Is Texas Style Book Banning Coming to Virginia?

For many decades evangelical Christians and Christofascists have sought to erase things from the public schools that they don't like or, more accurately helps to underscore the fairy tale nature of the belief systems.  The Scopes Monkey Trial in Tennessee nearly 100 years ago which involved that state's effort to ban the teaching of the theory of evolution is but one early example.  Many of these efforts were unsuccessful because neither of the two main political parties bought into the embrace of ignorance so popular with these "Christians" who display anything but Christian behavior towards others.  Now, however, the base of the Republican Party is controled by these elements and their close allies, white supremacists (I'd argue the two are largely synonomous) and what would never before been possible is party of the GOP's agenda as signaled by Virginia GOP governor Glenn Youngkin's dictat that nothing "divisive" be taught in public schools.  This, of course, translates into issues of racism, LGBT individuals and non-Christian religions are in the crosshairs of the far right extremists.   

Under Youngkin Virginia is not alone in its newly energized and entitled Christofascists and other states suggest just how bad the censorship and witch hunts against teachers and librarians may get.  In Oklahoma a GOP introduced bill would punish any public school teacher who promotes any position “in opposition to closely held religious beliefs of students . . . . it allows students and parents with irrational religious views to override the curriculum decisions of trained professionals. In Iowa, where infrastructure is collapsing, the legislature is instead focused on drafting a list of books to ban from schools involving race or sex.  And in Texas - no surprise here - an anti-gay extremist has been appointed to review the state's social studies curriculum and the book banning effort is off the charts as reported by NBC News and suggests what Youngkin and his allies at The Family Foundation and Family Research Council will be unleashing here in Virginia.  Here are story excerpts: 

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. 

“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. 

Records requests to nearly 100 school districts in the Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and Austin regions — a small sampling of the state’s 1,250 public school systems — revealed 75 formal requests by parents or community members to ban books from libraries during the first four months of this school year. In comparison, only one library book challenge was filed at those districts during the same time period a year earlier, records show.

All but a few of the challenges this school year targeted books dealing with racism or sexuality, the majority of them featuring LGBTQ characters.

Another parent in Katy, a Houston suburb, asked the district to remove a children’s biography of Michelle Obama, arguing that it promotes “reverse racism” against white people, according to the records obtained by NBC News. A parent in the Dallas suburb of Prosper wanted the school district to ban a children’s picture book about the life of Black Olympian Wilma Rudolph, because it mentions racism that Rudolph faced growing up in Tennessee in the 1940s. In the affluent Eanes Independent School District in Austin, a parent proposed replacing four books about racism, including “How to Be an Antiracist,” by Ibram X. Kendi, with copies of the Bible.

Similar debates are roiling communities across the country, fueled by parents, activists and Republican politicians who have mobilized against school programs and classroom lessons focused on LGBTQ issues and the legacy of racism in America. Last fall, some national groups involved in that effort — including No Left Turn in Education and Moms for Liberty — began circulating lists of school library books that they said were “indoctrinating kids to a dangerous ideology.” 

And during his successful bid for governor in Virginia, Republican Glenn Youngkin made parents’ opposition to explicit books a central theme in the final stretch of his campaign, leading some GOP strategists to flag the issue as a winning strategy heading into the 2022 midterm elections.

The fight is particularly heated in Texas, where Republican state officials, including Gov. Greg Abbott, have gone as far as calling for criminal charges against any school staff member who provides children with access to young adult novels that some conservatives have labeled as “pornography.”

Ten current or recently retired Texas school librarians who spoke to a reporter described growing fears that they could be attacked by parents on social media or threatened with criminal charges. Some said they’ve quietly removed LGBTQ-affirming books from shelves or declined to purchase new ones to avoid public criticism — raising fears about what free-speech advocates call a wave of “soft censorship” in Texas and across the country.

[I]n many instances, parents and GOP politicians have flagged books about racism and LGBTQ issues that don’t include explicit language, including some picture books about Black historical figures and transgender children.

Several queer students, meanwhile, said the arguments by some parents, specifically the idea that it’s inappropriate for teenagers to read about LGBTQ sexual relationships, are making them feel unwelcome in their communities.

“Reading books or consuming any kind of media that has LGBTQ representation, it doesn’t turn people gay or make people turn out a certain way,” said Amber Kaul, a 17-year-old bisexual student in Katy. “I think reading those books helps kids realize that the feelings that they’ve already had are valid and OK, and I think that’s what a lot of these parents are opposed to.”

Be prepared for things to get much worse in Virginia and I hope suburban voters who shifted to the GOP last November quickly begin to realize that they made a huge mistake. I also hope progressive business begin to demand the censorship and embrace of white supremacy by Youngkin and other Republicans cease before decades of progress is reversed..