100 signatures reached
To: ordinary citizens interacting with libraries and school boards in all 72 Wisconsin counties
Opposing book bans in Wisconsin with counter-force
Counter-force.org organizes proactively to enlist members to:
- Monitor upcoming events and watch for book-banning requests and other attacks on our civic values,
- Disseminate that information to other members,
- Show up at events and speak up as appropriate, and
- Engage in other actions to support our values, such as posting on social media, writing letters to the editor, and communicating with board members and other elected officials.
- Monitor upcoming events and watch for book-banning requests and other attacks on our civic values,
- Disseminate that information to other members,
- Show up at events and speak up as appropriate, and
- Engage in other actions to support our values, such as posting on social media, writing letters to the editor, and communicating with board members and other elected officials.
Why is this important?
Since 2020, the American Library Association has seen record increases in the number of banned and challenged books across the country. Two of the most active groups demanding that libraries and schools ban or remove books are Moms for Liberty (M4L) and Mass Resistance.
As described in Wikipedia, Moms for Liberty "is an American political organization that advocates against school curricula that mention LGBTQ rights, race and ethnicity, critical race theory, and discrimination. Multiple chapters have also campaigned to ban books that address gender and sexuality from school libraries."
According to an article in a southwest Wisconsin newspaper (The Muscoda Progressive), a meeting was recently held in the area by an organizer for Moms for Liberty, who stated that M4L already has 130,000 members in 20 Wisconsin counties, and that it is looking to start chapters in four more counties in the region.
The Wikipedia entry for Mass Resistance says it is "an American organization that promotes anti-LGBT and socially conservative positions" with "claims linking LGBT people with pedophilia and zoophilia, and claims that suicide prevention programs aimed at gay youth were created by homosexual activits to normalize and 'lure' children into homosexuality."
According to a report by Wisconsin Public Radio on October 25th protestors with Mass Resistance have, over the past two months, demanded the removal of books on LGBTQ+ topics from the library in a Milwaukee suburb (Hales Corners),