Congress Wants To Ban Books About Real Kids

As your constituent, I am writing to urge you to vote NO on H.R. 7661, the "Stop the Sexualization of Children Act." The title sounds protective, but it isn't. And the text is a massive federal power grab over local schools. H.R. 7661 threatens to strip Elementary and Secondary Education Act funding from any school that doesn't comply with Washington's new definition of acceptable books. It turns Congress into a national school board, replacing the judgment of local parents, teachers, school boards, and librarians with a mandate written by 20 members of one political party. Here is what the bill actually does: - It violates Equal Protection and First Amendment rights by targeting identity, not content. The bill defines "sexually oriented material" to include any work that "involves gender dysphoria or transgenderism"—full stop, no sexual content required. A completely non-explicit coming-of-age story or memoir featuring a transgender character would lose federal funding simply because of who the character is. The U.S. Supreme Court has made it clear that discriminating against transgender status is a form of sex-based discrimination. Singling out a marginalized group for erasure violates the Equal Protection guarantee and amounts to unconstitutional, identity-based censorship. - It violates First Amendment protections against viewpoint discrimination. The bill exempts "texts of major world religions" from its own restrictions while specifically targeting modern literature and stories about LGBTQ+ people. Under this rule, graphic sexual and violent content in religious texts gets a pass, while a completely non-explicit memoir about a trans teenager is banned. The government cannot legally favor religious speech over secular speech, and this blatant double standard should trouble anyone who takes constitutional rights seriously. - It violates the Establishment Clause. By defining "classic literature" strictly through reading lists published by Compass Classroom—a private Christian homeschooling company—this bill attempts to codify one specific religious publisher’s doctrine as the national standard for public schools. This is a blatant violation of the First Amendment's Establishment Clause, which prohibits the federal government from outsourcing public education standards to any religious organization. - It violates Due Process through unconstitutional vagueness. Under the Fifth Amendment's "void for vagueness" doctrine, laws must be clear enough that an ordinary person can easily understand what is prohibited. Because H.R. 7661 uses broad, undefined terms like "sexually oriented," school districts will have no way of knowing what is safe. This deliberate ambiguity creates a severe "chilling effect," forcing schools to proactively censor standard science, health, and art curricula just to avoid the catastrophic loss of federal funding. The law invites endless legal exposure instead of providing clear guidance. Our schools need investment, not a federally imposed reading list from a religious publisher and a funding threat aimed at any book featuring a transgender kid. Local parents and communities have always run their own schools. This bill takes that away and hands it to Washington. I urge you to vote NO on H.R. 7661 and protect local control of our schools. I expect you to act.