Fairfax County Public Schools has reinstated the books “Gender Queer” and “Lawn Boy” after they were temporarily pulled because their contents depicting gay sex are so graphic that when a mother read from them at a school board meeting, she was cut off and school board members fled the dais.
“I can’t wait to have your c*** in my mouth. I am going to give you the blowjob of your life, and then I want you inside me,” parent Stacy Langton read from Gender Queer at a school board meeting on September 23.
“What if I told you I touched another guy’s d***? What if I told you I sucked it? I was ten years old, but it’s true. I sucked Doug Goble’s d***, the real estate guy, and he sucked mine too,” she read from Lawn Boy.
The books were pulled from the shelves pending a review by a committee, but on Tuesday, FCPS said the books were back in libraries as part of “reaffirming [its] commitment to supporting diversity in literature.”
It said the committee concluded that Gender Queer is “a well-written, scientifically based narrative of one person’s journey with gender identity that contains information and perspective that is not widely represented. This depiction includes the difficulties nonbinary and asexual individuals may face.”
“The book neither depicts nor describes pedophilia,” it said, even though the book pictures a man with an erect penis touching the penis of a boy.
From Gender Queer: A Memoir By Maia Kobabe. Fair use.
Gender Queer is a comic book and it is unclear what is “scientifically based” about it. The Daily Wire read and reviewed the book, reporting that:
… [I]t shows a nonbinary teenager and young adult who says her “sexual fantasies involved two male partners” and whose sister tells her to “taste yourself,” leading her to put what she calls “vagina slime” on her finger. In her journey of self-discovery, Maia visits the headquarters of a porn company that produced films called “Public Disgrace,” “Bound in Public,” and “Hardcore Gangbangs.” …
As a young adult, Maia wears boys’ cartoon underwear and wants the “high-fantasy-gay-wizard-prince look of my dreams.” After dating a sex shop owner for two months, Maia’s partner says, “I got a new strap-on harness today. I can’t wait to put it on you it [sic] will fit my favorite dildo perfectly.” When the partner attaches the sex toy and performs oral sex on it, Maia complains that “I can’t feel anything.”
Maia gets a job as a librarian and starts teaching classes to girls between the ages of 11 and 14. “I wonder if any of these kids are trans or nonbinary, but don’t have words for it yet?” the author says. “How would I help support a young person who came to me with the same feelings I have about gender? … if the kid hadn’t hit puberty yet, I’d say try hormone blockers.”
Its author, Maia Kobabe, defended the book in an error-filled op-ed in The Washington Post, falsely claiming that the book had been banned by FCPS September 23 and that someone had been arrested at the school board meeting, and claiming the opposition was because of its “queer” nature rather than the explicit drawings of sex.
Langton, the parent whose rendition of the books caused the school board to silence her by saying, ironically, that her words were not appropriate for children to hear, reacted to the reinstatement on Tuesday, telling The Daily Wire:
“It has no pedophilia in it? Excuse me, what is this picture with the bearded man fondling the genitals with his erect penis of a boy? How did they talk about this at the roundtable? Everything they say is ridiculous.”
The committees that reviewed the books, FCPS said, included “two teachers, two parents, one school-based administrator, one member of the Equity and Cultural Responsiveness team, and two high school students. Committee members were selected randomly from a pool of stakeholder representatives submitted by each school.”
Langton said “I was so naive to think they might finally do the right thing. They’re never going to do the right thing unless they’re forced… The equity and inclusion officer — I want their name. They are going to have to stand behind this.”
As for Lawn Boy, FCPS said:
The book is an accessible examination of race, class, socio-economic struggle, and sexual identity. It paints a portrait of the substantial obstacles faced by those who are marginalized by society. It is an uplifting and humanizing depiction of navigating through setbacks with resiliency to reach goals and will resonate with students.
The themes of this book are affirming for students who will recognize that they are not alone as they experience similar systemic challenges and societal prejudices.
The book has literary value as a narrative representing the perspective of a significant portion of students in Fairfax County Public Schools. …
The book does not qualify as obscene per the definition in the Code of Virginia §18.2-372 and is not “harmful to juveniles” as defined in §18.2-390 (6).
Langton retorted: “They’re so racist, everything that comes out of their mouth, its like they can’t even recognize their own racism.”
The Daily Wire found that a multitude of books like these were pushed into school libraries nationwide by the Young Adult Library Services division of the American Library Association.
Nicole Neily, president of the parents group Parents Defending Education, said in a statement that “The county’s actions are insulting and downright cowardly. Schools are no place for hardcore pornography, yet Fairfax County Public Schools insists on pushing this graphic material upon our children. By announcing their decision over Thanksgiving break, they clearly hope that parents won’t take notice. However, their actions show just how unfamiliar they are with parents: We’re always looking out for our children, and we won’t take this lying down.”