Posted in: Comics, Current News, Oni Press | Tagged: gender queer, maine, oni press

Gender Queer, Focus of $600,000 Political TV Ad Campaign in Maine

Conservative political action committee Maine Families First PAC has announced a $600,000 television advertising campaign targeting the Democrat Maine Governor Janet Mills, by highlighting the comic book Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe and published by Oni Press. The graphic novel has become the centre of attention of conservative campaigns across a number of American states for its presence in high school libraries, public libraries and book chains such as Barnes & Noble.

The campaign describes Gender Queer as "a graphic, explicit, how-to manual on gay sex." Which, as anyone who has read it will attest, it really isn't. The ad also states "While Maine's students' scores plummet, Janet Mills distributes books like Gender Queer that are so pornographic this station cannot show you what's inside".

The campaign is part two million dollars spent by Maine Families First PAC opposing Mills in this election cycle. The PAC controlled by the Virginia-based conservative group American Principals Project and funded by Thomas Klingenstein. Klingenstein is the chairman of the Claremont Institute.

Bleeding Cool has been running many articles regarding recent news coverage about the graphic novel Gender Queer: A Graphic Memoir by Maia Kobabe as a new edition has come out from Oni Press.

Initially marketed toward older audiences, winning an American Library Association Award in 2020 for "books written for adults that have special appeal to young adults ages 12 through 18" saw copies of Gender Queer ordered by school libraries and public libraries across 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.

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