Amongst the clampdown on LGBTQ+ and race-related books in the United States, a proposed Oklahoma law would let parents fine school libraries $10,000 for each day they keep books that are listed as ‘violations’ relating to attraction and gender identity.

“Once the school receives the written request from a parent or guardian, the violating district would have 30 days to remove all copies of the book from circulation, according to the bill,” Newsweek reports.

If passed, the bill will go into effect during the coming academic year, allowing parents to seek compensation for “monetary damages” and attorney and court costs. It would also put the school’s employees at risk for losing their job, and can prevent them from working similar jobs for two years.

Lawmakers across the United States have declared a war on LGBTQI+ and race-related books by attempting to erase them from libraries, in an effort to preserve oppressive systems of white supremacy and cisgender heteronormitivity.

This month, over 600 writers, teachers, bookstores and sellers led by the National Coalition Against Censorship released a statement against the attacks by lawmakers targeting books on race and LGBTQ+ experiences in schools.

The statement comes in response to book bans instigated by governments and school officials, who are trying to erase LGBTQ+ and race-related books -- like Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye,” George M. Johnson’s “All Boys Aren’t Blue” -- from school libraries in South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, Ohio and New Jersey.

“Libraries offer students the opportunity to encounter books and other material that they might otherwise never see and the freedom to make their own choices about what to read. Denying young people this freedom to explore–often on the basis of a single controversial passage cited out of context–will limit not only what they can learn but who they can become,” the statement reads.

Every child deserves access to books and media that affirm their identity, and can open new paths to imagine ways of being and becoming, through and despite systems of erasure.