'Scared' librarians are under attack in the new era of right-wing hysteria over books: report

The school hysteria continues as right-wing parents criticize books dealing with racism and sexuality. As a result of the fights over controversial subjects, librarians have ultimately become the targets, a New York Times report explained.

In Florida, Texas and more than a dozen other states, the phobia manifested into bills in which LGBTQ+ teachers can no longer talk about their partners or family, or even post rainbow stickers. Students who are unsure of what to do as they struggle with their orientation or identity no longer have a safe space in schools. In some cases, LGBTQ+ alliances are being eliminated in schools after homophobic parents decided it was a grooming circle of impending abuse.

In Virginia, it's racists who are being triggered by books that make them uncomfortable. Generations after slavery, white parents fear teaching issues facing people of color will make their children sad.

One New Jersey school became a target over books that right-wing parents claim are "grooming" children to become victims of pedophiles.

IN OTHER NEWS: New York Republican drops out of state Senate race — and quits the GOP

“This amounts to an effort to groom our kids to make them more willing to participate in the heinous acts described in these books,” said parent Gina DeLusant in a school meeting that was taped. “It grooms them to accept the inappropriate advances of an adult.”

“You can imagine our librarians feel scared, like their character was in question," said Ami Uselman, the director of library and media services for Round Rock Independent School District, in Texas.

The overuse of the accusation of child abuse has become a key attack used by QAnon conspiracy theorists. Republican Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers said that supporters of former President Donald Trump were blasting loudspeakers outside his home calling him a pedophile.

“There were comments about library staff, calling us groomers and pedophiles and saying we needed to be fired, we need to be jailed, we needed to be locked up, that all the books needed to be burned,” said Tonya Ryals , former assistant director of the Jonesboro Public Library, in Craighead County, Arkansas. She quit over the attacks. “It got to a certain point where I thought, do I want to live here? Is this something I can subject myself to?”

READ MORE: Lindsey Graham vows to fight Georgia election subpoena 'and expects to prevail'

Anotehr librarian who worked for 18 years left her job after a parent lost their minds over the book "Lawn Boy." Debbie Chavez met with the parent and recorded the conversation. She's released the tapes on Facebook and was attacked, saying she was “grooming children.”

“It was so horrific to see that my words were being used as a rallying cry for the book censors, and to see that my conversation had been misrepresented,” she said. “And I was supposed to still get dressed and go to school and do my job.”

Read the full report of the librarians forced out at the New York Times.