A controversial gender-identity book will be removed from public school libraries in Virginia Beach, VA after school board members determined it contained inappropriate images that were “pervasively vulgar.”
The Virginian Pilot reports that several board members were recently assigned to review Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe, which has been challenged by numerous parents in several school districts.
CBN’s Faithwire previously reported that the book raised concerns over its graphic content that opponents say includes pornographic images and “pedophilia.”
The group noted that illustrations of “genitalia, bodily functions and sexual acts” were found in Gender Queer and advised that it be taken down from library shelves.
In fact, the American Library Association lists the novel as the number one most challenged book of 2021.
Kobabe’s book has been spotted in school libraries in Virginia, Florida, Ohio, Rhode Island, and North Carolina, even though it reportedly has images of minors performing sexual acts.
Earlier this year, Kipp D. Rogers, chief academic officer in Virginia Beach City Public Schools recommended that Gender Queer remain in libraries, according to The Pilot.
Rogers, along with Superintendent Aaron Spence, did note some of the graphic images found in the book, yet, “the concerns did not warrant removal of the book from school libraries for student voluntary checkout.”
Parents started complaining about Gender Queer last year. A mother in Fairfax County, VA expressed her concerns during a school board meeting in September.
When Fairfax board members told her she shouldn’t read the racy material out loud, Stacey Langton explained that they were proving her point. “Pornography is offensive to all people,” she said. “It is offensive to common decency.”
Fairfax County Public Schools pulled Gender Queer from circulation in late September, The Washington Post reported. It returned to school libraries less than one month later.
Another book that caused quite a stir at schools around the country in 2021 was Lawn Boy by Jonathan Evison, which contains graphic descriptions of sex between men and children.
It tells the story of a boy who reminisces about explicit experiences he had when he was 10 years old.
Lawn Boy is listed as the number two most challenged book of last year and was banned in some locations “because it was considered to be sexually explicit.”
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