Arizona House committee supports restricting child access to sexual material

PHOENIX (CN) — The Arizona state House of Representatives will soon vote on two bills aimed at protecting minors from sexually explicit materials, though Democrats fear the bills may have overreaching effects.

“It’s an unfortunate trend, the hypersexualization of kids that’s occurring within the broader K-12 education space,” Republican state Senator Jake Hoffman told the House Government Committee on Wednesday. “Which is just pure insanity, if I’m being honest.”

While past bills in the Legislature have tried and failed to ban sexually explicit books from school libraries, two bills sponsored by Hoffman, a Republican from Queen Creek, take a different approach.

“This does not ban books,” he said. “What this does do is protect access from children and unemancipated minors.”

Senate Bill 1435, which has already passed the Senate on a party-line vote, would make it a class five felony for an employee of a public library, school or otherwise to refer sexually explicit material to a minor.

“If you go into a convenience store that sells sexually explicit materials, they are required to be out of reach and out of access to people under the age of 18.”

State Representative Lisa Fink, a Republican from Peoria, called the bill common sense. If she were to give a child a sexually explicit book outside of a school setting, Fink opined that she would be charged with a felony for violating state obscenity laws.

Democrats say the bill can be applied further than its intent.

“Though it’s targeted at sexually explicit materials, SB1435 could affect a variety of materials in libraries,” state Representative Aaron Márquez told the committee as he voted against the bill. “SB1435 contains no exceptions for artistic, literary or scientific merit.”

Hoffman didn’t say whether the bill could be applied to biology textbooks or other scientific texts.

While the bill doesn’t ban libraries from carrying certain books, Marquez, a Democrat from Phoenix, suggested libraries may stop carrying books deemed sexually explicit to protect themselves from criminal charges.

State Senator Stephanie Stahl Hamilton, a Democrat from Tucson, said the type of decision made in the bill should be left up to parents.

“Books are tools for understanding complex issues,” she said. “Limiting young people’s access to books does not protect them from life’s complex and challenging issues. Parents should have the freedom to make decisions for their children and not for other people’s children.”

Marquez asked Hoffman whether the bill could be applied to the Bible, which does contain vivid descriptions of rape and other sexual content.

Hoffman called the example hyperbolic.

“The reality is we are talking about very vivid, explicit sexual materials that if you did this outside the walls of the schoolhouse, it would be a violation of the existing criminal code,” he said.

Hoffman added that he did not cooperate with the Arizona Association of Libraries in drafting the bill. The association didn’t respond to a request for comment.

A common example of sexually explicit books pointed to by Republicans is “Gender Queer: A Memoir,” a young adult graphic novel that explores gender identity. Hoffman held up printed pages from the book containing drawings of various sexual activities.

Critics have condemned similar bills for unfairly targeting the LGBTQ community. As he voted in support, committee chair Walt Blackman vouched for Hoffman’s intent.

“I’ve known Mr. Hoffman for almost 14 years,” the Republican from Snowflake said. “This is a passion of his. And this is a passion to protect children. This isn’t some political dealing he’s come up with.”

The bill passed 4-3 on party lines.

The committee voted the same way to approve Hoffman’s Senate Bill 1567, which prohibits government employees or contractors from exposing children to sexually explicit content. The bill also prohibits the use of a public building to film pornography.

“Now that seems like something that shouldn’t have to be a law,” Hoffman said. “But unfortunately, just two years ago, two teachers in Mohave County were caught filming pornography in their classroom.”

The teachers were let go from Thunderbolt Middle School in Lake Havasu after the school was made aware of their OnlyFans account, which contained content filmed at the school.

“That should absolutely never be allowed. We prohibit using public spaces for for-profit endeavors anyway.”

Lawmakers did not comment on the bill when they voted.

Both bills will now be transmitted to the House floor for a full vote.

Follow @JournalistJoeAZ