Censoring the gays: Red states banning books again
Florida and Arizona are gearing up to potentially banning books depicting LGBTQ content from schools, and all other “non-conservative” content as well. In Arizona, legislation was approved that, if passed, will ban “sexually explicit materials” from school campuses. This includes depictions of homosexuality and other kinds of queerness.
If HB2495 passes the House of Representatives, the ban will extend to all text, audio, and visual materials. Basically, if it’s gay, it will be removed from school campuses state-wide.
The bill defines sexually explicit materials as those that show sexual conduct, including “masturbation, homosexuality, sexual intercourse or physical contact with a person’s clothed or unclothed genitals.” Representations of pubic areas, buttocks, and breasts are also forbidden, as well as materials that cause “sexual excitement.”
State Representative Daniel Hernandez expressed disapproval over the introduction of such a bill. He pointed out that it was only three years ago that politicians in Arizona finally removed laws that prohibited teachers from promoting homosexuality as a positive lifestyle choice as part of the sex education curriculum. This move feels like a step backwards into that same territory.
Much the same is happening in Florida. In addition to banning queer content from curriculums in schools, Florida is currently working on the “Don’t Say Gay” bill which, if enacted, will prohibit teachers from discussing homosexuality with students at all.
The Parental Rights in Education bill dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill by critics, would prohibit school districts from “encouraging classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity in primary grade levels or in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students.”
In Florida, State Senator Shevrin Jones said during an education committee hearing last week, “As a gay man, to sit here in committee, to hear that—There was no book that I read that brought me to who I am … and even your children—I don’t care what you may try to do to think that you are protecting them…the one thing you are obligated to do, like my father and mother did, is to love them for who they are.”
All eyes are on Florida and Arizona as they wade through these exceptionally discriminatory and harmful pieces of legislation. Banning books isn’t the flex y’all think it is.
