All-white
Member photos: Muskego-Norway Schools
Headline: The 74 (6/25/2022)
A school board in southeastern Wisconsin has rejected a book recommended for use in a 10th-grade accelerated English class due in part to concerns that it lacked “balance” regarding the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.
The Curriculum Planning Committee for the Muskego-Norway district, which serves about 5,000 students in Waukesha and Racine counties, had selected “When the Emperor Was Divine,” a 2002 historical novel by Julie Otsuka based on her own family’s experiences. The book, winner of the American Library Association’s Alex Award and the Asian American Literary Award, tells in varying perspectives the story of a Japanese American family uprooted from its home in Berkeley, California, and sent to an internment camp in the Utah desert.
6/10/2022 update, "Massachusetts candidate for Secretary of State gets caught up in GOP book-banning frenzy", starts here.
Headline: Daily Kos, 6/9/2022
As Daily Kos continues to cover, conservatives aren’t slowing down when it comes to demonizing LGBTQ+ people, and especially LGBTQ+ youth. We’ve seen Republicans at all levels of government advocate for book bans (if not book burning), paint LGBTQ+ adults and allies as predators and groomers, and of course, unnecessarily stress out teachers and librarians who simply want kids to read. Because if there’s one thing Republicans are great at, it’s churning hysteria to keep people riled up and distracted.
Rayla Campbell, a Republican who is running for secretary of state in Massachusetts, for example, is apparently playing the long game with an anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-book movement. Per her Facebook page, Campbell is spending her time going to libraries around Massachusetts and taking pictures of Pride Month displays in order to get people outraged, as highlighted over at Book Riot. Because again, how dare LGBTQ+ people write or be centered in books, right?
6/1/2022 update starts here
Headline: Wisconsin Examiner, 5/31/2022
Emails sent and received by elected officials discussing the endeavor were obtained by Wisconsin Examiner through open records requests. For Rep. Jesse James (R-Altoona), it began after his office received a list of books by more than 50 authors sent by a concerned parent. The parent did not respond to an email from Wisconsin Examiner seeking comment. Rep. Jesse James.
However, in her emails to James, she indicates that she was motivated to compile the list and reach out after learning about a book she felt was inappropriately available in her daughter’s classroom. The list itself contained books which she feared may also be available in schools. Many of the books on the list cover LGBTQ topics and characters, as well as issues of gender identity or sexuality. Among the titles on the list are “Ask a Queer Chick: A Guide to Sex, Love and Life for Girls” and “Two Boys Kissing,” a young adult novel from 2013 about two teenage boys who try breaking a Guinness World Record by kissing for 32 hours straight. Another title on the list is “It Feels Good to Be Yourself: A Book About Gender Identity”, which introduces readers to the concept of gender identity.
5/22/2022 update starts here
Headline: WTOP, 5/21/2022
On Wednesday, a judge in the Virginia Beach Circuit Court issued a ruling that said the books had probable cause to meet the court’s definition of obscene. That preliminary ruling set the stage for Tim Anderson, a Republican lawyer serving in the Virginia House of Delegates, to file for restraining orders against Barnes & Noble and Virginia Beach Schools to prevent them from selling or loaning the book to minors as the case works its way through court.
5/18/2022 update, "All of Texas gets caught up in GOP book-banning frenzy", starts here.
Headline: Texas Tribune, 5/17/2022
Baker’s experience represents one of many new conflicts facing Texas librarians as book challenges continue to multiply. Many feel left out of decisions on banning books while also facing increased scrutiny from politicians, parents, and county and school district staff. Some have already quit, and others are considering it.
For those librarians working at schools and at public libraries, the pressure to keep some challenged books off the shelves is growing. And some Texas librarians say the insults and threats through social media and the added pressure from supervisors to remove books are taking a toll on the profession.
“It’s the job I’ve always wanted my entire life,” Baker said. “But then it started getting to be a place where it was hostile.”
5/3/2022 update starts here
New York Times, 5/1/2022
This spring, after a member of Moms For Liberty submitted a complaint about “Gender Queer” to the Wappingers Central School District in upstate New York, the book was removed from a high school library. It had never been checked out. A committee of teachers, parents and educators reviewed it, and determined that it was not inappropriate and should be returned. The superintendent, citing sexually explicit images, overruled the committee and brought the issue to the school board, which voted unanimously to uphold the ban.
At a recent school board meeting, a group of students and parents denounced the ban, with one person arguing the book could be a lifeline for young people who are exploring gender identity and whose families are unsupportive. Others called the book pornographic and inappropriate.Just because the book hadn't been checked out doesn't mean that it was never read.
4/28/2022 update starts here
Headline: HuffPost, 4/28/2022
The measure is just one of several proposals introduced in Tennessee this year designed to impose more scrutiny and transparency in public school libraries amid a national spike in book challenges and bans. School librarians have become the target of scorn from Republican lawmakers pushing for more oversight on materials provided to children — particularly those that touch on racism and LGBTQ issues.
Republican Rep. Jerry Sexton, from Bean Station, introduced a last-minute amendment this week to a school bill that would give the state’s textbook commission — which is made up of politically appointed members — veto power over what books end up on school library shelves. Schools would have to provide the commission a list of their library materials.
Democratic Rep. John Ray Clemmons, from Nashville, asked Sexton what he would do with books deemed to be inappropriate.
“You going to put them in the street? Light them on fire? Where are they going?” Clemmons asked.
“I don’t have a clue, but I would burn them,” Sexton said on the House floor.
4/19/2022 update starts here
Headline: Arizona Republic, 4/18/2022
The Republicans who control the Arizona Legislature would like to ban some books.
It's just that, in order to determine which books you want to ban, it is helpful to have read a few books.
You should be able to name the titles in question. You should be able to explain why it is they should not be allowed in school libraries or in classrooms, and what they contain that would have a deleterious effect on students.
Unless, you have no idea how to do that.
Unless, you actually don’t care about that.
At all.
4/16/2022 update, "Kansas state legislator gets caught up in GOP book-banning frenzy", starts here.
Meet Rick Kloos
Headline: Kansas Reflector, 4/15/2022
Kloos, who operates the Topeka thrift story and church God’s Storehouse, issued the ultimatum to Shawnee Heights superintendent Tim Hallacy, arguing the text and visual content of the book should be considered “pornographic.” He said in Facebook posts that Shawnee Heights parents had registered an objection to “Gender Queer,” a 2019 book by Maia Kobabe.
He said he was aware of the broader campaign in the United States to clean out “such books” from school libraries because insights could be consumed by someone as young as 14.
“I am addressing this because the content, whether heterosexual or homosexual, is inappropriate,” Kloos said. “In this case, this book has gone too far, and I pray he takes action for its removal.”
- #2 in LGBTQ+ Graphic Novels (Books)
- #6 in Historical & Biographical Fiction Graphic Novels
- #6 in Biographies & History Graphic Novels
3/29/2022 update starts here
Meet Dan Shaheen
Headline from Yahoo News, 3/17/2022
Patterson, Rep. Dustin Burrows and Rep. Matt Shaheen all reportedly failed to describe pornography and instead referred to the Texas laws on “obscenity” in their reply.
“Texas Penal Code Sec. 43.21. defines obscene materials as 'patently offensive representations or descriptions of ultimate sexual acts, normal or perverted, actual or simulated, including sexual intercourse, sodomy, and sexual bestiality,’” Shaheen said.
Shaheen also gave an example of what he considered “obscene” materials by describing a graphic scene from the fantasy series “Goblin Slayer,” in which women are raped by demons. It was unclear if the legislator was referring to the novel series created by Kumo Kagyu or Kōsuke Kurose’s manga adaptation of the same name, both of which were licensed by Yen Press.
Goblin Slayer is a popular anime series.
Number of RGD reports per state:
5 - Texas
5 - Texas
4 - Iowa
3 - Tennessee
2 - Florida, Idaho, Oklahoma
3 - Tennessee
2 - Florida, Idaho, Oklahoma
1 - Arizona, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Virginia
Meet Jared Patterson
masked up and ready to throw
teachers and librarians in jail
Headline from San Antonio Current, 3/11/2022
Patterson wraps homophobia and racism in an ugly GOP package.
In a letter from last week signed by 26 other Republican lawmakers, Patterson specifically called out the book Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe as an example of porn making its way into school libraries, claiming that the young adult book "graphically illustrates child pornography."
3/12/2022 update starts here
Meet Stephen Meredith
masked up and ready to throw
teachers and librarians in jail
The Mary Sue, 3/7/2022
On March 3, Stella Parton, one of Dolly Parton’s sisters, called out Kentucky state Senator Stephen Meredith after he expressed supposed fears of sending “inappropriate books” to children through the state’s partnership with Dolly Parton‘s Imagination Library. If you were wondering, the answer is no, there’s no recent scandal in this reading program over the age-appropriateness of the books. This is about (incorrectly, insidiously) labeling inclusive children’s titles (some decades old) as pornographic, sexual, or racist.
3/11/2022 update starts here
masked up and ready to throw
teachers and librarians in jail
It’s not immediately clear what was in that “super-secret folder,” though examples brought up in a public hearing last week focused largely on books that depicted LGBTQ characters. [emphasis added]
“Yeah, it’s a super-secret folder and it’s super-secret because it is so disgusting,” said Rep. Ron Nate (R-Rexburg). For him, Nate said these criminal charges would only come into play if a librarian or a school violated a parent’s trust.
Yeah, there's an easy call!
3/10/2022 update starts here
Meet Bruce Skaug
masked up and ready to throw
teachers and librarians in jail
Headline from Boise State Public Radio, 3/7/2022
Rep. Bruce Skaug (R-Nampa) took offense to those examples. (Which, apparently, includes excerpts from Judy Blume's books.)
“I would rather my 6-year-old grandson start smoking cigarettes tomorrow than get a view of this stuff one time at the public library or anywhere else,” Skaug said.
3/2/2022 update starts here
Meet Scott Cepicky
masked up and ready to throw
teachers and librarians in jail
Educators and supporters also packed the room. They say the bill being considered is unconstitutional. “Removal of books from a school library may violate students’ 1st amendment rights if the removal is based on an unconstitutional motivation,” said Lindsey Kimery, the past President of Tennessee Association of School Librarians.
Kimery added, “Librarians are always here to work with parents, we welcome this partnership — it’s a better use of your time to support the Age-Appropriate Materials Act and the State School Library Coordinator Bill.”
Democrats say Republicans are taking an authoritarian approach to public schools.
Meet John O'Connor
Oklahoma Attorney General
LGBTQ Nation, 2/23/2022
Many of the books on the list do celebrate LGBTQ identities, such as Maia Kobabe’s Gender Queer: A Memoir and L.C. Rosen’s Jack of Hearts (And Other Parts), both of which have been challenged across the country.
But there are also classics like Of Mice and Men and Lord of the Flies, and more recent bestsellers like The Perks of Being a Wallflower. O’Connor told The Frontier that he felt compelled to investigate these books after receiving a slew of complaints from parents and conservative groups.
2/9/2022 update starts here
Meet Bill Lee
masked up and
ready to censor
Education Week, 2/7/2022
Less than a week after a local Tennessee school board attracted national attention for banning a Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel about the Holocaust, Gov. Bill Lee went public with a push for more scrutiny of school libraries so students consume “age appropriate” content.
“We are proposing a new law that will ensure parents know what materials are available to students in their libraries,” Lee said during his annual address to the Republican-controlled Legislature. “This law will also create greater accountability at the local level so parents are empowered to make sure content is age-appropriate.”
The Republican’s remarks echo sentiments of conservative officials across the country who are increasingly attempting to limit the exposure of children to certain books, particularly those that touch on structural racism and LGBTQ issues. [emphasis added]
Meet Kimmie the Clown
Des Moines Register, 1/31/2022
The call for publication of school library book titles and curriculums comes as Republicans have taken issue with the content in certain library books that parents have been challenging across the state and country. Reynolds’ approach has drawn support from key Republican members in the House and Senate, and some legislators have proposed taking more aggressive action to crack down on books they describe as obscene.Related reading:
'Washington Post, 2/1/2022
2/1/2022 update starts here
BANNED
51 copies in South Central Library System LINKcat
Meet Bill Nolte
North Carolina school superintendent
masked up and ready to censor
Smoky Mountain News, 1/26/2022
“The intended educational message or purpose of the book was being diminished by the way it was written, by the amount of profanity and innuendo,” said Superintendent Dr. Bill Nolte.
“Dear Martin” is a young adult novel written in 2017 by Andrea Nicole Livingstone, who publishes under the name Nic Stone. It debuted at No. 4 on the New York Times Bestseller List. The book follows Justyce, a Black high-schooler attending a predominantly white preparatory school. After an incident with a police officer turns violent, Justyce begins writing a journal of letters to Martin Luther King, Jr.
1/31/2022 update starts here
Meet Gene McGee
Ridgeland Mississippi mayor
masked up and ready to censor
LGBTQ literature but said he believes some of the books are “inappropriate for children.”
“There is a minimum, sexual connotations are not appropriate for children when they enter the library,” said McGee, a Republican who has been mayor of the Jackson suburb since 1989.
The Ridgeland Board of Aldermen approved the city budget in the fall, and Alderman Ken Heard told WAPT that the mayor doesn’t have the authority to unilaterally deny funds to the library.
Johnson said the library board will request a public hearing before the Board of Aldermen to seek clarification and receive the funds, according to the television station.
1/30/2022 update, "Tennessee Moms for Liberty set high bar for GOP book-banning looney-ness last fall", starts here.
Meet Penny Schwinn
President of Williamson County TN
Moms for Liberty
HuffPost, 9/25/2022
1/29/2022 update starts here
Meet Florida whackjob Jimmy Nelson
masked up and ready to censor
Huff Post, 1/28/2022
One book that’s not on Krause’s list: “The Kite Runner,” [42 copies in South Central Library System LINKcat] a 2003 novel that was among 16 books recently put in “quarantine” by Polk County Public Schools in Florida, after a campaign by County Citizens Defending Freedom, a conservative group.
Asked why the group settled on the books they did, CCDF leader Jimmy Nelson told the Lakeland Ledger that “the books speak for themselves,” but struggled to articulate why The Bible, which also deals with adult themes, should not also be “quarantined.”
1/18/2022 update starts here
Meet Jake Hoffman
Arizona state legislator
masked up and ready to censor
Arizona Republic, 1/26/2022
Rep. Jake Hoffman, R-Queen Creek, passed around sexually explicit pictures from a book to his fellow legislators during Tuesday’s hearing, reportedly showing people having sex and a boy engaged in masturbation. Hoffman didn’t identify the books from which the pictures came or any Arizona schools that actually use the books.
His House Bill 2495 would bar public schools from showing kids sexually explicit material, which, by the way, already is illegal under Arizona law.
But aait, there's more!
Arizona Republic, 10/11/2020
1/27/2022 update starts here
Meet Sandy Garber
Wentzville (MO) School District board member
Salon, 1/26/2022
On Thursday, a Missouri school board voted 4-3 to formally pull Toni Morrison's "The Bluest Eye" from high school libraries in the district. The book, which tells the story of a young Black girl growing up in the Great Depression, includes passages that describe incest and child molestation. Central to the book's premise is the narrator's struggle with society's white standards of beauty, which cause her to develop an inferiority complex around the color of her skin.
Wentzville School Board member Sandy Garber told the St. Louis Post Dispatch that she voted against the book to shield her children from obscenity. "By all means, go buy the book for your child," Garber said. "I would not want this book in the school for anyone else to see..
Meet Joe Gruters
masked and up ready to censor books
Creative Loafing, 1/25/2022
Committees that advise school boards on the “ranking, eliminating or selecting” of books and other materials would be required to include parents and community members.
School boards also would have to adopt procedures that provide for the “regular removal or discontinuance” of library books based on criteria including “alignment to state academic standards” and out-of-date content.
“The purpose of the bill is to create transparency in the process. It’s not to censor anything. It’s about giving people the opportunity to understand exactly what is being offered to their students, in terms of instructional materials,” Gruters said.
1/22/2022 update starts here
Meet Jake Chapman
masked up and ready to censor books
Iowa Starting Line, 1/10/2022
“The time has come to take a stand,” Chapman began his opening speech this morning. “It has become increasingly evident that we live in a world in which many, including our media, wish to confuse, misguide and deceive us, calling good evil and evil good. One doesn’t have to look far to see the sinister agenda occurring right before our eyes.”
What came next was a follow-through on the threats he’d been making at various suburban Des Moines school districts in recent months, vowing to start imprisoning teachers over books available in schools that Chapman views as “obscene.” It’s been part of a long-running, far-right online effort to ban a number of books that describe experiences of LGBTQ people and persons of color because the books have a few sexually explicit passages in them. [emphasis added]
1/13/2022 update starts here
Meet Bonnie Anderson
masked up and ready to censor books
Earlier this month, a petition with about 400 signatures created by a Katy ISD parent called for the virtual event to be canceled, according to our partners at the Houston Chronicle. The parent claimed the author's books promote critical race theory and anti-white rhetoric.
"It's not that I don't like the books," Bonnie Anderson, the parent who created the petition, told The Chron. "I checked all the books out and watched all of [Craft's] interviews and he discusses microaggressions, which is a racial term coined by the conceptual founders of critical race theory. That let me know the ideology of these books."
"It's not that I don't like these books."
Sorta like, "Some of my best friends are Black."
Related reading:
Word of advice on banning Black authors: Don't. (Daily Kos, 1/12/2022
1/1/2022 update starts here
State Sen. Rob Standridge (R) introduced Senate Bill 1142, which would allow parents to request that a book be removed from libraries in a school district. The bill bans all books "that make as their primary subject the study of sex, sexual preferences, sexual activity, sexual perversion, sex-based classifications, sexual identity, or gender identity or books that are of a sexual nature that a reasonable parent or legal guardian would want to know of or approve of prior to their child being exposed to it."
Raw Story, 12/27/2021
12/7/2021 update starts here
Meet Jan Jones, GOP Speaker pro tem
Georgia House of Representatives
and one of the books she wants to ban
Atlanta Journal Constitution, 12/7/2021
Back then, she called Garry McGiboney, who was then a deputy state school superintendent, to discuss the proposal. He relayed to fellow education officials in a January 2020 email that Jones is “concerned that this may get some momentum and she wants to head it off by taking a position with the Caucus about the bill.”
Asked about the email this week, Jones said she didn’t recall encouraging state education officials to help her “head off” such legislation. But she said she raised concerns about penalizing educators who might have inadvertently or unintentionally exposed students to “age-inappropriate material.”
[snip]
(State education officials downplayed McGiboney’s email, saying it was written by an employee who has since left the agency and wasn’t involved in policy or legislative affairs. Spokeswoman Meghan Frick said the agency gave Jones “basic information” about existing law in response to her 2020 request.)Seems like we have a 'bridge' offer here.
12/6/2021 update, "Sherman Alexie gets caught up in GOP book-banning frenzy", starts here.
Meet Iowa State Sen. Brad Zaun
masked up and ready to join the frenzy
The Iowa Standard, 11/24/2021
Zaun told the committee he had read most of both books and his reaction was feeling stick to his stomach.
“I can tell you it would be an indication when the principal cannot even read publicly what’s being printed in these books,” he said. “It should just give you a heads up.”
Next up, lip service: Zaun said he understands efforts to expand diversity in educational materials having authored legislation regarding racial profiling. But he also said the materials being given to students are not appropriate.
12/2/2021 update starts here
The Jerusalem Post, 12/1/2021
This year’s Virginia governor’s race was a burning example. Republican candidate (and winner) Glenn Youngkin gave his tacit endorsement to book burning when he ran a campaign ad featuring a mother who wanted Toni Morrison’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Beloved removed from her son’s school library.
He even spoke in favor of allowing students to refuse reading assignments their parents considered too explicit.
12/1/2021 update, "GET ME REWRITE: Michael Patrick Leahy ignores GOP book-banning frenzy, serves up mix of pearl-clutching and hypocrisy", starts here.
Top headline: Ohio Star, 12/1/2021
Bottom headline: NPR, 11/13/2021
About The Ohio Star
Michael Patrick Leahy is the CEO and Editor-in-chief of Star News Digital Media, which owns and operates a family of state focused conservative news sites, including The Tennessee Star, The Ohio Star, The Michigan Star, The Minnesota Sun, The Virginia Star, The Georgia Star News, The Florida Capital Star, The Arizona Sun Times, The Wisconsin Daily Star, and Th Star News Network.
He is also the host of The Tennessee Star Report, broadcast weekday mornings from 5 am to 8 am on 98.3 FM and 1510 WLAC in Nashville.
11/25/2021 update, " Homophobia appears to be the primary engine driving GOP book-banning frenzy", starts here.
Rise up and fight back!
Truthout, 11/23/2021
“The banning of books in the United States, which bears a dangerous resemblance to the Nazi book burning, represents a startling vision of the Republican Party’s disdain for democracy and its willingness to resurrect totalitarian practices linked to earlier periods of censorship, repression, terror and state violence,” Giroux said.
11/24/2021 update starts here
39 copies in LINKcat
New York Times, 11/23/2021
My 2012 book “Far From the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity” was on Krause’s list. Finding my work thus blacklisted disturbingly evoked a childhood during which I was shunned and abused for being gay, in which I felt ashamed, defenseless, sad and epically vulnerable. I had written my book to help people, and now it was being held up as derelict and unpatriotic. The story of my life as a gay person — which had been elevated (along with those of many others) by the 2015 Obergefell decision that legalized gay marriage nationally — was relegated anew to a margin I thought I had finally escaped. Could my book’s additional demonstration of familial compassion for transgender children injure the society within which I had long fought to be recognized and accepted?
11/14/2021 update starts here
Publishing Perspectives, 11/9/2021
During the pre-order period, The 1619 Project at Amazon.com swiftly has become the No. 1 bestseller in African American Demographic Studies and in Black and African American History and Born on the Water has become the No. 2 bestseller in Children’s American Revolution History and No. 3 in Children’s Multicultural Biographies.
Washington Post, 4/7/2021
GOP Censorship
Though Trump is gone, animus toward the project remains, and Republican lawmakers in a handful of states, including Iowa and Missouri, have introduced bills in their state legislative bodies that would punish school districts that use the 1619 Project by cutting federal funding.
11/13/2021 update, "Homophobia appears to be the primary engine driving GOP book-banning frenzy", starts here.
Owned by 14 LINKcat public libraries
The Texas Tribune, 11/12/2021
Kathy May was getting her four kids ready for another day at school in late October when she got an urgent voicemail from a friend.
“OMG, OMG, this book,” her friend said, alerting May to a book found by another parent in the library catalogue of Keller Independent School District, where their kids go, called “Gender Queer: A Memoir,” by Maia Kobabe.
“I felt sick and disgusted,” May said, recalling text messages her friend sent her showing sexually explicit illustrations from the book. She was angry that any kid could access that kind of book in a public high school without their parents’ knowledge.
Dear Kathy,
''Oral sex' is in the dictionary. Along with two other words of which you probably don't approve.
Best,
Retiring Guy
Original 11/11/2021 post, "Here’s the latest likely target in the GOP book-banning frenzy", stats here.
NPR, 11/11/2021
That's the story in the new children's book Calvin. Authors JR and Vanessa Ford show how their young protagonist navigates the complicated feelings of being a transgender kid and how he comes into expressing who he really is, with illustrations from Kayla Harren. The Fords are also parents to two children, one who is trans and inspired this book. Ellie first raised the topic shortly after their 5th birthday — the family is now six years into their journey.
The Fitchburg Public Library has the book on order. Likely thate other LINKcat libraries will follow suit.
Related reading:
‘Calvin’ children’s book gives transgender youth a superhero. (Boston GLobe, 11/8/2021)
‘Calvin’ children’s book gives transgender youth a superhero. (Boston GLobe, 11/8/2021)
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