“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.
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.”
Maia Kobabe, author of Gender Queer: A Memoir, Washington Post, October 29, 2021
Quotes from some of the Board of Education candidates at a recent forum, in response to the question “Do you think we should include LGBT books in elementary school libraries, including the ones that have been recently in the news for explicit content. Or, for that matter, middle school libraries or high school libraries or ANY libraries?”:
- Tudy Adler: “I believe that policy [HCPSS Policy 8040, Selection of Instructional Materials] has failed. I believe it’s failed our county. One of the books that they’re talking about – it embarrasses me to even talk about it – is Gender Queer. I believe it is completely inappropriate.”
- Linfeng Chen: “The school is for academics. If that’s related to all students’ education, then I totally support them. But if it’s not, we need to put the bipartisan politics out of the school and focus on the core strengths: academics.”
- Susan Dreisch: “I strongly believe that these books were very inappropriate for our library. We also have a policy, 9210, it’s a dress code that states our children are not permitted to wear or promote – wear shirts and stuff that contain sexually suggestive material. But we’re going to put these books in our classroom, I mean, in our library?”
- Monique Richards: “I think that there’s an appropriate time for the education of children to learn about the different families that do exist in our society and so public school education should not be used to promote any specific lifestyle.”
Well, then, let’s get academic. Sobering statistics courtesy of The Trevor Project:
- Suicide is the second leading cause of death among young people aged 10 to 24, and LGBTQ youth are more than four times as likely to attempt suicide than their peers.
- 42% of LGBTQ youth seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year, including more than half of transgender and nonbinary youth.
- Only 1 in 3 LGBTQ youth found their home to be LGBTQ-affirming, and young adults who report high levels of parental rejection are eight times more likely to report attempting suicide and six times more likely to report high levels of depression.
- In the past year, nearly half of LGBTQ youth have wanted counseling from a mental health professional, but did not receive it.
- 28% of LGBTQ youth reported experiencing homelessness or housing instability at some point in their lives — and those who did had 3.5x the rate of attempting suicide.
- LGBTQ youth who reported having at least one LGBTQ-affirming space had 35% reduced odds of reporting a suicide attempt in the past year — the strongest association being with LGBTQ-affirming schools.
Books in which we can see ourselves can have a positive, affirming effect on us. For adolescents and young adults in the LGBTQ+ community – particularly those whose parents haven’t grown the eff up enough to recognize that being cishet isn’t a value system – books that reflect their own experiences can make them feel less alone and, as shown above, can reduce the risk of suicide.
We must not allow adults who cannot acknowledge the grave realities faced by LGBTQ+ kids, who are so lacking in empathy for the plight of these kids that they simply want public schools to pretend sexual and gender identity topics don’t exist, who cannot fathom that perhaps such a book might be beneficial to their own child someday, to be elected to the Board of Education in Howard County.
Our kids’ lives are at stake.
If you or someone you know is in crisis and considering suicide, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.