Thanks to the interlocking work of parents, politicians and responsible press, one of Wyoming’s most vexing problems may be resolved in the coming legislative session.
On Monday, October 13, 2025, the Joint Interim Judiciary Committee met at the state capitol to consider how best to protect the innocence of Wyoming’s children from the subversive policies of the American Library Association (ALA).
The ALA, although not elected by anybody, has been working for years to place grotesquely inappropriate material before the eyes of children. It’s Library Bill of Rights erases the legal line between children and adults and manipulates First Amendment rhetoric against parental rights.
This dark-money-funded lobbying organization said nothing when the Biden administration colluded with the National School Board Association to treat parents as terrorists for caring about their kids. But the same ALA tacitly approved the very real censorship of important and true books like Ryan Anderson’s When Harry Became Sally.
Each October, the ALA gaslights the public with propaganda designed to evoke fear of oppressive censorship. It wants you to believe that keeping soft porn out of the hands of Kindergartners is tantamount to burning Bibles. By this sleight of hand, it has kept the public trustingly incurious.
But in the summer of 2023, something changed. Cowboy State Daily did what every press outlet should have done. It actually exercised the First Amendment and published an article by Claire McFarland that allowed its readers to see for themselves the books in question.
This gutsy move was decisive.
After years of categorical denials that we have any obscene books in our libraries, ordinary people saw, immediately, that they had been lied to. No longer could the problem be hidden by “experts.” Instead, the experts lost all credibility in one fell swoop.
Next, the Wyoming Legislature got to work. Politicians who had previously dismissed parental concerns as exaggerated or nonexistent were suddenly motivated to take seriously the bevy of bills that were brought to address the problem.
And voters, who had blindly trusted their local libraries to be protectors of children, rushed to the polls to elect county commissioners, representatives and senators who would enact policies and statutes to do what obviously had not been done.
In January 2024, three separate obscenity bills (HB 68, HB 78, and HB 88) were offered, but blocked by House leadership.
In 2025, after sweeping wins at the ballot box, Freedom Caucus candidates offered HB 194 Obscenity amendments. This one, finally, got a committee hearing. But the House Judiciary Committee never brought it to a vote.
Lawyers and law enforcement officials were reluctant to expose librarians to criminal obscenity charges for exposing minors to obscene material. Nevertheless, they promised to take up the matter during the interim and craft a better solution.
And they kept that promise.
Not only did members of the Judiciary Committee petition the Management Council to assign library material as an interim topic, they also brought it over the finish line. Promises made, promises kept.
Monday’s Judiciary meeting in Cheyenne overwhelmingly passed a bill draft that will be put before the Legislature in January 2026. Instead of criminalizing obscene library books, this bill draft gives power to parents to sue.
If passed in the upcoming budget session, the law would make libraries and their employees responsible for materials that are available to children in both school libraries and county libraries.
Instead of putting the onus on county attorneys to bring criminal charges, this bill gives parents the right to seek civil damages from libraries and from public officials who fail to do their due diligence.
This is the way self-government is supposed to work. Citizens are supposed to know what’s going on. Representatives are supposed to be responsive to the will of those citizens. The Fourth Estate is supposed to help those citizens know what is happening behind closed doors and is obscured by deceptive language.
In the case of Wyoming’s library obscenities, all of that has happened. And we are all better for it.
Kudos to thousands of concerned parents who risked federal investigation to speak up for their children.
Kudos to the legislators who took their constituents seriously enough to write bills, press for an interim topic, and craft great legislation.
Kudos to Cowboy State Daily for blowing away the fog that kept Wyoming citizens from knowing the truth.
Now we have a bill to work with. Encourage your senator and representative to vote for its introduction in January. Let’s get it over the finish line.
Jonathan Lange is a Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod pastor in Evanston and Kemmerer and serves the Wyoming Pastors Network. Follow his blog at https://jonathanlange.substack.com/. Email: JLange64@protonmail.com.
