Illinois parents and citizens who work with their local libraries and schools to protect children from seeing inappropriate sexual material must be stopped in the name of “democracy,” according to the secretary of state.

A new law in Illinois will allow the secretary of state to withhold state funds from libraries that have “removed or restricted [reading materials] because of partisan or personal disapproval,” according to a news release from Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias. He also serves as the state librarian.

The law applies to grants given to both public libraries and libraries within public schools.

He praised the new law for creating “a nationwide precedent in the fight against book bans, as libraries and librarians face unprecedented censorship of books and resources.”

“The concept of banning books contradicts the very essence of what our country stands for,” Giannoulias said. “It also defies what education is all about: teaching our children to think for themselves. This landmark law is a triumph for our democracy, a win for First Amendment Rights, and a great victory for future generations.”

The new law will, according to the secretary of state’s office, “unite libraries and protect librarians who have come under assault for simply striving to serve the needs of their respective communities.”

But in reality, the bill does the opposite of that. It penalizes libraries for making prudent decisions with the input of local citizens about materials.

Since the bill incorporates the American Library Association’s admonition against restricting access to materials, it could theoretically penalize libraries that decide a book about sex should require adult permission to read, for example.

Insofar as “democracy” means people voicing their opinions and government entities being responsive to those needs within the bounds of the Constitution, state, and federal law, this bill does the opposite.

Religiously and ethnically diverse communities have spoken out against what they see as inappropriate content in public libraries and schools in the past several years, whether it is Armenian Americans in California, Muslims in Michigan, or traditionalist Catholics in Kansas. It is safe to say similar communities exist within Illinois, given its religious and ethnic diversity .

But now, if a group of evangelical Protestants or conservative Muslims want to remove Gender Queer from the children's section of the library, the state could come in and financially punish everyone, even if the librarian agrees it best belongs elsewhere (such as in the trash).

Proponents of the bill fail in a few other ways. For one, “teaching our children to think for themselves” is not the purpose of education, at least for elementary schoolers. First graders are supposed to learn the alphabet and how to count. A 6-year-old is not going to engage in a Socratic dialogue with a teacher about the pros and cons of gender ideology .

Second, books do not have First Amendment rights. People have First Amendment rights, but that does not include a right to have the library perpetually provide access to someone’s book just because it once bought a copy.

Finally, the American Library Association gets it wrong on how the government is supposed to work. In its section on “censorship,” it refers to a librarian’s “institution” as his own and laments a “pressure group” that “attempts to control the content of all institutions, whether under their jurisdiction or not.”

But librarians are government employees who are hired by a community to provide services. If the community does not like what that government employee is doing, they have a right to advocate change.

When this happens, “democracy” wins, and librarians truly “serve the needs of their respective communities.”

Matt Lamb is a contributor to the Washington Examiner's Beltway Confidential blog. He is an associate editor for the College Fix and has previously worked for Students for Life of America and Turning Point USA.