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This is the Daily Blast from the New Republic, produced and presented by the DSR Network.

I'm your host, Greg Sargent.

In recent days, a trend has become visible in a number of red states.

GOP legislatures are advancing bills that place onerous new kinds of restrictions on public or school libraries.

This has happened in Idaho, Alabama, Georgia, and others,

and the target of some of these proposals, surprise, surprise, is LGBTQ content.

Emily Drabinski grew up in Idaho.

She's also openly gay, and she is now the president of the American Library Association,

which means she's battling the book banners targeting LGBTQ materials in states like her own.

So we invited her on the show to discuss this new trend. Welcome, Emily. Thanks, Greg. I'm delighted to be

here. First, let's talk about what some of these proposals do. In Idaho, where you grew up, the bill passed by both chambers in the GOP legislature would allow lawsuits against public and school libraries that make material available that's deemed, quote-unquote, harmful to minors.

You guys argue that this relies on a definition of harmful to minors in the

state code that includes any act of homosexuality. Can you elaborate on that?

I think what we're seeing in Idaho and across the country are systematic attempts to undermine

...