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Hi Friends,
It’s time for another update on the state of book banning in America — and like so much of the country right now, it’s a dumpster fire.
The Republican party — you know, the ones that want state’s rights and small government that stays out of our lives (unless you’re talking about our medical care, what bathrooms we use, how we vote, and who we marry) now is intent on telling us — nationwide — what books are appropriate for kids to read.
Rep. Mary Miller (R-Ill.) has introduced H.B. 7661, which would be a national law modeled on some of the state laws that exist already in places like Florida and Texas. It would take federal funds away from public schools and school libraries that contain books that include “gender dysphoria or transgenderism.”
Sound familiar? It should, given the right wing’s current favorite game of codifying their base by marginalizing a very tiny marginalized group even more. But wait! There’s more! The bill wants to also ban “sexually oriented material.” That includes literature that includes “nude adults, adults who are stripping, or lewd or lascivious dancing.” How very, very Footloose of them.
As someone whose book (Nineteen Minutes) has been removed so many times from school libraries due to “mature or sexual content” that it’s the fourth most banned book in America this year (down from #1 last year!) I think I’m entitled to push back. Who gets to decide what constitutes sexually oriented material — beyond pole dancing, apparently. This same vague language has been used in state book bans and leaves great room for interpretation, which has led media specialists in those states to proactively pull books they think MIGHT fall under that generic category, or risk facing felonies and fines. The bill does go on to define “sexually oriented material” as anything surrounding “gender dysphoria or transgenderism.” I’m pretty sure transgenderism is not a word, which these reps might know if they actually read books instead of banning them. But you see, a definition that includes everything from dancing to gender identity can be easily stretched to include anything that the banners find objectionable — LGBTQ authors and themes, mature themes and content, even when they are not salacious.
Let’s be clear: Making diverse books available so that kids understand there are many different types of people in the world is not sexualization. Talking about gender is not sexualization. Being associated with Jeffrey Epstein IS. Mistakenly defining sexualization of kids with this ridiculous bill reflects more on the adults who created it, than the books themselves or the kids who read them.
Ron Charles, formerly the book editor at the Washington Post, has pointed out that Miller, during a rally outside the Capitol in 2021, said, “Hitler was right on one thing. He said, ‘Whoever has the youth has the future'.”
Know this: they are starting with youth, but they are not planning to stop there. Just as state book banning bills in schools have morphed into bans at public libraries, rest assured that if HR 7661 passes, you’re only a step away from losing your dragons and your shadow daddies and your crime thrillers yanked off public library shelves, too.
I know what side of history is right here, and which side I want to be on. Do you? You know the drill. Call your reps. Tell them to veto this bill. Because this is just the start.
And remember the big picture, here. This is not simply a bill about getting rid of books. It’s a bill about erasing certain people from America. And it’s a bill designed to prevent kids from thinking critically about the world they live in, and maybe even - GASP — opposing the party line. Which is exactly what this administration fears.
If books, and words, and ideas weren’t so powerful — they wouldn’t be trying to erase them.
XO,
Jodi
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