Books opened doors and changed the course of my life. Every person, but especially every child, has the right to free and robust access to books, just as I did. Reading with comprehension is a crucial developmental milestone, and books broaden perspectives, exercise minds, challenge biases and prejudices, and provide the important opportunity to process information independently.
As chair of the Illinois Senate Human Rights Committee, I proudly sponsored a bill that would outlaw book banning in our state, which passed the Senate recently. The proposal would explicitly protect the kind of books that have been under attack in our schools and libraries — books that explore race and ethnicity, sexual orientation and gender identity, sexual health and reproductive health, religion and faith background, biographies, autobiographies, and memoirs about rights and activism.
