LB 441-A Call to Action. Keep Obscene Materials from Minors.

2024 Nebraska LB 441, What it is, Why you should care

by Sue Greenwald, MD

This article written in 2023 in support of LB 441 is being re-published today because the Nebraska legislature finally got around to floor debate on the bill this past week. Here is a summary of how it went. Senators Are Triggered By Porn They Claim Heals Traumatized Kids

The bill failed to advance by 3 votes. There were 4 Republicans who should have voted for it but didn’t. Senator Jacobson was absent, Senators Brandt, Hughes, and Riepe voted “no.” These Senators may have an opportunity to reconsider their vote. Please contact them, especially if one of them represents your district, and POLITELY encourage them to reconsider. Let them know that this issue is important to you.

Senator Tom Brandt: (402) 471-2711
Email: tbrandt@leg.ne.gov

Senator Jana Hughes: (402) 471-2756
Email: jhughes@leg.ne.gov

Senator Mike Jacobson: (402) 471-2729
Email: mjacobson@leg.ne.gov

Senator Merv Riepe: (402) 471-2623
Email: mriepe@leg.ne.gov

How we got here:

Circa 1950, Alfred Kinsey, became a celebrity by writing books regarding the research he did at Indiana University at the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction. One of his goals was to prove that children are “sexual from birth”. He used pedophiles to research the number of “orgasms” produced by abusing infants, children and pre-adolescents. Below is a chart from his book:

As stated, Kinsey set out to prove that children are “sexual from birth”. This claim has fueled the entire child sex ed industry leading to Comprehensive Sexuality Education by Planned Parenthood and SIECUS. But that isn’t today’s topic.

Kinsey’s research, and the media frenzy surrounding it, created a groundswell for states to relax their standards with regard to obscenity laws. Originally, the relaxed standards were not intended to apply to minor children.

The Model Penal Code or MPC was sold to the public in 1962 as the recognition that

“universities, law enforcement authorities, anthropologists, and others may have legitimate reasons to procure obscene materials. If so, it should not be criminal to furnish them.”

Notice, there is no mention of K-12 level education in the draft. The thought that obscenity in elementary through secondary school could be a future conundrum most likely did not cross the minds of most people in 1962.

The final version of the MPC reads:

“It is an affirmative defense to prosecution under this Section that dissemination was restricted to: (a) institutions or persons having scientific, educational, governmental of other similar justification for possessing obscene material”

In an exhaustively thorough research paper in 2017, Reisman and McAlister (pg 10,11) laid out the current problem.

“Although the drafters claimed to be concerned about universities, neither version of the exemption was limited to higher education facilities, which would be primarily populated by adults. This left the door open for legislatures to broadly exempt any person or organization claiming educational use. Many legislatures have done just that, and in some cases opened the door even wider, granting exemptions to third party contractors who provide materials and make presentations to elementary and secondary schools, libraries, and similar institutions.”

Drag Queen Story Hour anyone? The paper says further:

“Lost in the attempts to legitimize the exemptions is the fact that the statutes are dealing with materials that are by nature obscene,….are by definition ‘harmful to minors’….and therefore outside the protection of First Amendment free speech guarantees. (Miller vs. California, 1973). Materials which are ‘harmful to minors’ do not transform into non-harmful ‘educational’ materials merely by being so labeled, used by an ‘educator’ or located in a library or classroom.”

“Rather than protecting the noble cause of academic freedom, the educational obscenity exemptions are designed to further a socio-political agenda aimed at fundamentally transforming society.”

A couple of years ago, that last paragraph might have seemed a bit much.

A couple of years ago, Nebraska’s State Board of Education released health standards with curriculum bullet points written by SIECUS and Planned Parenthood.

A couple of years ago, school libraries started trying to outdo each other in choosing their offerings for shock value rather than literary value. Now, your public libraries advertise “banned book week” to children, and obscene books have been promoted with accelerated reader points and added to summer reading lists.

A couple of years ago trusted book sellers like Follett and Scholastic went from zero to ten on the woke scale, glorifying transgender ideology, violent activism, and hatred for police.

In 2022, a Governor called for a Drag Queen in every school-- and then got re-elected.

It appears that the ladies who wrote that paper in 2017 had a crystal ball. As is often the case, the solution is simple, but not easy.

This is the (third) now fourth year that Senator Joni Albrecht has introduced the same bill to repeal the obscenity exemption as it applies to minor children. This year it is LB 441.

It is only 2 pages, you should click the link and read it. It adds the word “post-secondary” to the exemption rules. No other changes, just that word. Adding “post-secondary” to the law would make the exemption apply to universities, as was originally intended in 1962, and put a stop to the intentional corruption of your minor children.

The school and public librarians will fight it with everything they have. They will call us book burners and lots of other ugly names. Many of them gave up curating books for our children long ago, and they don’t want to start now. For some, it is a matter of pride to be able to belittle horrified parents and punish them with challenge forms and committees.

This little two-page bill with the one-word edit has the power to CHANGE EVERYTHING for children and families in Nebraska schools and libraries.

The author is a retired Pediatrician and a co-founder of Protect Nebraska Children Coalition. The photos are courtesy of Protect Child Health Coalition.