<
https://theconversation.com/dont-say-gay-rules-and-book-bans-might-have-felt-familiar-in-medieval-europe-but-queer-themes-in-literature-survived-nonetheless-228974>
"Americans have been challenging books at an unprecedented rate. According to
the American Library Association, people requested that more than 4,200 titles
be removed from public and school libraries in 2023, the highest number in a
single year since the ALA started tracking more than 20 years ago.
These challenges are compounded by new and proposed legislation in many states.
Florida’s Parental Rights in Education Act, for example, prohibits schools from
discussing sexual orientation or gender identity in many grades, while a 2022
Missouri law makes sharing “explicit sexual material” in schools a misdemeanor.
Such mandates have led librarians to pull materials from shelves.
Material written by or about LGBTQ+ people is often at the heart of book
challenges and legislation.
“More and more, we’re seeing challenges that say, simply, This book has a gay
character, or, This book deals with L.G.B.T.Q. themes, even if it has no
sexuality in it,” Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of the ALA’s Office for
Intellectual Freedom, told
The New York Times in April 2024.
As a scholar of medieval literature and religion, I’ve been struck by the
resonances between modern and medieval censorship of queer texts. Both have
been shaped by a sort of “Don’t Say Gay” mindset: an assumption that even
seeing or talking about LGBTQ+ themes poses a threat to children and society,
regardless of how it’s done."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
