“Gender queer” books are now being targeted towards children – and are being found on school bookshelves – with U.S. school district committees allowing the comics to remain in school libraries.
“Gender queer” is defined as “of, relating to, or being a person whose gender identity cannot be categorized as solely male or female,” according to Merriam-Webster dictionary.
Despite the mature concepts it contains, the book “Gender Queer” by 32-year-old California-based author Maia Kobabe, who “uses e/em/eir pronouns,” has been distributed on the shelves of Ohio’s Hudson High School library.
The book tells the story of a child through adolescence to adulthood struggling with gender conformity and includes a handful of graphic illustrations of LGBT sexual experiences and has long caused controversy with parents in other school districts, such as Fairfax County Public Schools in 2021.
Cartoons depict situations such as “coming out,” discovering “autoandrophilia” (defined as a female sexually aroused by the thought of having male genitalia), and bonding with friends over erotic gay fanfiction.
Amazon, which sells the book, describes it as a “useful and touching guide on gender identity.”
Hudson High School parents have objected to the book’s distribution in the school’s library despite officials recently deciding that the book would be allowed to stay in the facility.
Interim Superintendent Steve Farnsworth at Hudson High School recently stated that while the committee expressed concerns over the sexual content contained in the school library, they also recognized the “educational value” of the book’s contents, according to the Akron Beacon Journal.
Discussions of alternative gender identities like “genderqueer” – a form of the mental illness gender dysphoria – have become increasingly prevalent in classrooms, even including Kindergarten students.
The debate over the book comes amidst intense mainstream media and left-wing opposition to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s bill which would forbid instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade.
The ongoing debate over gender discussions in American classrooms comes amidst a barrage of stories highlighting teachers using their classrooms to push an LGBTQ+ agenda, with one Pennsylvania public school teacher even complaining that at-home instruction due to COVID-19 would impinge on teachers’ abilities to “destabilize a kid’s racism or homophobia or transphobia” and host discussions about racism, sexuality, and gender.
