<
https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/05/23/lgbtq-book-ban-challengers/>
"Books about LGBTQ people are fast becoming the main target of a historic wave
of school book challenges — and a large percentage of the complaints come from
a minuscule number of hyperactive adults, a first-of-its-kind
Washington Post
analysis found.
A stated wish to shield children from sexual content is the main factor
animating attempts to remove LGBTQ books,
The Post found. The second most
common reason cited for pulling LGBTQ texts was an explicit desire to prevent
children from reading about lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, nonbinary and
queer lives.
The Post requested copies of all book challenges filed in the 2021-2022
school year with the 153 school districts that Tasslyn Magnusson, a researcher
employed by the free expression advocacy group PEN America, tracked as
receiving formal requests to remove books last school year. In total, officials
in more than 100 of those school systems, which are spread across 37 states,
provided 1,065 complaints totaling 2,506 pages.
The Post analyzed the complaints to determine who was challenging the books,
what kinds of books drew objections and why. (
The Post used 986 of the
complaints in the analysis; the others were unusable because they were
illegible or from outside the 2021-2022 school year.) Nearly half of filings —
43 percent — targeted titles with LGBTQ characters or themes, while 36 percent
targeted titles featuring characters of color or dealing with issues of race
and racism. The top reason people challenged books was “sexual” content; 61
percent of challenges referenced this concern.
In nearly 20 percent of the challenges, petitioners wrote that they wanted
texts pulled from shelves because the titles depict lesbian, gay, queer,
bisexual, homosexual, transgender or nonbinary lives. Many challengers wrote
that reading books about LGBTQ people could cause children to alter their
sexuality or gender."
Via Charlie Stross, who wrote "ELEVEN BIGOTS, FOLKS. JUST ELEVEN BIGOTS are
trying to destroy public education across the USA" and Kevin O'Brien.
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
