The Sad State

 

@ALALIBRARY

You know what? JM was just talking at OpenAWindow about the #Don'tSayGay bullshit and I decided to jump right in and add my voice to the chorus of people wondering what the fuck happened with Freedom of Expression in the United States.

“The 729 challenges tracked by ALA represent the highest number of attempted book bans since we began compiling these lists 20 years ago,” said ALA President Patricia “Patty” Wong. “We support individual parents' choices concerning their child's reading and believe that parents should not have those choices dictated by others. Young people need to have access to a variety of books from which they can learn about different perspectives. So, despite this organized effort to ban books, libraries remain ready to do what we always have: make knowledge and ideas available so people are free to choose what to read.”

@ALA

Seven hundred and twenty-nine. That's the number of complaints the association has received. And all because the conservative snowflakes just do not want their 'children' to read. Or be aware of sexual orientation. Or the history of racism in this country. Or about other religions. But mainly, about sexual orientation as in the case of #Don'tSayGay. The thing is that there are no discussions of sexual orientation in grades one through three, as this bill would have you believe, and it opens the door for teachers to be sued.

Beyond branding, a core argument over the bill centers around whether it would prohibit the “instruction” or “discussion” of sexual orientation.

The bill’s sponsors have emphatically stated that the bill would not prohibit students from talking about their LGBTQ families or bar classroom discussions about LGBTQ history, including events like the 2016 deadly attack on the Pulse nightclub, a gay club in Orlando. Instead, they argue that the bill would bar the “instruction” of sexual orientation or gender identity.

But the text says both.

@NBC 

@AP

Also, it's not like a child can receive sexual education without their parents' consent in most of the United States:

Many states define parents’ rights concerning sexual education:

Twenty-five states and the District of Columbia require school districts to notify parents that sexual or HIV education will be provided.

Five states require parental consent before a child can receive instruction.

Thirty-six states and the District of Columbia allow parents to opt-out on behalf of their children.

@NCSL

@ALA.ORG

But you know that it's all about censorship. Just hone in the infographic above and it is absolutely clear all of this is just plain censorship. The bigots are trying to influence the law to silence the voices they don't like. There are SIXTEEN states pushing a version of the Don't Say Gay bullshit they passed in Flori-duh (as Bob calls it). Oh, don't believe me? I invite you to go to @THEADVOCATE and take a peep. And it's nothing new. The Religulous bigots of the Religious Wrong have been trying to push a version or another of this for YEARS:

Before there was “don’t say gay,” there was “no promo homo” — bills that proliferated in the 1980s and ’90s as conservative legislators responded to the AIDS crisis by seeking to ban what they considered “promotion of homosexuality” in schools, especially in sex education courses. These bills became law in states including Alabama, Arizona, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, and Utah. The laws have now been repealed or struck down in all but four states: Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Texas, according to GLSEN.

@THEADVOCATE

So what can you do, says, you? 

Well, you can start by uniting against book bans, which is directly connected to the Don't Say Gay bullshit. You can also start your one (Wo)man crusade at the local level, and do like me and join your local Public Library. Sometimes the simpler solutions are the best. And the most gratifying. I don't have the ear of my congresswoman -love you Tammy!-, but I went to my Public Library and got a weapon: a fucking library card. And I have been requesting EACH AND EVERY ONE OF THE BANNED BOOKS IN THE LIST so I can read them all. And if there's a cute gay romance novel in the mix while I look for the banned books? I'll bring it home too. Because why the fuck not? 

@ALA.ORG

I have seven of these books already in the works. My Public Library allows me to create reading lists that I then use to plan my reading. I just finished Jack of Hearts by L.C. Rosen and am currently reading We Are The Ants, by Shaun David Hutchinson, one of the 18 LGBTQ+ books banned in Texas, and I have Gender Queer, by Maia Kobabeone of the most vitriolically hated books by the Religulous Wrong in my list, too. You can see them in the photo above, along with Boyfriend Material (a fun romance novel) and ACE, a book about Asexuality. See, you can combine some scholarly work with mindless entertainment. 

We don't need big gestures to combat the bigots, we can sign up to be elected fucking Dog Catcher if we want a start in politics, but we need to make a difference somehow. So what about you, Constant Reader? Do you own a Library Card? Do you KNOW where you local Public Library is located? My plead to you is to get a library card if you don't have one (if you do have one, *SMOOCHES!*) and take this list of books to your local Library and ASK YOUR LIBRARIAN FOR THEM. Yes, I'm using all caps, because of course I am. 

Use your strength as a taxpayer to ask for these books in your local Library. If they don't have one of them or any of them, they'll do interlibrary loan and will get them for you. I know it's possible because I have two books (Lawn Boy and This Book is Gay) requested. And Lawn Boy has quite the crazy story. Click on the link. It's typical bigot hysteria. 

So get your summer reading list ready. And also tell your cousins and nephews and nieces, if you don't have children. Or tell your grand-nephews and grand-nieces about these books, if you have them.  You don't need a big gesture, you don't have to go and bitch-slap Death Santis (oh the joy!). The idea is to bring these topics to the open, to make them 'normal'. The conservatives want to keep them in the dark. Do not let them.

Oh, and remember to VOTE! Vote all those motherfucking Repugs off government positions. Vote and get the Marjorie Three Names, the -real- pedophiles and the bimbos with husbands who show their dicks to schoolgirls off the American government. Today they are trying to ban a book about a teen falling in love with another teen. Tomorrow they are coming for your ass. Oh, you don't believe me? Remember Roe VS Wade? 

XOXO

P.S. if you are one the 'petition' people, go ahead and sign this one.