The Book Banned Books Week Campaign: Against Pseudoscalars, Pornographers and Crickets
Editor’s Note: This essay is part of the CNN Opinion series “America’s Future Starts Now,” in which people share how they have been affected by the biggest issues facing the nation and experts offer their proposed solutions. The Lemony Snicket Prize for Noble Librarians Faced With Adversity was given to Martha Hickson by the American Library Association, which also awarded her the Outstanding Librarian Award. The opinions expressed in this commentary are her own. Read more opinion at CNN.
Throughout the stand-off, book banners claimed, “It’s not a ban. There are still books for sale at either the public library or Amazon. But the kid with questions about gender or sexuality may not have transportation to the library and likely doesn’t have a credit card for online ordering. And for teens living in a home hostile to gender or sexual diversity, the school library may be the only safe space to explore these topics and develop the vocabulary for deeper conversations.
They attacked the Banned Books Week, an event that celebrates the freedom to read. The protesters characterized it as a nefarious plot to lure kids to degradation.
The sucker punch came when a protester branded me a pedophilia, pornographer and groomer of children. After a successful career, with retirement on the horizon, to be cast as a villain was heartbreaking.
Even worse was the response from my employer – crickets. The board sat in silence that night, and for the next five months refused to utter a word in my defense.
School Libraries Announced Books Lgbtq-hickson: How I Banned a Book for the First Three Months of Summer 2010
These smackdowns aren’t isolated incidents. The groups with extreme agendas have attacked libraries. Between January and August of this year, the American Library Association recorded 681 challenges against 1,651 books, setting a pace to shatter last year’s record 729 challenges.
Students expressed concern for my well being, according to counselors. The students of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer community had a bad time due to the behavior of their parents.
The library that served as a safe space for students now felt unsafe for me. I kept plugging away, teaching information literacy, creating programs and consulting with students, until October last year, when I had a stress-caused collapse. When I saw my personal physician the next day, she ordered my removal from the workplace, prescribed anxiety medication and referred me to a therapist.
The first few weeks of therapy were hard. I was so sad when the Therapist asked if I had thoughts about killing myself. I tearfully admitted that I went to bed nightly wishing that I wouldn’t wake up.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/31/opinions/school-libraries-banned-books-lgbtq-hickson/index.html
Where does a trans boy go to use the bathroom? When PEN America kicked down the red scare, where is the Red Scare?
The committee was starting to evaluate each title. Hundreds of supportive community members, including dozens of students, had flocked to the October and November board meetings to take down the book banners. The board voted to retain all five books after the report from the reconsideration committee was submitted.
The four-month match had cost the district thousands of dollars in meeting time and salaries by my estimate, distressed vulnerable students, rupturing professional ties, and a fissure within the community that has yet to heal. In fact, three of the protesters are now running for board seats, further dividing the community.
Although the board delivered a terse statement in February confirming that the claims against me were “unfounded,” relationships with administrators remain tense. My motivation has ebbed. I’m no longer willing to go above and beyond for an organization that wouldn’t provide basic protections for me.
In the broader context, though, I’m lucky. Colleagues around the country are grappling with far worse. A public librarians in Texas lost her job after she refused to remove books about the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer community. Amanda Jones, a Louisiana school librarian, filed a defamation suit to stop the online harassment leveled against her after she spoke out against censorship. The Patmos Library in Michigan lost tax funding due to its inclusion of certain titles. It’s no wonder that authors’ advocacy group PEN America calls the current educational climate the “Ed Scare.”
The allusion to the McCarthy era’s Red Scare is apt. The current legislation is designed to restrict access to information. According to a recent report from PEN America, in the first half of this year, 24 state Legislatures introduced 54 restrictive bills, most of which target discussion of race, racism, gender, and American history.
It is the middle of the academic year in a small town. A group of speakers have gathered at a school board meeting to give their feedback on the board’s most controversial issue: Where should a trans boy go to use the bathroom?
I had become a topic of conversation in my hometown as well as throughout the country. At the school board meeting parents of kids I grew up with called me a freak, and talked about my genitals in public, and I was not happy about it. They were willing to go so low as to hurt a child.
The book compiles Kulkin’s photos of — and interviews with — transgender and nonbinary teens and young adults. The stories these teens are telling are very touching. They describe their experiences transitioning and reflect on their identities.
There is absolutely no evidence to suggest giving access to the spaces we want puts other people at risk. One of the groups that are more at risk of being killed in violence is trans people. People who are trans over the age of 16 are four times as likely to be the victims of assault as people who are cis. The attacks are on the rise because Republicans fan the flames of hatred and Democrats don’t provide much support.
I saw that threats to the lives of trans Americans had reached a dangerous tipping point as a high school student. I didn’t want to be an activist. I was just a kid. It felt like I was responsible for spreading more awareness about the community that was pushed to the margins.
These treatments, that have allowed me and other transgender people to become the people we were intended to, have been studied and peer reviewed and are best practices developed by the American Medical Association, American Association of Pediatrics, American Psychiatric Association, the Endocrine Society and other leading health organizations.
Yet, across the country, they are being banned, challenged or indefinitely delayed, while people hoping to transition are put through a series of hoops and hurdles before getting access to treatment.
My case ended in a victory for trans students. The Fourth Circuit’s victory meant that Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 will include protections for people with gender dysphoria. The Supreme Court declined to weigh in, allowing the decision to stand. As a result, all schools in the Fourth Circuit were required to adopt a policy in their schools that provided for the needs and rights of transgender students based on the model policies set by the Department of Education.
After wending its way through the system for four years, the courts ruled the school board was in violation of the Equal Protection Clause and Title IX of the US Education Amendments of 1972, a federal law barring schools from sex discrimination.
I had hoped that was the case. In fact, appropriate policies were adopted across the Fourth Circuit in response to social change, other court decisions, the tireless work of transgender activists, as well as the outcome of my case.
Reply to Comments on Governor Glenn Youngkin’s Unjust Policy of Correct Name and Pronoun for Trans Students’ Protection”
But last year saw the election of Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin, a Republican who ran on a platform that included blatant misinformation and targeted attacks against marginalized communities.
If a parent requests it in writing, the administration proposes that trans students be allowed to use their correct name, pronoun and facilities. The measure doesn’t contain any language that requires schools to approve such requests. This excludes any child who is not out to their parents or guardians for safety concerns, or who is not supportive of their parents.
The model policy of Virginia has language that lets schools go beyond the guidelines but that is 888-282-0465 888-282-0465 888-282-0465 888-282-0465 888-282-0465.
It seems as if Gov. Youngkin is willing to reject not only established federal and state law, but also guidance and best practices from leading authorities on the physical and mental health of children and young adults. Youngkin and his administration have couched discriminatory actions in language about protecting children, religious liberty and the rights of parents, but it is my belief that his real agenda is scapegoating a minority already under duress, in a cowardly bid to gain support from his base.
He may succeed in that, but his gains will be temporary. Thousands of students in Virginia walked out of school to protest Youngkin’s restrictions on trans students. Protests are continuing against the unjust policy. The community of other people who are differently-abled is not going away.
Out of Darkness: A Real Story of Two Black Teens and One Latina, and the Rise and Fall of an East Texas School Explosion
For over a decade, I lived my professional dream. I spent my days teaching college literature courses and writing novels. During my time as an author, I had the opportunity to visit schools and meet some students who reminded me of the students I taught in Houston.
Then in 2021, my dream disintegrated into an author and educator’s nightmare as my novel Out of Darkness became a target for politically motivated book bans across the country.
From the earliest stages of writing, I knew Out of Darkness would be difficult — for me, and for readers. I drew my inspiration for the novel from an actual school disaster: the 1937 New London school explosion that killed hundreds in an East Texas oil town just 20 minutes from my childhood home. This tragic but little-known historical event serves as the backdrop for a fictional star-crossed romance between a Black teenager and a young Latina who has just arrived in the area.
It went on until early 2021. In the wake of the 2020 presidential elections, right-wing groups pivoted from a national defeat to “local” issues. The latest wave of book banning exceeds anything ever documented by librarian or free-speech groups. The statistics for 2021, which represent only a fraction of actual removals, reflect a more than 600% increase in challenges and removals as compared to 2020. For a constantly updated database of challenges and bans, visit Everylibrary.org, as well as the PEN America’s Banned in the USA reports for April 2022, and September 2022, for further context.
These book bans do not reflect the concerns of the parents. Instead, they’re part of an orchestrated effort to sow suspicion of public schools as a way to show opposition to certain identities and topics. Book banners often cite “sexually explicit content” as their reason for objecting to books in high schools. The title that distinguishes them is not their sexual content but that they focus on the experiences of marginalized people. If you were to stack up all the books with sexual content in any library, the tallest stack by far would be about white, straight characters. The books are not under attack. There are claims about sexual content which are used to erase the stories about non-dominant kids that they matter and belong. Beyond telegraphing disapproval, book bans serve the interests of groups that have long sought to dismantle public education and shut down conversations about important issues.
These ” wins” can happen even without official bans. When threats and disruptions shake educators’ focus from students, formal censorship is no longer needed. The result is soft censorship. A school librarians don’t order a book out of fear of controversy, but they read an outstanding review of a book that would be good for someone in the school. The banners’ agenda has been internalized. The effects of soft censorship are pervasive, pernicious and very difficult to document.
The needs of all students matter, not just those whose lives and identities line up with what book banners think is acceptable. Young people have a right to the resources and stories that help them mature, learn and understand their world in all its diversity. They need more opportunities to experience deep imaginative engagement and to feel good about themselves. We’ve had enough “banner” years. I hope the focus is on the young people and their right to read.
Ashley Hope Pérez, author of three novels for young adults, is a former high school English teacher and an assistant professor in the Department of Comparative Studies at The Ohio State University. You can find her on LinkT or on social media.
Beyond Magenta: Reflections on Trans/Nonbinary Transcendence and the Rise and Fall of Singleton in the Bronx
Beyond Magenta centers around six young adults, members of the trans/nonbinary community, who describe their struggles and their triumphs, their feelings and experiences when dealing with their personal identities. They speak of themselves and their community simply, introspectively — and with gravity, warmth and humor.
The six participants in Beyond Magenta chose to speak to me because they wanted to define themselves publicly, educate others, and let other young people know they are not alone. My own reasoning for covering them was all of the above — along with the belief that once a person gets to meet and learn about someone from a group they might not otherwise know, they will be more open to them.
The people are young. Everyone else is happy for him since he is so comfortable in his skin. Christina, a transwoman, attended a parochial boys’ high school in the Bronx. Mariah was born into a disadvantaged, violent family and grew up in institutions. Cameron, who lives with a supportive family, deftly explains that “gender is more fluid and more complex than society assumes.” Nat describes themself as intersex, both male and female, neither male nor female. Luke writes poetry to tell his story.
Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/12/21/1144627475/author-susan-kuklin-beyond-magenta-book-ban
Beyond Magenta Books: The cynical politicians who jumped on the anti-trans bandwagon during the run-up to the elections
My publisher continues to guide and support me though this odyssey of animosity and suppression. They still publish my books. Friends and colleagues are key to my survival, as is PEN America and its Children’s Young Adult Book Committee. The American Library Association, The National Committee Against Censorship, and American Civil Liberties Union stand by writers whose books have been challenged. And many parents and students face hostile school board meetings to protect their right to choose what books they have access to at school. The brave young people interviewed are part of the reason I’m proud of everyone associated with Beyond Magenta.
It was a Saturday night a few years ago and I was lying on the couch reading on my iPad. A bad comment about me came up suddenly. It was upset with a paragraph in Beyond Magenta that I didn’t remember. Then another tweet. And one more. Also another. There were a lot of them. I told my husband that I had a problem with the iPad. I turned it off, he said. The editor of our book told me the next day that it had gone crazy and was being challenged.
It felt otherworldly. Creepy. Wrong. Some cynical politicians jumped on the anti-trans bandwagon in the run up to the elections. They vilified the trans children and their parents.
Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/12/21/1144627475/author-susan-kuklin-beyond-magenta-book-ban
Susan Kuklin Beyond Transgender Magenta: How Teens Learn to Live in an Inhomogeneous and Dirty Environment
If you are a young person thinking about harming yourself, you can contact a counselor at the Trevor Project at any time via private call text, or chat: https://www.thetrevorproject.org/get-help/
Susan Kuklin is the author of the award winning book, Beyond Transgender Magenta: Teens Speak Out. The book is banned from school library shelves in 11 school districts in the U.S.
I was talking to people about what issues should be addressed and whether or not I should do the book. I was uncomfortable, when I didn’t know what the sex of the person was. I just felt weird and I wondered why that should feel weird to me. Would I speak differently to a man than to a woman? It just didn’t sit right. I wondered if we were wired to believe this. And so I went on a quest to find out if indeed we were hard wired. And I found that we’re not. When I first got to know people, it became irrelevant. My books say that people do a lot of crazy things, negative things, and positive things, and that’s who we are.
The story was turned into a negative and ugly thing after people took one chapter. I saw it as an example of how someone can survive. I saw that chapter as someone who started — who was born into a terrible environment with lots of violence and very little education and managed to become a hero and live a successful life and go to college. We know that people like this exist, and so we can use their voices in a very helpful way.
Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/12/21/1143100410/banned-books-author-susan-kuklin-beyond-magenta
Why a book should not be in the library: What transgender people complain about when it’s banned and challenged (and why it shouldn’t be challenged)
Two different points are banned and challenged. When you’re challenged, a person, a parent, whoever goes to the school and fills out a form saying this book should not be in your library. That’s the challenge. Banned is the actual removal of the book.
Oddly, people are mostly complaining about things that have little to do with being transgender. So what they do is they’ll pick a paragraph from the story, whether it’s bad language — because kids curse — or whether it’s a story of someone’s life. They complain that the book should be banned because of a paragraph there or a word there, because they took it out of context.