Here in shitty Baboon's-Ass Red utah, we have the same situation, the legislature is trying to make it easier to ban any book that may contain references to relationships, sexuality, or LGBTQ (yet apparently the mormon literature about polygamy can stay). Luckily there's been a lot of counter-revolutionary bookstores specifically offering "banned" books and LGBTQ books popping up around the state in response. They aren't state owned, so these miserable cretins are now meeting to find ways to shut them down for improper licensing, building regulations, or other made up problems.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago (1 children)

we need to get every banned book into the hands of as many students as possible

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

I agree that we need to make sure kids have access to these books. I'm not sure they all need to real all of them, but if they are interested and want to read these books, they need to have that option.

It's so funny that (here in Utah) in the 8th grade, I was reading a new book that had just been published called "The Exorcist" (this was before the film came out). And one day my teacher said, I wasn't allowed to bring that book into class anymore, it was not considered "decent" reading material.

There is the word "masturbate" in the book "The Exorcist," but that's about the only "bad" word in it. And I knew what "masturbate" was long before i read that book. And I wasn't reading the book out loud to classmates or anything, I just thought it was so lame to be told I couldn't read it.

Kids are much smarter and more resilient than these book banners give them credit for. They can read adult themes in books without it "corrupting" them, and in fact, they need to have some knowledge of such things. The whole "banning" thing is such a political stunt, and it hurts kids the most.