Georgia state senator says radicals are ‘trying to infiltrate’ libraries to ‘promote LGBTQ lifestyles’

Georgia state Sen. Larry Walker III (R-Perry) says that radicals in the American Library Association (ALA) have infiltrated libraries and used diversity efforts to promote Marxism and LGBTQ lifestyles.

Walker is the co-author of Senate Bill 390, a piece of legislation that would ban libraries from using public or private funds to collaboration with the ALA. While giving testimony on his bill to the Georgia House Education Committee, Walker said that the ALA has abandoned its mission to support libraries because they hold groups like the “Rainbow Round Table.”

Georgia State Sen. Larry Walker III (R), co-author of a bill to ban libraries from collaborating with the American Library Association:

“They’re trying to infiltrate our libraries … [They] promote LGBTQ lifestyles. They’ve got a Rainbow Roundtable … It concerns me greatly.” pic.twitter.com/vgMtYjeiHb

— Heartland Signal (@HeartlandSignal) March 18, 2024

SB 390 would also prohibit libraries from purchasing resources from the ALA. When asked by state Sen. Betsy Holland (D-Atlanta) how libraries could obtain those resources, such as information on how to run library, Walker said that “there is an entity called Amazon.”