBT pride.
There is a growing conservative backlash to "all-ages" or "family-friendly" drag events generally and Drag Queen Story Hour in particular. Many parents are uncomfortable with the sexual displays aimed at children. Some women see drag as sexual blackface. This backlash is framed by Democrats as opposition to drag shows in general, which generally speaking is untrue. It is the targeting of young children that aggravates conservatives.
Librarians host these events in taxpayer-funded venues. The elected government of the state of Missouri seeks to limit this practice.
Teachers wanted to have books like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Cd5VUhMrF4 available in classrooms (this is on the MO 'banned books' list). Parents (obviously) objected to this, but the teachers/librarians dug their heels in.
Due to a loss of trust, parents started demanding oversight into everything that the schools/libraries were making available, and that's how you end up with absolutely crazy things like banning photos of the statue of David.
I couldn't find that mentioned anywhere in the linked article...?
this is an extremely bad faith interpretation of librarians upholding the first amendment.
Assuming that you consider every single one of the titles on this list to be “porn”, but while many of them might be dubiously appropriate for (especially young) children, I don’t think very many of them meet any reasonable definition of “porn”.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1AVW8q-B4uSZIJ3mLqc5t...
I see you skipped the “nuance” part of the request.