High School Principal Keeps Gender Queer In School After Reading It

The New Hampshire Union Leader reports that Brian O'Connell, the principal of Bow High School in Bow, New Hampshire had been targeted by parents of the school, concerned that the graphic novel Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe was in his school library.

Local politician Manchester Alderman Joe Kelly Levasseur had posted select pages to his Facebook page saying "This is going to be very disturbing content you are about to witness. This book is in the Bow high school library and supposedly in the Manchester library, not sure if it's in Manchester high schools library. As an elected city official I feel I have an obligation to show this. If it can be in a library I don't know why it can't be here for people to see. I" thought admitting he did not know if the book was in the library of Manchester city schools. The Union Leader states that Gender Queer was not in the online catalogue of the three Manchester public high schools, or those of Concord, Bedford, Londonderry, Merrimack or Pinkerton Academy in Derry, but was available in the public libraries and a copy was present in Bow High School library. Bow resident Ryan Johnston (no relation) posted "This book is in the High School here in Bow. This is porn. The school is grooming."

Concerned, O'Connell read the book after being e-mailed by parents of children at the school. "My initial reaction was I could see the concern", he told the Union Leader before doing the thing that one isn't meant to do, and spent the weekend reading the book, and came to a different conclusion reading Gender Queer in context. "At this point, I'm comfortable with it in the library." The book had only been checked out ten times in the last three years, but of course, the fuss may make it more in demand. Just not yet at Bow High School.

Brian O'Connell is not the only person who has taken the extreme step of actually reading the most banned book in America. August Sender of the Sun Journal has done the same thing and says "The book "Gender Queer" is not grooming our children. It is not promoting sex. It is doing the exact opposite. It offers the reader simple, relatable examples of consent, boundaries, and respect — all things we desperately need and want for our children."

Bleeding Cool has been running many articles about 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.  But there are many attempts across the country to get the book banned in one place or another. And news stories and coverage of these attempts keep rolling on.