Banned: Books on race and sexuality are disappearing from Texas schools in record numbers

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

KATY, Texas — From a secluded spot in her high school library, a 17-year-old girl spoke softly into her cellphone, worried that someone might overhear her say the things she’d hidden from her parents for years. They don’t know she’s queer, the student told a reporter, and given their past comments about homosexuality’s being a sin, she’s long feared they would learn her secret if they saw what she reads in the library.

That space, with its endless rows of books about characters from all sorts of backgrounds, has been her “safe haven,” she said — one of the few places where she feels completely free to be herself.

But books, including one of her recent favorites, have been vanishing from the shelves of Katy Independent School District libraries the past few months.

Gone: “Jack of Hearts (and Other Parts),” a book she’d read last year about a gay teenager who isn’t shy about discussing his adventurous sex life. Also banished: “The Handsome Girl and Her Beautiful Boy,” “All Boys Aren’t Blue” and “Lawn Boy” — all coming-of-age stories that prominently feature LGBTQ characters and passages about sex. Some titles were removed after parents formally complained, but others were quietly banned by the district without official reviews.

“As I’ve struggled with my own identity as a queer person, it’s been really, really important to me that I have access to these books,” said the girl, whom NBC News is not naming to avoid revealing her sexuality. “And I’m sure it’s really important to other queer kids. You should be able to see yourself reflected on the page.”

Her safe haven is now a battleground in an unprecedented effort by parents and conservative politicians in Texas to ban books dealing with race, sexuality and gender from schools, an NBC News investigation has found. Hundreds of titles have been pulled from libraries across the state for review, sometimes over the objections of school librarians, several of whom told NBC News they face increasingly hostile work environments and mounting pressure to pre-emptively pull books that might draw complaints.

The rest at: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/texas-books-race-sexuality-schools-rcna13886?cid=sm_npd_ms_fb_lw&fbclid=IwAR2-d8tZaM0_2Str7MYwa9oQzOJqNOrKmsW8b9a-EZveNgPc0Uv923UDjmw

[Woodswalker]

1. During Trumps

Term when I saw the surge of white nationalist come out of the wood work I would jokingly say when do the book burnings start. Well I guess now

[Tickle]

2. Poor thing ☹️

Can she go on the internet and read? She could still be in the library and read

[Withywindle]

4. the point is that books by and about people like her being banned

make her feel that her own self is unwanted and in danger. And she's right about that. If LGBTQ books are unacceptable in schools, then obviously the people they are about are unacceptable in schools too? Even if they're students who belong there?

The drive to get LGBTQ books out of schools is a drive to go back to a time when those identities were shameful and couldn't be talked about, and that led to many suicides.

It's not just about books. It's about people.

[DanieRains]

3. Another Case Of Religion Doing More Harm Than Good

Buuuuuuuuuuut Jeeeeeeeeeezus.....

Assholes.

[DFW]

5. The less Texas youth knows about sex, the more pregnancies they will have to deal with

And then the more botched fatal and near fatal abortions there will be. Not that a Texas Republican gives a rat's ass about that. They can always find a way to get their own kids safe, discreet abortions.

These idiots can outlaw books on sex all they want. They can forbid sex education all they want. But they can't outlaw hormones--you know, those things that their all-powerful god put in each of us.