With all the furor over school boards and hard leftist ideology being infused into the classroom, it seems there are some elements in this equation that have not yet made it into the mainstream conversation. Stories regarding material being featured in school libraries are slowly cropping up as debate over the types of books being made available to children.
Several stories have come out of Texas regarding school districts, including material that could be construed as pornographic. In Keller Independent School District, parents complained about a book titled “Gender Queer: A Memoir” by Maia Kobabe, an author who identifies as non-binary. This particular piece of work features several graphic depictions of homosexual sex. One parent called it “legitimate visual porn” because it featured illustrations of oral sex.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott recently ordered the state’s education association to look into school libraries to ensure that kids are not being exposed to inappropriate material. But Texas is not the only state in which the book is being included in school libraries. Courthouse News reported:
School districts in Virginia and Florida have also banned “Gender Queer,” and it has been targeted at schools in Rhode Island, New Jersey and Ohio, Kobabe noted in an Oct. 29 column in the Washington Post.
Parents and even some government officials are seeking to have books with explicit content removed from school libraries. As one could easily imagine, the idea that children could be viewing sexually explicit material without their parents knowing doesn’t exactly sit well with the community. However, not everyone is on board with ensuring that this type of content does not reach children.
At least some high-profile librarians are pushing back on the notion that some of this material should not be included in school libraries. The Daily Caller reported:
The majority of governing board members for the American Association of School Librarians expressed that they believe the removal of alleged “pornographic images” from school libraries is akin to “book banning,” according to their social media posts.
The report also explained:
The American Association of School Librarians (AASL) is a branch of the American Library Association that specifically serves primary and secondary schools. The AASL is at the forefront of a contentious debate among parents over whether books with pornographic images and sexual narratives belong in school libraries.
Most of the members of AASL’s Board of Directors published posts online demanding that the books remain available in libraries for children to peruse. “Several reposted claims that the removal of books is anti-LGBT and advocated for purchasing more books that tell stories about ‘underrepresented communities,” according to the Daily Caller.
Sylvia Knight Norton, executive director of the AASL’s board, retweeted a post that said:
Is there anything more actual cancel culture than trying to get books banned from schools en masse because they make you feel uncomfortable or have a differing world view?
Erika Long, who serves as the board’s secretary and treasurer, reposted a tweet in which the user said they are “so disgusted with this country” and another that said “queer content” is not “pornographic.”
The tweet read:
Books with queer content aren’t inappropriate or pornographic. They’re books. Books belong in classrooms and school libraries. If a parent does not want his/her/their child to read a book, fine. But that parent has no right — no right — to say other kids cannot read those books.
AASL Director-at-large Becky Calzada also contended that “book banning” only targets “books by BIPOC and LGBTQ+ authors.”
The American Library Association (ALA) is the parent organization of the AASL. According to the Daily Caller, the organization “comports to many tenets of critical race theory and ‘anti-racism.’”
We would be gravely mistaken to assume the left is not engaged in a full-on campaign to expose America’s children to explicit content in the name of creating a more “progressive” society and tamping down on bigotry and oppression. The fact that so many of these individuals responded to parents’ concerns by simply claiming they are motivated by animus towards members of the Alphabet Community™ further illustrates their true intentions; they don’t want conversation on the matter. They want to shut down opposing opinions.
Instead of engaging on the matter, they seek to shove this content down the throats of children, despite the wishes of their parents. This shows that this is not about education or exposure to different ideas; this is about influencing children to embrace progressivism at an early age. It is part of their efforts to turn out generations of progressive activists.
The reality is that this has nothing to do with bigotry. If these libraries had books that feature graphic depictions of heterosexual intercourse, the reaction would be the same. Nobody wants their children to see borderline pornographic images. Full stop.
I believe this issue will become just as hotly debated as the Critical Race Theory issue, which has sparked a widespread backlash from parents across the country. When parents realize that the left wishes to carry out a holistic indoctrination effort that involves more than just race and sexuality, it can be expected that this conflict will grow even more contentious in the near future.
