School District Bans All Books with Gay Characters, in Iceberg-Tip Move
A schools superintendent in Charlotte County, Florida recently ordered librarians to purge all school libraries and all classrooms of all books containing transgender and/or gay characters — even if the books contain no sexual content — citing Florida’s Don’t Say Gay law. (Officially, the Florida Parental Rights in Education Act.)
He backed down slightly after public uproar, but his edict is merely one spark in a book-banning bonfire consuming school libraries and public libraries across the U.S.
This week is the American Library Association’s 41st annual Banned Books Week, which has taken on new and frightening meaning in a nation once known for revering education and learning. This year’s theme is “Let
It’s personal for me, as I remembered this morning while reading a gut-wrenching essay by Sam Thomas, a gay man in the U.K. whose classmates bullied him so terribly in school that he used to retreat to the boys toilets to overeat and then purge. While reading, I couldn’t help but remember the time I ran into a church restroom to vomit. I had just connected the dots of the preacher’s sermon and realized I was one of the “perverted sinners” he was condemning.
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