I heard through the grapevine that a former colleague of mine had a run in with the censorship police (aka Christian Nationalists) on a crusade to prevent the government supported library and he as the head librarian from making a book called Gender Queer by Maia Kababe available to the general public. What prompted me to write this blog was a bloated, arrogant, and pious article by a retired Assembly of God clergyman. He claims the book is pornography, accused the librarian of breaking the law, and then slandered the librarian and his wife within the article, while making many assumptions out of context via a holy crusade. Ubi est humilitas tua serviens Domino?

https://christiananswerman.com/library-above-the-law/

I abhor the application of Christian idealism when it comes to the operations of governance. I believe in the separation of church and state as it is healthy for the country. A public library is state sponsored. It receives a tax levy, has a board of trustees, and it must meet all of the standards of freedom of choice sponsored by our Constitution. The board of trustees job is to check and balance all decisions based on the culture of the community and the needs of all populations served by the library (majority and minority.) Regardless of opinion. The clergyman in question runs all over this with religion, spouting pornography… marketing to children… breaking the law… (insert Judas Priest here,) with very little evidence other than value judgment to support their version of the context. In my opinion this article reads like a self-absorbed bloated sermon trying to stir up the masses to fight the infidels that threaten one’s entitlement.

Anyway, the book is a graphic novel memoir. A graphic novel uses illustrations and drawings to assist the reader’s imagination directly. I know many 20-30 somethings that read graphic novels. It is Kababe’s story dealing with gender dysphoria, euphoria, and asexuality. I have not read it personally. I haven’t dealt with these topics personally like the author has. They have a right to share their story and a publishing company had the right to publish and distribute it for sale. Based on the Wiki article the book was initially marketed to older teens and young adults. I presume 17-25 years of age. When it won an award the marketing grew and readership expanded to children as young as 12. The book has been a target for censorship due to some graphic scenes of sexuality through some of the illustrations. Is the intent pornography (for arousal and sexual gratification) or is it to tell a story of one’s experience? This is the line the clergyman doesn’t provide context or support for. He just lumps the author’s memoir in with the Playboys, Hustlers, etc…

I feel the greater issue that the clergyman and many others have with the book is fear of LBGTQ sexuality being in print. Fear of indoctrination into a perceived lifestyle for their children. Well identifying as LBGTQ isn’t a lifestyle choice. The World Health Organization has many studies regarding gender and sexuality. I suggest reading a few. https://www.who.int/health-topics/gender#tab=tab_1 No one is indoctrinating anyone into the club. Kababe isn’t trying to initiate anyone’s child into a secret society. They are simply sharing their story. By sharing a story, one may be able to understand their own feelings, identity, and being by using the author’s experiences as analogies for their own. If the reader learns something about themselves than what harm will the book’s illustrations do. Mr. clergyman is denying that right of self by declaring it pornography based on some bible passages and accusations of broken laws?!? See list of Supreme Court cases on obscenity:(https://firstamendment.mtsu.edu/encyclopedia/case/obscenity-and-pornography/) No laws have been broken.

Let’s look at a public library’s holdings. I chose the city library I live in. I typed “sex” into the book search. I found 3054 books have sex referenced. 370 have sex role as a descriptor. 298 romance fiction titles (some get pretty steamy.) 281 man-woman relationship titles. Finally 66 young adult fiction titles with sex in the descriptor. Nikol Hasler’s book Sex would probably fall into the gray area of Mr. clergyman’s pornographic rant… but it didn’t… only a book on gender dysphoria did in a small city dominated by republican Christian Nationalist politics.

Mr. clergyman and the concerned citizens don’t want their children to read this book. Not a problem. Don’t check it out. Problem solved! As a parent, I’m more concerned by what my teenage children are digesting on Tik Tok, Facebook, Instagram, Snap Chat, and the lousy 18 and over boxes to access real porn on the net via their phones. All of the technology is far more fearsome than a book with a couple of illustrations on sex. Where is the righteous crusade on the internet? Will I read the book? No. Will my children? Probably not. My children have not expressed any outward signs of gender dysphoria or problems with gender identity. If they did, I guarantee I would be educating myself on all aspects of the subject to get an idea of how I could support my children unconditionally. My children know themselves better than I. I would read everything I could get my hands on in order to empathize… Denying knowledge is a dangerous thing Mr. clergyman’s lack of empathy and making this a binary problem is the core of the issue. This also goes for the majority that came to protest too. Would you protest so loud if your child had gender dysphoria? or came out as gay?

As a child of two religious conservative republican parents, who in turn were raised by devout religious conservative republicans these next sentences would have had them burn down my high school in the 1980s. I watched the 1968 Franco Zeffirelli film Romeo and Juliet in my Freshman Literature class. My health teacher’s sex education curriculum during my freshmen year taught me more about the birds and bees than my parents did. By speaking about topics it lessens the mystery, it normalizes our discussions on human sexuality. Then my junior and senior English literature teachers had us read The Canterbury Tales, The Scarlet Letter, Grapes of Wrath, and about a dozen other banned books. I remember a quiz on the Grapes of Wrath where my teacher asked if Tom had sex in the back of the truck (It’s inferred.) Then my biology teacher showed us a video of a woman giving birth (from the doctor’s perspective.) Thankfully, they were woke before woke was woke! Seriously, I think we would fire these teachers today. That’s how far right and reactionary our country has become. I consider none of these books or films as being pornographic. The few images described by Mr. clergyman in Gender Queer are no different than any of the literature previously. Oh wait, they are same sex relationships… that makes them different… NO! IT! DOESN’T!

Mr. clergyman stop your war on the LGBTQ community through my former colleague and his wife. The LGBTQ community are people just like you and I. They deserve to have reading material to help them feel affirmed and loved like anyone else. You nor I need to stand in their way. My colleague did the right thing as a government supported entity. He had literature open to his population, and yes that population has young adults and teenagers who are struggling with their identities. Don’t know of any… …go ask the fine arts teachers at the local high schools. We tend to be their safe people. The library board had their opportunity to object, they failed their job. 20/20 hindsight governance doesn’t help the situation. Wrapping yourself in a pious flag of righteousness tells everyone that you offer no forgiveness here… or love… or affirmation… If we use your definition of a perfect God who makes no mistakes, then denying His/Her creations in the LGBTQ community is blasphemy. I remind you, the bible is full of metaphors. By exercising them as literal laws you simply are sharing the hypocritical nature of Christian Nationalism.

I don’t like censorship. It prevents the freedom of choice. It comes from a bloated, arrogant, and entitled place. One is drawing a moral code for others to follow literally. It is a folly of the kings. When censorship is targeted at a specific group of people we call that bias or discrimination. When we wrap that up in a religious paradigm we call that zealotry. My colleague was not above the law. He followed it. My colleague didn’t follow Mr. clergyman’s or his church’s law, and that offended them and they played themselves as victims. Stop denying LBGTQ their affirmed rights and expressions, or the people that recognize them respectfully. Love your enemy as yourself.

Mr. Clergyman, I forgive you. The sins you have committed against these people have inflicted harm and discord. Not once did I read in your article that you forgave them for not following your moral code. …et sic sequitur