Conservative reading of lgbtq
Supreme Court leans toward parents in dispute over LGBTQ storybooks in school
The Supreme Court’s conservative majority on Tuesday signaled that it is poised to establish a right of parents to opt-out their children from public institution instruction that conflicts with sincerely held religious beliefs.
The case, brought by a group of Christian, Muslim and Jewish parents from Montgomery County, Maryland, specifically seeks a guaranteed exemption from the classroom reading of storybooks with LGBTQ themes, including gay marriage and exploration of gender identity.
The parents allege exploit of the books in elementary college curriculum -- without an opportunity to be excused -- amounts to government-led indoctrination about sensitive matters of sexuality. The school board insists the books merely expose kids to diverse viewpoints and ideas.
The justices engaged in spirited debate for more than 2 1/2 hours of oral arguments, wrestling with where to sketch the line between exposure and coercion, which is forbidden under the First Amendment.
“Is merely entity exposed to the reading of the book out noisy coercion?” asked Justice Sonia Sotomayor of the parents’ attorney Eric Baxter
Don’t Say Gay: Three Alumni Authors Say Out on LGBTQ Book Bans
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LGBTQ+
BU lgbtq+ authors discuss guide bans, and what targeted restrictions express for all readers
Book bans have reached a record steep over the past two years.
The number of demands to remove books from library shelves topped 1,200 in 2022—more than double the total from 2021 and marking a 20-year tall, according to the American Library Association. PEN America’s Index of School Manual Bans listed 1,477 instances of novel bans in schools across the territory, representing almost 900 different titles, from July 1 to December 30, 2022. The targets were overwhelmingly titles by and about people of color and LGBTQ+ individuals, according to PEN America.
It all marks a major shift from when Sarah Prager published her first book, in 2017. Prager (CAS’08) is the author of several queer history books for children and young adults. Her titles Queer, There, and Everywhere: 27 People Who Changed the World (HarperCollins, 2017) and Rainbow Revolutionaries: 50 LGBTQ+ People Who Made History (HarperCollins Children’s, 2020) own both been placed on “restricted” lists or singled out by legisl
Who’s getting hurt most by soaring LGBTQ guide bans? Librarians say kids.
When Schuyler Bailar was a child, he didn’t observe many books that reflected his identity. Not his mixed-race identity, and especially not his developing gender identity. It’s one of the reasons the first openly transgender NCAA Division I swimmer decided to write “Obie is Male Enough,” a 2021 novel about a transgender middle school swimmer.
“I wanted to write about kids love me because kids prefer me exist,” said Bailar, a 2019 graduate of the College. “Writing this story would be a way to help remind other kids like me that they’re not alone.”
But getting books about LGBTQ issues into the hands of young readers is becoming more difficult with the recent rise of book bans across the nation. PEN America recorded more school bans during the fall 2022 semester than in the prior two. The American Library Association documented 1,269 bids to ban or restrict books in libraries last year. This is the highest number since the group began tracking the issue two decades ago and nearly doubles the previous record set in 2021. Nearly half — 45.5 percent — of 2,571 unique titles challenged were written by or about
Kai found Jesus as a teenager. A person of white and Hawaiian descent, Kai now goes by gender-neutral pronouns and identifies as “māhū,” the traditional Hawaiian term for someone in-between masculine and feminine. But when they first became Christian, the high-schooler identified as gay – and was committed to celibacy.
Kai – a pseudonym to protect their privacy – embraced their church’s “welcoming but not affirming” teachings about LGBTQ+ people, agreeing that same-sex connection was incompatible with creature Christian. It felt wonderful to be sacrificing for the Lord, Kai recalls. But they eventually realized they were harming themself.
“I found myself unconsciously shutting down connection,” Kai told us. “Inside, I was crumbling in every moment because I was so fervently policing myself.”
Kai believed – and their church taught – that God’s own love is a gift, freely given. Nevertheless, they still felt that to be worthy of that love, Kai had to “surrender” their orientation and need for passionate connection, even with friends.
“It took me a extended time to be qualified to look back on that and say, ‘Those were days when I hated myself,’” Kai said. “I hated myself for the sake of demonstrat
How conservative and liberal guide bans differ amid increase in literary restrictions
The territory saw a growing attempt to ban books in schools and libraries nationwide in 2022, and researchers expect to see more efforts to challenge books in 2023 as some Republican-backed laws across the country aim to restrict LGBTQ and racial content in school books.
While activists across the political spectrum have sought to restrict or protest some forms of literature, the huge majority of book challenges are from conservative-leaning groups, researchers say. Only a handful of efforts contain also come from liberal sources, mainly targeting books with racist or disgusting language.
"If you get five people and they stroll through a library and they are allowed to remove anything they consider might get someone in trouble for it existence there -- Well, they're going to start pulling all kinds of stuff, a conservative person and progressive person," Jonathan Friedman, the director of free expression and education programs at PEN America, told ABC News. "We all have different issues that we think shouldn't be in books -- historic representations of racism, for example, something li