The Case of the Missing Porn
or, Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is
Since the very beginning of the library controversy here in Lafayette Parish, the charge of “sexually explicit” materials in the children’s section of LPL has been the call to arms for those advocating for book bans and justifying discrimination against the LGBTQ community. From their protests of Drag Queen Storytime back in 2018, through Michael Lunsford’s book challenges in 2021, and on into Robert Judge’s four-year reign of terror, cries of “groomer” librarians shelving “pornography” mixed in with children’s picture books has been the accusation of choice. Judge once famously projected images from books he’d found on the shelf at LPL at a board meeting, and ended his tenure with an award from Lunsford for working “tirelessly” to “protect children.” Weirdly, Lunsford himself loves to call these books “erotic.” Gross.
So what gives? Does LPL really shelve books like Lawn Boy, This Book is Gay, and Gender Queer in among classics like Where the Wild Things Are and Little Women? Former parish councilmember and current state representative Josh Carlson seems to think so. In response to our repeated requests for a list of books he found objectionable, he sent us this email:
Here’s the inconvenient truth, though: NONE of these books were ever shelved in the children’s section of the Lafayette Public Library. None. Not one. No trained librarian would ever have done such a thing.
There’s an old saying that the Devil gets you not with outright lies, but with mixing in just enough truth to twist things around so that what he says sounds believable. And that’s exactly what happened with this issue.
The truth is, some of these books were once shelved in the TEEN non-fiction section at LPL – which in every branch is a separate area with a librarian on duty at all times to ensure young children are not browsing there. We no longer have a teen non-fiction section at LPL, of course, since library director Danny Gillane offered to dismantle it in order to keep This Book is Gay from being outright banned back in 2021. Acknowledging the more complicated fact that some of these books are, in fact, rated for teens, however, doesn’t serve their ultimate goal, which has nothing to do with actually protecting children.
The truth is, there is not now, nor has there ever been, any pornography in any section of the Lafayette Public Library. There is not now, nor has there ever been, anything in any section of the library that meets the legal definition of obscenity. Sexually explicit, pornographic, and obscene are NOT interchangeable terms. Obscenity has a definition, a legal definition, set forth by the Supreme Court in the 1973 Miller vs. California case. Those who want to see our libraries gutted and knowledge inaccessible throw those terms around in order to elicit fear and confusion, casting anyone who believes in the principles of family choice and individual freedom as sexual predators.
The truth is, Michael Lunsford, Josh Carlson, and their crew of book banners want these books completely removed from our library, because they hate any acknowledgement that the LGBTQ community exists. And when Lafayette showed up in huge numbers to say NO to book bans at our library, they created a narrative that only ever uses the word “children” or “kids” when referring to the issue. As you can see from Carlson’s email above and the screenshots below from Lunsford’s website, the verbiage is very specific and targeted, using an appeal to emotion in order to elicit righteous outrage among conservative parents:
Using the same rhetoric and nearly the exact same language, former LPL board Vice President and current President-elect Allan Moore addressed a public comment at the August 2025 board meeting, where he informed the audience that there had been “inappropriate” material in the LPL “children’s” section, but that the administration, working with the staff and with board oversight, had moved those materials to the adult section, in compliance with LA RS 25:225. Note the echoes of Lunsford’s posts:
However, if Moore had bothered to read the law he loves to reference, he would have noted an important provision therein:
A requirement that a request for reconsideration of a library material that may include sexually explicit material be reviewed by the library board of control. The library board of control shall determine whether the library material meets the definition of sexually explicit material by majority vote in an open meeting.
As no requests for reconsideration have been filed recently, and certainly none reviewed in open meetings, we naturally had some questions:
We didn’t send this as a formal public records request because, as the video shows, Mr. Moore invited anyone with questions to contact the administration. As of now, we’ve received nothing more than promises that a list is forthcoming. Despite all the rhetoric, no one connected with the attempts to ban books or involved with the board or administration has offered a single shred of evidence that there was ever any porn in the children’s section of LPL.
We’ll keep you updated if they ever do.
LPL Board of Control Monthly Meeting
17 November 2025
AGENDA
SPEAKER FORM
meeting audio
Meeting Video
Meeting Minutes
The November LBOC meeting was fairly quiet, with the only substantive action item being the board officer elections which had been postponed in October. After some creative agenda interpretation (wherein Allan Moore called items out of order), Ella Arsement was elected board Vice President and Moore himself was elected President.
As it was his last meeting, the phantom known as Erasto Padron (who missed 8 out of 12 meetings between September 2024 and October 2025, in violation of board policy) showed up to let everyone know how proud he had been of his service on the board. I mean, he did vote to elect Robert Judge board president at his first meeting, vote to disaffiliate from the American Library Association, vote to permanently ban library displays, and was one of four who voted to fire the director. If nothing else, he was always a good little soldier.
Special LBOC Meeting – First Amendment Training
19 November 2025
AGENDA
SPEAKER FORM
meeting audio (transcript)
Meeting Video
Meeting Minutes
As a condition of our settlement with LCG, First Amendment and Open Meetings law training was held for all members of Lafayette boards & commissions. The members of the LPL Board of Control were required to go, but the latest appointee, Christopher Holmes, did not attend. You can listen to the training, or read a transcript, above.