A bill designed to make sure children don’t have access to sexually explicit materials in school and county libraries has passed the Senate Judiciary Committee on a 3-2 vote.
You can read House Bill 10 here. The measure has already passed the Wyoming House, and after Wednesday’s committee vote will now move on to the full Senate.
The Bill was amended in committee to allow county commissions to opt out of the bill. But the amendment would only affect county libraries, not school libraries in Wyoming.
Rep, Lucas: Explicit Materials Can Be Used To Groom Children
Speaking in favor of the Bill, Rep. Ann Lucas [R-Laramie County] told the committee that child psychologists have found that exposing children to sexually explicit materials at a young age has a number of detrimental effects, including desensitizing children to adult sexual concepts. Lucas said such exposure can make children more vulnerable to grooming by sexual predators, in addition to having negative effects on normal psychological development. ”Neurologically, children’s brains are still forming executive function and impulse control. Some experts say young adult brains are not fully formed until they are 25 years old” Lucas testified.
Lucas sponsored legislation similar to HB 10 in the legislature in 2025.
Opponents: The Bill Could Keep Great Literature And The Bible From Kids
But retired Cheyenne attorney George Powers said there are problems with the bill and the language it uses. He said the definition of “sexually explicit is so broad… that it would sweep, within it, a number of works of literature.” He said one example is “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison, which he says is often targeted as pornographic, “But it is a book of literature. And there are sexual encounters. But when the passages are read in context, they have value.”
Dominic Syracuse of Cheyenne told the committee that a strict reading of the bill could result in the Bible being banned from reading by people under age 18, pointing to several sexually explicit passages as evidence.
The vote in favor of House Bill 10 was 3-2, with Senators Crum and Crago voting no. Sens. Hicks, Kolb and Committee Chair Jared Olsen voted to send the bill to the full Senate.
17 Country Artists In the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame
Nearly one-third of the country artists in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame were inducted in the inaugural class, which means it’s been pretty quiet for 40 years. These 17 artists have cracked the rock code however. In fact two country singers listed are Rock Hall of Famers, but not Country Music Hall of Famers.
Gallery Credit: Billy Dukes
