Missouri library bans ‘porn star book’ – but only after waitlist runs out

A controversial sexual education book is set to be banned from a Missouri library – but only after its waiting list runs out.

An internal review committee determined that the controversial book “Bang Like a Porn Star: Sex Tips From the Pros” was too sexually “explicit” and should be removed from the St Charles City-County Library system.

However, the committee decided the book did not need to be banned straight away, and the 20 people on its waiting list would still get to read the book.

The 175-page book, published in 2018, sparked controversy after some critics deemed the book too sexually explicit for inclusion in a public library, and called for its removal.

The book, which has not been publicly available for months, features interviews with several gay adult film stars and photographs detailing various sex acts.

Ultimately, the library sided with the book’s critics and decided to ban the book from the library, the St Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

St Charles City-County Library CEO Jason Kuhl said in a statement that the committee found the book “did, indeed, have explicit photographs that seemed unrelated to the text they should have been illustrating.”

The library initially purchased only one copy of the book five years ago, but had to purchase additional copies when parents began pushing for its removal so the committee could review the material.

Mr Kuhl added that the book was originally purchased because “it was the only item readily available at the time about sexuality and sexual health for gay men.”

“It contains important information about health, safety and consent that are not contained elsewhere in our collection,” he said.

However, Mr Kuhl said library officials have since found that other books have been published that provide the same information as ‘Bang Like a Porn Star’ that do not contain the “explicit imagery that is superfluous to the text.”

Library officials said prior to the backlash surrounding the book, it was checked out several times.

A wave of book bans is sweeping across the United States after a GOP-backed “sensitive materials” law was passed two years ago requiring school districts to create new pathways for residents to challenge “sensitive materials”.

Since then, libraries and schools in states across the country have seen books banned for their “sexually explicit material”.

In April, Republican lawmakers in Missouri threatened to defund public libraries in retaliation for the ACLU filing a lawsuit against a recent ban on educators “providing sexually explicit material”.

Similarly, Florida recently began removing “pornographic, violent or inappropriate” books from classrooms after sweeping laws passed by Republican Governor Ron DeSantis.

One such law, passed by Mr DeSantis in March last year, requires a certified media specialist to evaluate all books available in classrooms and libraries and punishes teachers with felony charges if non-sanctioned books are present in classrooms. That has led to teachers stripping their classroom shelves of books in fear of being prosecuted.

Meanwhile, in Tennessee, the “Age Appropriate Materials Act” mandates schools to catalogue all titles in their classroom lest they include any inappropriate content.

There were at least 1,477 attempts to ban 874 individual book titles within the first half of the 2022-2023 school year, according to PEN America.

The figures mark a nearly 30 per cent spike from book challenges over the previous year.