Municipal attorney refuses to judge book by its cover
Municipal Attorney Anne Helzer has denied the Anchorage Library Advisory Board's (LAB) request that she review the teen book 'Let's Talk About It' for potentially violating state and municipal criminal laws—at least until the Anchorage Public Library (APL) follows its standard process for reviewing its materials.
LAB's conservative members, including Doug Weimann, First Lady Deborah Bronson, and Dennis Dupras, voted in support of referring the book to Helzer during last Wednesday's LAB meeting.
Last year Book Riot reported that Dupras had posted queerphobic and all lives/blue lives matter material on his Facebook account and that Weimann had right-wing affiliations.
Weimann led the charge against 'Let's Talk About It' after being approached by a known but as yet publicly identified "concerned parent" who sent him a photograph of a page taken from the book depicting a cartoon anus and scrotum.
During last week's LAB meeting, Weimann said he believed the library was breaking the law by making the book available to anyone under eighteen years of age and frantically pushed LAB to take up the vote, which ultimately led to 'Let's Talk About It' being referred to the municipal attorney for legal review.
APL Director Virginia McClure said last week that she believed a LAB member should have submitted a request for reconsideration of the book and followed the Board's stated process instead of simply referring the book to Helzer.
It's believed LAB's vote to refer the book for legal review was an attempted end-around APL's reconsideration policy that allows members of the public to ask for a review of library material. Had the municipal attorney determined 'Let's Talk About It' violated state or municipal laws, the book likely would have been pulled from library shelves without having gone through the appropriate review process.
Helzer did not respond to a request for comment yesterday after I learned she had opted not to review 'Let's Talk About It.'
LAB Chair Cristy Willer said Helzer's response "was the way to go."
