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Raskin speaks out against book bans

‘We need more politicians who are reading books and fewer politicians banning books’

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3 years ago

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Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) speaks at a panel sponsored by the Interfaith Alliance at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, Oct. 18. (Washington Blade by Michael Key)

U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) and the Interfaith Alliance convened a briefing on Capitol Hill Wednesday morning entitled, “Banned Beliefs: How People of Diverse Faiths are Fighting to Protect Our Public Schools and Libraries.” 

The event comes as Republicans across the country are leading efforts to ban books and educational materials, disproportionately targeting those with LGBTQ characters or themes or addressing matters of race or religion.

On Thursday, the U.S. House Education and the Workforce Committee, under Chair Aaron Bean (R-Fla.), will hold a hearing on “Protecting Kids: Combating Graphic, Explicit Content in School Libraries.”

“We need more politicians who are reading books and fewer politicians banning books,” said Raskin, who reintroduced a resolution at the end of September with U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) that would recognize Banned Books Week and condemn “the escalating attacks on books and freedom of expression in the United States.”

“The censorship of books, censorship of curriculum, censorship of teachers, censorship of ideas and free speech and free discourse are always an exercise of power,” Raskin said.

The congressman relayed how, in July, when U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) displayed photographs on the House floor of Hunter Biden engaged in explicit sex acts, he said to her, “Marjorie, you know, if those pictures had been in a book, you would have banned the book, but you just showed them to everybody.”

Raskin has some personal experience with book bans, as he explained on Wednesday. “I did write a book for young people, students, which is about all the Supreme Court cases that affects kids in public high schools and middle schools — which is drug testing, censorship, segregation, desegregation, affirmative action,” he said. The book “was sponsored actually by the Supreme Court Historical Society, and it was banned last November in Texas.”

“I thank you for standing up for freedom of speech and its closely connected value, freedom of religious worship,” the congressman said.

Speaking with the Washington Blade after the briefing, Rev. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush, who serves as president and CEO of Interfaith Alliance, said “We encourage all religious communities to tell the story that actually banning books is bad for all of our faiths.”

“Interfaith Alliance is here to make sure that people understand” that while “a lot of times religion is used as a pretext for banning books, the majority of us who are in religious communities know that this is terrible for our faith,” he said.

Raushenbush said that “while while we encourage people to show up for litigation, we encourage people to show up to the school board” meetings where these issues are often adjudicated, “We also encourage religious leaders to talk about this and to share with their community why this is terrible for our faith.”

The reverend noted that the most-banned books are those grounded in the religious traditions of Judaism and Islam. “How telling, that anti semitism and Islamophobia are spiking right now,” he said, adding, “and this is even [prior to] the war in Gaza and Israel.”

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Congress

HRC president campaigns for Chris Pappas in NH

Gay congressman running to succeed retiring U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen

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1 week ago

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August 31, 2026

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Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson, left, campaigns with U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas (D-N.H.) in Manchester, N.H., on Aug. 30, 2026. (Photo courtesy of the Human Rights Campaign)

Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson on Sunday campaigned for U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas (D-N.H.) in New Hampshire.

Robinson traveled to Manchester, the state’s largest city, nine days before the Sept. 8 primary that will determine who will vie for retiring U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.)’s seat.

Former U.S. Sen. John E. Sununu, who represented New Hampshire in the U.S. Senate from 2003-2009, will face off against former U.S. Sen. Scott Brown, who represented Massachusetts in the U.S. Senate from 2010-2013, in the Republican primary.

Karishma Manzur is among the Democrats challenging Pappas.

A poll the University of New Hampshire Survey Center released on Aug. 26 shows Sununu is ahead of Brown. The same survey shows Pappas ahead of Manzur and his other Democratic challengers.

The UNH Survey Center poll shows Sununu ahead of Pappas by a 45-43 percent margin if they were to face off in the general election. The margin of error is +/-2.1 percent.

Pappas would become the first openly gay man elected to the U.S. Senate if he were to win in November.

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Congress

Chris Van Hollen says the Democratic Party needs change. Is he the one to lead it?

Senator is backing anti-establishment Democrats across the country

Published

2 weeks ago

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August 26, 2026

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By LEE O. SANDERLIN | The Democratic Party is having something of an identity crisis — losing to President Donald Trump twice in three elections will do that.

Should the party embrace anti-establishment figures who espouse progressive policy ideas like Medicare for all and rhetoric about unrigging the economy for the 1 percent? Or should Democrats try to appeal to moderates who want to return to semi-normalcy in a time of political upheaval?

Although he’s been in Congress since 2002, with key leadership roles throughout his tenure, Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen, 67, counts himself firmly in the anti-establishment camp.

The rest of this article can be found on the Baltimore Banner’s website.

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Congress

House blocks effort to codify transgender servicemember ban into law

Lawmakers approved two anti-trans NDAA amendments

Published

2 months ago

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July 22, 2026

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The Pentagon (Photo by icholakov/Bigstock)

The U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday rejected an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that would have codified a ban transgender servicemembers in the military.

The bipartisan vote was 212-217.

The NDAA is for the 2027 fiscal year and sets policies for the Defense Department programs and activities and the national security programs of the Department of Energy.

U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) proposed the amendment on July 21. It stated that all personnel are required to serve in accordance with their biological sex, citing military readiness and discipline.

Human Rights Campaign Senior Director of Government Affairs Jennifer Pike Bailey stated that she is grateful for the bipartisan vote that rejected President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s “dangerous and discriminatory policy that has kicked brave transgender servicemembers out of the military and weakened our national security.”

“Everyone who meets the same rigorous standards should be able to serve their country. We should honor that patriotism, particularly in this moment where we are witnessing brave servicemembers making the ultimate sacrifice for our country, instead of ending their careers and politicizing their existence. We’re grateful that a permanent extension of this ban failed, and we will keep fighting to reverse this senseless policy,” Bailey said.

Mark Takano, chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus, stated that he and his members put in countless hours of work to kill the amendment.

“When Americans know they or their families are going to be targeted by or not supported by the military, that leads them to avoid signing up to serve or staying in the service — making it harder to keep the ranks of the armed services full and our nation safe. My colleagues in the Equality Caucus and I will continue working to prevent these attacks on our servicemembers and their families from becoming law,” Takano said.

According to the Congressional Equality Caucus, two other bills could potentially be passed that would also target the transgender community, both of which were proposed by U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.).

The first was a bill that would have prohibited gender-related medical care under TRICARE and to prevent TRICARE from covering certain gender-related medical procedures and treatments, which was approved in a vote of 219-208.

The second was a bill that would have prohibited male participation in female sports at DoDEA schools. DoDEA schools are Department of Defense Dependents Schools, which is a network of primary and secondary schools.

The amendment was approved in a vote of 221-203. 

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