I have to confess that I purchased and read Maia Kobabe's Gender Queer book only after learning of how many school systems were trying to or did ban it. I had seen it in the store, I knew of it, but time and money. I had not gotten around to buying it yet.
And so, I read Gender Queer, and I was deeply moved. The book both brought tears to my eyes and elated me. I also learned about Spivak pronouns, which are Maia's preferred pronouns. I had never heard of Spivak pronouns.
After I finished the book, I posted this to my Instagram and Facebook accounts:
Also, I wrote Maia Kobabe and Maia wrote back!!
Gender Queer Graphic Novel Repeatedly Removed From Schools & Libraries
The Daily Montanan reports that Kalispell's Public Library board of Kalispell, in Montana's Flathead Valley decided to indefinitely suspend conversation about Gender Queer, one of two LGBT-related books that had been challenged, while leaving Jonathan Evison's Lawn Boy on the shelves, which was also honoured by the American Library Association with Alex Awards. "Both books were part of the adult literature collection and both had been targeted in other library debates throughout the country." The challenge and the decision saw the library's directors position against the staff, one library director having already resigned, and an interim director state that she would resign over the matter, stating "I have the responsibility to protect the public's right to freely access information, that is, free from interference from government, religious or political views. The library is obligated to provide a wide range of views, including those that may be considered unorthodox or unpopular."
The Akron Beacon Journal reports that after certain parents demanded a number for books available to students in the Hudson High School library of Hudson, Ohio be removed back in November, that Gender Queer is still off the shelves while undergoing further review. Other challenged A Girl on the Shore by Inio Asano had been permanently removed while the novel Lawn Boy had already been returned to shelves. Gender Queer however seems to be causing the board problems – four months' worth, so far. The book, as well as the others, were initially removed for "offensive or objectionable content for high school students." All three books include LGBTQ content. Oni Press publisher James Lucas Jones said the book is an important resource for students who identify as genderqueer or nonbinary and that "limiting its availability is short-sighted and reactionary."
Seacoastonline reports that The York School Committee, of York in Maine, hearing an appeal from a pupil's grandmother to have the book It's Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex, and Sexual Health by Robie Harris and Michael Emberley removed from the York Middle School library, had other books challenged. Julie Edminster, a parent of two children at the school criticised the existence of Gender Queer, stating "I'm not going to fill out a form and request the book to be removed. I don't have time…Teach some morals and some ethics … I'm sick of it. We get labeled as book banners and crazy parents if you think that a book should be removed from the library. What message are we sending to the kids by allowing these kinds of books in the library? Are there standards to determine whether the book is considered child pornography, or just general health and science?"
The Missoula Current reports from the Billings Public School Board of Billings, Oklahoma who voted whether or not to remove or keep Gender Queer and Lawn Boy from Billlings West High School and Career Center libraries, stating that "both books constituted child pornography because of several passages in the coming-of-age books dealing with sex and sexuality." Initially a subcommittee of educators unanimously upheld keeping the materials in the libraries, but an appeal was registered and triggered a five-member review comprised of public school board members, This week they voted to keep Lawn Boy by a 4-1 vote, but recommended removing Gender Queer on a 3-2 decision, with two board members issuing a written dissent, criticizing the majority for not following district policy. They stayed instead that they recognised "the potential concerns this book raises, but we feel it is an important resource for student going through similar experiences in life. It also provides a unique opportunity for students who wish to learn about others and gain empathy" and that "while we affirm that it is a parental duty to determine what is suitable material for their children to enforce those decisions, it is not appropriate for one parent to determine what is suitable material for all other families and students."
The Reading Eagle reported that the Kutztown Area School District Board of Kutztown, Pennsylvania had voted 5 to 4 to affirm their Review Committee's recommendations, which included the book Gender Queer be approved for circulation at the high school library. The book was initially pulled in November after certain parents demanded that LGBTQ-themed books be pulled from the library, if the library had copies of them, and heated discussions led to the committee being formed. Other motions were also denied, including the requirement of parental signatures to check out the graphic novel and another to censor specific pages of the book containing graphic illustrations and that "at times, discussions became heated and the meeting had to be called to order due to outcries from the audience." Al Darion of the committee stated "The child who is most likely to be struggling and perhaps do harm to themselves because of that struggle might be precisely the one who is not going to go, 'Mom, can I read this book,' and for that reason I think it needs to be accessible. If a parent forbids a child to read it, then that opens up a really good discussion at home." A parent is also cited who states that attention was brought to this particular book not because a student brought it home and a parent became upset but as part of a bigger movement to ban books in schools about gender, race, diversity and factual history. And that her 14-year-old daughter, who had chosen not to read the book, had decided to create the Teen Banned Book Club, being held bi-weekly Wednesday nights at Firefly Bookstore in Kutztown as a result of the fuss. "The rebellious teenager in her decided that she wanted to start a banned book club where teens could access, read and freely discuss books that have been historically banned or part of the new book banning movement" which had gained national media attention.
And there's a lot of national media attention, as Fox News reported that Loudoun County Public Schools of Loudoun County, Virginia will remove Gender Queer from school library shelves. While the school district in nearby Fairfax County is not, and states that the book is neither obscene of paedophiliac. Loudoun Superintendent Scott Ziegler requested a review of the book due to questions about its content. The Washington Post reported that a "committee recommended (on a split vote) to retain the book in the high school library collection [but] the superintendent decided to remove the book from circulation." And that the school board appeal committee voted 3-0 to uphold the removal.
While CBS17 reports that Gender Queer has been returned to Wake County Public Libraries in Raleigh, North Carolina after it was removed in mid-December after complaints – and that the libraries are looking to revise their process for permanently removing books from its collection as a result.
But it's Maus that gets the bigger publicity – and the resulting sales. Perhaps Gender Queer might deserve similar public attention right now.
In 2014, Maia Kobabe, who uses e/em/eir pronouns, thought that a comic of reading statistics would be the last autobiographical comic e would ever write. At the time, it was the only thing e felt comfortable with strangers knowing about em. Now, Gender Queer is here. Maia's intensely cathartic autobiography charts eir journey of self-identity, which includes the mortification and confusion of adolescent crushes, grappling with how to come out to family and society, bonding with friends over erotic gay fanfiction, and facing the trauma and fundamental violation of pap smears. Started as a way to explain to eir family what it means to be nonbinary and asexual, Gender Queer is more than a personal story: it is a useful and touching guide on gender identity—what it means and how to think about it—for advocates, friends, and humans everywhere.
About Rich Johnston
Founder of Bleeding Cool. The longest-serving digital news reporter in the world, since 1992. Author of The Flying Friar, Holed Up, The Avengefuls, Doctor Who: Room With A Deja Vu, The Many Murders Of Miss Cranbourne, Chase Variant. Lives in South-West London, works from Blacks on Dean Street, shops at Piranha Comics. Father of two.
Opinion: Schools are banning my book. But
queer kids need queer stories.
By Maia Kobabe
October 29, 2021 at 6:00 a.m. EDT
Very late on the night of Sept. 23, I was tagged in an
Instagram video. It looked like a city council meeting, with an angry woman
talking about something at a lectern. I didn’t turn the sound on. “Here are the
sickos who wrote those awful books,” wrote a commenter, tagging me and another
author, Jonathan Evison.
The
next morning, I woke up to emails from journalists at the Associated Press and
local D.C. news stations. My debut graphic book, “Gender Queer: A Memoir,” had been banned at a Fairfax County school board meeting.
The story unfolded slowly over the next week. I learned that Northern Virginia had become the center of a heated debate over transgender students’ rights, and the protests and counter-protests at the board meetings had already resulted in shouting, chanted prayers and an arrest. I learned from a Post article that one of the Fairfax parents “chose to target ‘Gender Queer’ and [Evison’s] ‘Lawn Boy,’ both of which happen to feature LGBTQ characters, because she saw media coverage of the texts after parent outcry in Texas. She then checked her children’s high school library and saw Fairfax was offering the books, too.” One of the charges thrown against the book was that it promoted pedophilia — based on a single panel depicting an erotic ancient Greek vase. Others simply called it pornography, a common accusation against work with themes of queer sexuality.
A week later, I found out that “Gender Queer” had also been banned in a school district in Florida, and within a month, it had been challenged at schools in Rhode Island, New Jersey, Ohio, Washington and Texas, again.
When I was on book tour in 2019, I was asked many times, “What age of reader do you recommend this book for?” I would generally answer, “High school and above,” but the truth is, the readers I primarily wrote it for were my own parents and extended family. When I was first coming out as nonbinary, I kept getting responses along the lines of, “We love you, we support you, but we have no idea what you are talking about.”
I came out as queer to my mom as a senior in high school. It took almost a decade to also come out to her as nonbinary, even though I had been questioning my gender identity since I started puberty at age 11. A major reason for this long delay between my first coming out and my second was the lack of visibility of trans and nonbinary identities when I was young. By high school, I had met multiple out gay, lesbian and bisexual people, but I didn’t meet an out trans or nonbinary person until I was in grad school. The only place I had access to information and stories about transgender people was in media — mainly, in books.
In the early 2000s, I lived in a house with no TV and limited Internet access, so I turned to my local library for entertainment. I checked out stacks of fantasy novels and manga every week. I was especially hungry for stories with queer characters. I devoured “Skim” by Mariko and Jillian Tamaki, and Julie Anne Peters’s “Luna” and “Keeping You a Secret.” I read Howard Cruse’s masterpiece “Stuck Rubber Baby.” There was “Paradise Kiss,” “Rainbow Boys,” “Weetzie Bat,” “Annie on My Mind,” “Geography Club,” “Swordspoint,” “Totally Joe,” “Very LeFreak” and everything I could get my hands on by David Levithan. These books kept me company through my years of questioning and confusion.
The American Library Association, which tracks challenges, restrictions and bans on books in schools and libraries, recorded that the No. 1 most challenged book in 2020 was “Melissa” (previously titled “George”) by Alex Gino, a narrative of a trans elementary schooler written by a nonbinary author. Queer youth are often forced to look outside their own homes, and outside the education system, to find information on who they are. Removing or restricting queer books in libraries and schools is like cutting a lifeline for queer youth, who might not yet even know what terms to ask Google to find out more about their own identities, bodies and health.
Three weeks after I first heard about the “Gender Queer” ban at Fairfax County Public Schools, I received this message:
“You probably won’t ever see this but I am a queer FCPS student! My mom and I read your book. I loved it! I related to almost everything you said. I felt so understood and not alone. I think my mom understands me better and I’m more confident in confiding in her since she read your book. Thank you so much for creating your memoir!”
All illustrations by Maia Kobabe.
Maia Kobabe discusses this column in more detail on James Hohmann’s podcast, “Please, Go On.” Listen now:
An earlier version of this column stated that an arrest occurred at a school board meeting in Fairfax County, Va. The arrest took place at a meeting in Loudoun County. This version has been corrected.
Here's part of a conversation I have been having on FACEBOOK:
Parents Want Graphic Book With Sexual Imagery Removed From School Libraries — But Doing So Could Fail Students
High school libraries around the country are home to many instructional and educational resources that students can use to not only learn about in-school subjects but also learn about things outside of school — including themselves.
Recently, however, one of these books has come under fire for what some parents believe is too graphic and promotes pedophilia despite being about gender identity and exploring your sexuality.
Why do parents want to ban "Gender Queer"?
"Gender Queer: A Memoir" was written and released in 2019 by author Maia Kobabe, who uses e/em/eir pronouns, and was written to “chart eir journey of self-identity.”
The book talks about eir “mortification and confusion of adolescent crushes, grappling with how to come out to family and society, bonding with friends over erotic gay fanfiction, and facing the trauma and fundamental violation of pap smears.”
RELATED: How Many Genders Are There — And Why Does Talking About The Spectrum Of Identity Matter So Much?
The comic format of the graphic novel helps with relatability — allowing teens to read it and go “hey that’s just like me!” when they see characters getting into situations that they might have experienced in their own lives.
Unfortunately, that’s also why parents have a problem with it.
The themes in the book about exploring sexuality lead to some instances of sexual encounters — and in a graphic novel, that means these situations are illustrated in great detail.
There are several instances in which characters use crude language and perform sexual acts on others or even themselves, which parents argue is pornography — which shouldn’t be allowed in school — and that it promotes pedophilia.
“You’re talking about children – you’re going to expose them to pornographic material? You might as well put Playboy and Hustler in there,” said one speaker at a North Kingstown school committee meeting.
However, the banning of books in a school library is something that should be taken very seriously and is something that Superintendent Phil Auger emphasized at the same meeting.
“The book in question deals with mature questions of sexual identity, and there are students in our high school that are asking these questions,” he said. “As part of a public school population, LGBTQ youth have as much of a need and a right to have access to library resources to support their overall health and well-being.”
Auger raises an exceptional point about high schoolers asking these questions.
The book has over 230 pages of comics (few of which are actually explicit) and very mature themes that are essential for teenagers who are discovering themselves to understand.
American sex education is failing students.
Teenagers need these stories and sex education that really matters and not just the biological aspect of it all.
The United States is surprisingly lacking in comprehensive sex education and still teaches abstinence-only sex education in a lot of states.
As recently as 2019, sex education became mandated on a state level but it was up to the states to teach it however they wanted — meaning there is no standards for sex education.
Before that, 37 states required that abstinence education be taught, while 0 states required comprehensive sex educations — even though 58% of secondary school principals describe their sex education curriculum as comprehensive.
The result of these malpractices is that teenage pregnancies skyrocket because of a lack of sexual education and contraception awareness.
STDs, the idea of consent, healthy sexual relationships — all things that should be taught, aren’t because of the taboo that the United States has placed on sex.
Not only that but: queerness, sexuality, sexual identities, core LGBT concepts that allow people to feel like themselves and not feel guilty for not molding to the status quo.
Teaching people that it’s okay to feel differently than the heteronormative agenda and that people who identify differently deserve rights and respect.
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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2202.05 - 10:10
- Days ago = 2409 days ago
- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I plan to continue Hey Mom posts at least twice per week but will continue to post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.
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