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Texas is making national news in a bad way – again – for the unusually high number of books that are being challenged and pulled from public school libraries on the basis of race, sexuality, and gender.
NBC News found that in nearly 100 school districts in the Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, and Austin areas, there were at least 75 formal requests by parents or community members during the first four months of this school year to ban books from school libraries. During the same time period last year, only ONE library book challenge was filed in those districts. Shockingly, a handful of the districts reported more challenges this year than in the past 20 years combined.
So many problems here.
Maia Kobabe’s book Gender Queer: A Memoir, has been banned at public schools in least 11 states, including Texas. Kobabe describes why queer kids need queer stories so much better than I ever could here.
To me, one of the most disturbing arguments that parents use against books with gender diverse protagonists is that they describe this content as “filth,” “pornography,” or “obscene” material that is inappropriate for children of any age.
How do you think that makes queer kids feel? Sometimes books are the only places that queer kids can feel the reality, beauty, and validation of their experiences. If they can’t access books with LGBTQ characters, and all they hear is that these books are “bad,” I fear that that queer kids will think that they, too, are somehow wrong and bad.
“It’s very hard to hear people say ‘This book is not appropriate to young people’ when it’s like, I was a young person for whom this book would have been not only appropriate, but so, so necessary,” Kobabe told NBC News. “There are a lot of people who are questioning their gender, questioning their sexuality and having a real hard time finding honest accounts of somebody else on the same journey. There are people for whom this is vital and for whom this could maybe even be lifesaving.”
Queer kids are just like any other kids and deserve to be loved and celebrated and held tight.
“Every LGBTQ young person needs to see themselves in stories about their lives, to let them know they belong just as they are," Sarah Kate Ellis, the president and CEO of GLAAD, said in a statement about the recent book bans.
And the refrain I keep hearing from these parents is – we have to protect our precious kids. Aren’t queer kids precious, too? Aren’t my kids precious?
That’s fine if you don’t want your kids reading certain books. (I mean, it’s better for them to learn about the world by being a little uncomfortable . . . ) But you can’t make that decision for the rest of the student population, including my kids.
If you live in a school district that is challenging books with subjects dealing with race, gender, and sexuality, speak up! Write or call your school district board members, or go to a board meeting and speak your mind! Let the board members and your community know that there are (tax-paying!) families who WANT these books in their public school libraries. Tell them why.
Another enjoyable way to take action is to support the authors of these books! Here are just a few of the books containing LGBTQ characters that are being banned around the Houston area. You can buy them through the affiliate links below to support your friendly neighborhood independent bookstore, Blue Willow Bookshop. I just ordered all of them this weekend.
All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson
Lawn Boy by Jonathan Evison
Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe
Drama by Raina Telgemeier
The Breakaways by Cathy G. Johnson
Jack of Hearts (and Other Parts) by L.C. Rosen
The Handsome Girl & Her Beautiful Boy by B.T. Gottfred
Keep fighting and keep reading.