CHICAGO (LifeSiteNews) – A group of teachers’ unions, librarians, and book publishers have formed a coalition of more than two dozen organizations that oppose banning sexually explicit and pro-LGBTQ books in schools.
“United Against Book Bans,” a coalition led by the American Library Association (ALA), formed last month in reaction to parents’ protests of sexually explicit books. The organization has expanded to include publishers Macmillan, Penguin Random House, and Simon & Schuster. Also included in the coalition are teachers’ unions the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the National Educators Association (NEA). The Human Rights Campaign, a pro-LGBTQ organization that advocates for child “sex changes,” is also involved.
“This is a dangerous time for readers and the public servants who provide access to reading materials,” said Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of the ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom in a statement Tuesday. “It’s time that policymakers understand the severity of this issue. ALA is taking the steps necessary to protect individual’s access to information, but we can’t do this alone.”
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Last month, the ALA released a survey of the top ten books that have been banned or threatened with a ban. The two most banned books on the list were Maia Kobabe’s Gender Queer: A Memoir and Jonathan Evison’s Lawn Boy. Both books contain graphic depictions of homosexual acts and have been subject to protest by parents for their content. Lawn Boy has been accused of promoting pedophilia.
One man in Florida was escorted out of a meeting last October for reading from Gender Queer on account of the book’s content. A similar occurrence happened in Fairfax County, Virginia, in November when a parent was asked to refrain from reading Gender Queer aloud at a meeting as children were present. The book was put back on Fairfax County school shelves after a brief ban.
According to Randi Weingarten, president of AFT, conservatives are responsible for the challenge to sexual books like Gender Queer.
“Parents agree – they want their children to learn the lessons of the past in an age-appropriate way, even as certain politicians try to turn classrooms into cultural battlefields and censor what gets taught,” she said in a statement. “The majority of these bans target titles with racial and LGBTQ themes, cruelly erasing young readers’ lived experience.”
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UPDATE (1/29/21) - On day one of the new administration, Biden signed an Executive Order dismantling girls sports, and allowing biological boys back into girls locker-rooms.
The order declares: "Children should be able to learn without worrying about whether they will be denied access to the rest room, the locker room, or school sports. . . . All persons should receive equal treatment under the law, no matter their gender identity or sexual orientation."
This affront to reason effectively signals an end to girls' and women's sports, and diminishes their effort to compete on a level playing field.
Though this petition has already been delivered once, we will deliver new signatures to the US Dept of Education when restrictions permit, in honor of Selina Soule, who filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) in 2019.
UPDATE (5/29/20) - US Dep’t of Education: Letting males compete in girls’ sports violates female athletes’ civil rights
UPDATE (2/13/20) - Selina Soule and two other Connecticut high school girl track athletes, Alanna Smith and Chelsea Mitchell, have sued the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference (CIAC) to stop boys who claim to be girls from competing in their sport.
Soule is the same high school girl who, last year, filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR). That complaint is still ongoing, as the OCR has not yet handed down its guidance ruling.
This also explains why this petition is still ongoing. Please SIGN and SHARE.
But, with another track season soon coming to an end, the girls' attorneys have asked the Court for an injunction that would stop the CIAC from implementing its current policy while the lawsuit proceeds.
Soule, Smith, and Mitchell will soon run in regional and state meets, competing for state championships. This year, they would like to have the opportunity to win, fair and square.
Please learn more about the latest news concerning this case, here: https://www.lifesitenews.com/opinion/three-girls-sue-state-to-stop-boys-who-say-theyre-girls-from-competing-in-their-sport
Then, please SIGN this petition. Thank you!
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Selina Soule is a female athlete who now must compete against biological males because of Connecticut's policy requiring that boys who identify as girls be admitted into girls' sports competitions.
But, when boys compete in girls' sports, they win because they have a natural advantage. It's scientifically proven, and it's also common sense.
This crushes the motivation of the biological girls who have worked hard to compete on a level playing field, only to enter into competitions which they can never win, despite all of their efforts.
It also puts girls into harm's way in contact sports, AND it deprives female athletes of their right to fairly compete for college scholarships and other accolades.
This is wrong! And, that's why this URGENT petition supports Selina and all the other female athletes out there, who have put in the hours on the track or on the court.
Please SIGN this common sense petition supporting Selina Soule's complaint to the Dept of Education's Office for Civil Rights, against Connecticut's discriminatory policy.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/high-school-girl-files-federal-complaint-for-having-to-race-boys
*Above photo credit: Michael Goodin / The Daily Signal
Meg Kilgannon, senior fellow of education studies at the Family Research Council, an organization dedicated to defending parental rights in education, disagreed, telling the Washington Times, “Parents don’t want children to access pornography anywhere, especially not at libraries they patronize and pay for.”
“Adults who want to select books for school libraries should welcome community input and reflect community standards, especially the wishes of parents who pay for and provide the students for public schools,” Kilgannon said.
The coalition comes in the wake of Florida’s Parental Rights in Education law, which forbids discussion of gender theory and sexuality in K-3 classrooms. It also comes in the wake of Glenn Youngkin’s successful campaign to become governor of Virginia, in which the issue of parental rights in education played a part after Democrat incumbent Terry McAuliffe said that he did not think that parents should have a say in school curricula.