Lawsuit challenges Huntington Beach restrictions for Library

The Orange County Superior Court scheduled a hearing for Thursday for the lawsuit against challenging the unlawful censorship efforts by the City of Huntington Beach to minors w.

The hearing will consider whether two teenagers involved in the lawsuit can continue to be identified by their initials instead of their names, according to a spokeswoman for the American Civil Liberties Union.

The lawsuit was filed by Alianza TranslatinX, a nonprofit group for transgender, gender non-conforming and intersex individuals focusing on the Latinx community and a 15-year-old boy and 16-year-old girl who attend school in Huntington Beach, as well as the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Southern California, First Amendment Coalition.

The lawsuit challenges a city ordinance that restricts access to some materials at the city's library system without a parent's permission. The suit alleges the city has established a "community review board with unappealable power to impose an arbitrary, subjective, and never-ending censorial process over the library's extensive and diverse collection."

The lawsuit claims the city's policies "target any materials deemed to have `sexual content,' an overbroad term paving the way for sweeping censorship efforts that could cover beloved literary classics such as `1984,' `Romeo and Juliet' and `The Great Gatsby'; science and health books that educate minors about the changes they experience during puberty; youth Bibles and other religious texts; and stories about the lived experiences of the LGBTQ+ community, such as the children's picture book `Grandad's Pride."'

The lawsuit also claims the restrictions give the review board "the unfettered power to restrict books for nearly any conceivable reason–or no reason at all."

The lawsuit argues the restrictions are unconstitutional and conflict with the California Freedom to Read Act.

The city's ordinance allows books meant for children to be shelved in an adult section and require a guardian's permission. The lawsuit argues that it violates rights to privacy for child patrons.

The lawsuit seeks to stop the library system from restricting access to materials for minors 13 or older, without parental or guardian permission.

 According to the lawsuit, the15-year-old boy "has relied upon the library to access fiction books, including graphic novels (which frequently involve kissing), and non-fiction library books that helped him understand bodily changes as he experienced puberty". The teen said he is concerned because one of his classes will focus on sexual violence during slavery in the United States and that some of the research books he will need will be censored or unavailable.

The 16-year-old girl who sued is a Huntington Beach High School junior who listed some of her favorite books as "Dune" and the "Kite Runner."

"She does not want to see such censorship happen in Huntington Beach," according to the lawsuit, which names some well-known novels such as "The Catcher in the Rye," which has been censored elsewhere.

"Her privacy rights are infringed by the library measures because they deprive her of access to materials that she would like to skim, read or check out that would be available to her but for the library measures," according to the lawsuit. "Her privacy rights are also infringed because the library measures will require her to share access to her patron record with her parents to obtain or even browse materials from the new 'adult-only' section of the library."

Another plaintiff is Erin Spivey, a Huntington Beach resident who "has worked as the adult services coordinator at the Newport Beach Public Library, as the branch manager for the Huntington Beach Public Library, as the district librarian for the Fountain Valley School District" and elsewhere in public libraries in Southern California.

Spivey fears the restrictions "will interfere with minors' rights to access information that will help them grow into well-rounded adults capable of fully participating in our diverse society."

A Huntington Beach spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Additional reporting by City News Service.