School board prez: ‘These books are memoirs about real struggles that our students have’
A school board in Pennsylvania recently voted unanimously to return a sexually explicit LGBTQ-themed book to its high school library.
The Philadelphia Inquirer reports the Radnor Township School District board decided via a 6-0 vote (with three abstentions) to put back on its lone high school’s library shelves “Gender Queer,” along with “Fun Home” and “Blankets.”
“Gender Queer” features graphic depictions of oral sex (viewer discretion) accompanied by dialogue such as “I can’t wait to have your c*ck in my mouth” and “it will fit my favorite dildo perfectly.”
The book’s author, Maia Kobabe, claims her work is “unbelievably tame,” however.
A district committee determined several months ago that “Gender Queer” and the other works were “not age-appropriate” following a parent complaint. The committee had included a district administrator, principal, school board member, and teacher.
This past Tuesday, the school board overruled the committee. Radnor Board President Sarah Dunn said she had heard from LGBTQ students that the removal of the books made them feel “marginalized.”
“These books are memoirs about real struggles that our students have,” Dunn said. “Are you going to tell kids, ‘You can’t have your books back’?”
Andrew Babson, the board member of the committee that removed the books in the first place, said he had a “profound change” of heart about his initial decision after a transgender friend told him “Blankets” had “helped her not to be ashamed.”
“I regret and am sorry for any unintentional harm I have caused any child in this community, or families,” Babson said.
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Radnor High English teacher Carl Rosin, who serves as faculty advisor to the school’s Gay-Straight Alliance, challenged a parent’s claim at the Tuesday meeting that the books were “pornographic” and contained “shocking” and “gratuitous” images.
Rosin noted state and federal statutes have exceptions for “educational or literary merit.”
Rosin also noted he uses “Fun Home” as an optional reading in one of his classes and said it depicts “consenting 19-year-olds.” (Unless this class in question is 12th grade, none of Rosin’s students would be 18 years old, with rare exceptions.)
Dunn said the district’s lawyer had “confirmed the images in these books do not constitute child pornography.”
When the books initially had been removed, Professor Rachel Skrlac Lo, who teaches courses on equity, justice, and diversity in education at nearby Villanova University, said it was “a really sad moment in our communities.”
She added “’We’re valuing potential harm’ to students whose families don’t want them to read a particular book, ‘over real harm that is done’ when stories about LGBTQ people are excluded.”
A few back, Syracuse University’s Katherine Kidd (who specializes in “working-class studies, queer studies, and television and pop culture studies”) claimed removing “Gender Queer” “solely on the basis of it being sexually explicit limits discussions about young adults’ discovery of gender identity in relation to their bodies.”
MORE: You are NOT a ‘book banner’ or ‘anti-drag’ for wanting your kid far away from explicit material
IMAGE CAPTION & CREDIT: A reader holds a copy of ‘Gender Queer’; The Ripped Bodice/X
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