Posted in: Comics, Oni Press | Tagged: cbldf, gender queer, Maia Kobabe, oni press

A Week In The Life Of Banned Graphic Novel, Gender Queer

A Week In The Life Of Banned Graphic Novel, Gender Queer

It's been quite a week for Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe. Again, I mean. No sooner has it defeated obscenity lawsuits and been investigated by Plymouth police than it is back in the news as the most banned book of 2022, as it was 2021, at the same time as Oni Press publishes a new edition.

Fox 23 Maine reports that a school district in Maine,  the MSAD 6 school board, which covers Buxton, Hollis, Limington, Standish and Frye Island, is smack bang in the middle of current culture wars. Next week, on the 19th of September, the board will hear concerns about the graphic novel Gender Queer: A Memoir, "which explores the author's real-life journey of gender identity and sexual orientation. Bonny Eagle School District Superintendent Clay Gleason says every book at the middle school is scanned through its inventory system before checking out, which allows parents to flag books they don't want their child to read. "We encourage parents to do that if they have concerns and that's something that has been going on for many years actually," Gleason said."

This comes after a different western Maine school board last month reversed its original decision and banned Gender Queer: A Memoir from Dirigo High School, in Dixfield, Maine. After initial complaints, KATV reports that a school committee was created by Regional School Unit 56 to review the book. That committee "found value" in the book and "no member of the committee felt the book should be banned", that "Gender Queer meets all the criteria set forth in the RSU 56 policy on the selection of instructional materials. It is a well-researched and accurate resource that has value to a subset of the population at DHS." The committee recommended keeping the book in the high school's library.

However. Rumford Falls Times reports that parents appealed the committee's decision and the school board voted 7-2 to remove the book after a "special board meeting on the issue was attended by about 50 people, 10 of whom spoke and most agreeing that the comics-style graphics in it were pornographic."

WGME13 quoted former Dirigo student Trevor Staffier saying "Personally, I think it's ridiculous. Because as a growing teen, some kids are trying to experience new things and see how new things are. It won't change who they are. But at least having a book, they'll be able to read it, understand."

In response, Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance are raising money to buy copies of this book for DDG Books in Farmington. The bookstore will then offer free copies of the book to any high school student in the area who wants to read it, and sell them for 30% off to anyone else. And

But Spectrum News reported that the MSAD 6 board voted 11-1 to keep the novel It's Perfectly Normal on the shelves. And that "Board Chairperson Nathan Carlow, in a statement before the vote, noted that parents have always had the right to flag this or any other book in the school library system, thus preventing their children from checking the books out of the library. "I have reservations about removing this book from the middle school library when options exist to accommodate the concerns of parents who disagree with this content," he said. Carlow also quoted language in complaints submitted to the board that "alarmed" him. Specifically, he noted concerns that making the book available would lead to physical and psychological harm to students, including "elevated incidents of suicide, disease, drug abuse, domestic violence, obesity, depression, mental disorder, infertility and a lifetime of physical and mental suffering. This argument was presented without any evidence at all," Carlow said. "The notion that retaining this book in a middle school library would result in these illnesses is an argument I found so patently absurd that it weakens the integrity of their entire appeal." Will that continue with Gender Queer? "Earlier, SAD 6 Carlow said a committee that included at least one parent reviewed both of the Buxton complaints and recommended the board not remove the books… Carlow said while the books are on library shelves, they are not being taught in the schools. Parents also always have the right to flag the books at the libraries to make sure their children do not check them out. "Parents have total control over what their child consumes from the library," Carlow said, and that this is his 6th year on the school board, but he has never seen materials challenged in this way before. "There is a nationwide effort, I think, to undermine public education, and I think that's disappointing.""

While Fox8 reported a Superintendent Dr. Dain Butler simply removed Gender Queer from the library at Western Alamance High School, of the Alamance Burlington School System in North Carolina, themselves rather than going through procedures, stating "This book is a potential disruption to our learning environment. Sexual content is a large part of this book and it runs counter to what is appropriate in a school setting. It specifically contains illustrations that are pornographic in nature. Additionally, sexual themes are pervasive throughout the book. Going forward I'd like to see us have a group of educators, families, and community members come together to review books that may be considered controversial prior to being placed on the shelves in our schools. This is not about banning LGBTQ+ books. This particular book has explicit images. I'm not about pulling books for the sake of pulling them; however, I have a primary responsibility to protect the safety and wellbeing of students." Mamie Brooks of parental activist group FACTS Task Force 2.0 which had previously complained about the book stated "the entire FACTS Task Force 2.0 Team sincerely thanks Dr. Dain Butler for removing Gender Queer: A Memoir from Western Alamance High School. This shows his dedication and passion to ensure fair education for all our children."

Over in Spruce Mountain High School library in Colorado, Sun Journal reports that Superintendent Scott Albert told the Regional School Unit 73 directors Thursday night that a complaint procedure has been launched over Gender Queer: A Memoir and White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism.

Gender Queer is also believed to have inspired a new state law in Missouri that makes it a crime to give students books that contain sexually explicit material, with a maximum penalty of a year in jail aside from those "when taken as a whole, that have serious artistic significance, or works of anthropological significance, or materials used in science courses, including but not limited to materials used in biology, anatomy, physiology, and sexual education classes shall not be deemed to be within the foregoing definition." So it will all be down to how someone "deems" it.

Initially, Gender Queer was marketed toward older audiences, but winning an American Library Association Award in 2020 to "books written for adults that have special appeal to young adults ages 12 through 18" saw copies ordered by school libraries and public libraries in the USA, while political campaigns have found it an easy touch for "what about the children" style rabble-rousing.

The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund's current Interim Director, Jeff Trexler stated that challenges to this comic had become a hot talking point in local politics and were being weaponised for political gain. He told ICV2; "I mentioned the parent in Virginia who went viral after talking about this. Then, that became the heart of the Youngkin campaign. One could say that the protest of Gender Queer became the hub or the foundation of a movement that ended up getting the Republican Governor of Virginia elected". Since then, obscenity lawsuits against Oni Press and Maia Kobabe have been filed by lawyer Republican Virginia assembly delegate Tim Anderson on behalf of himself and Republican congressional candidate Tommy Altman citing an obscure state obscenity law, though were recently dismissed.

That's one week in the life of Gender Queer. We'll check back next week to see how things are going.

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!