Book Banning and Now Closing Libraries in TX

While working out at the gym right before Christmas, I watched and heard gay writer Andrew Tobias (who wrote The Best Little Boy) being interviewed on one of MSNBC's shows, talking about the latest purge of LGBTQIA+ books, along with other banned books, that are not only being taken out of libraries in Texas, but libraries are also being shut down recently because of this purge of banned books. Tobias took it as a "badge of honor" that one of his books was selected, but was furious at this act of censorship as well.

Then there was this report from Trudy Ring on advocate.com on Dec. 21, 2021: "The public library in Llano County, Texas, is closed for three days this week as librarians sort through books for children and young adults to see if they have supposedly objectionable content, including LGBTQ+ topics.

The closure is one consequence of challenges to library books in several Texas locales. Several public officials have expressed concern about certain books, including state Rep. Matt Krause and Gov. Greg Abbott."

Llano County has 20,000 residents. Because they closed the library down on Dec. 21, which ran into the Christmas break, that means that all library services have been curtailed for that county for a significant period of time.

The person behind all this is Rep. Matt Krause, Republican, who chairs the TX House Committee on General Investigating, who had sent a letter to the TX Education Agency, and several school districts in October, asking them to figure out which books deal with human sexuality, or "contain material that might make students feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress because of their race or sex or convey that a student, by virtue of their race or sex, is inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously.”

He attached a list of 850 books, including volumes about LGBTQIA+ history and identity, the civil rights movement and Black Lives Matter, feminism, and other social justice issues. Among the most prominent titles on the list were Isabel Wilkerson’s Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates, and a graphic-novel version of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale."

Interestingly enough, there is more going on with this story. Rep. Victoria Neave, a Dallas, TX Democrat who is vice-chair of the same Investigating Committee, said she first heard about Krause’s letter from a school official and called it a “politically motivated” stunt. Krause is one of several candidates running to be the state’s next attorney general. The state’s teachers union said Krause’s move “smacks of a witch hunt," which it is.

In Victoria, TX, they voted to keep 21 books on the shelves that were listed by Rep. Krause. Some of these books are considered, by some, to be "pornographic," just because they are dealing with LGBTQIA+ issues. One book that was listed as pornographic by citizen Cindy Herndon was The Black Flamingo, by Dean Atta, “a coming-of-age novel about a mixed-race gay teen who becomes a drag artist,” as described by the Tribune. Herndon told the Tribune the book appeared to “sexualize children, especially into alternate lifestyles, and make them want to be someone else than who they were born to be.”

For more on this story go to: https://www.advocate.com/news/2021/12/21/hunt-offending-books-including-lgbtq-ones-closes-library-texas, and: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/texas-lawmaker-says-850-books-ranging-race-sexuality-cause-discomfort-rcna3953.

Friends, I know Banned Book Week isn't until Sept. 18-24, 2022. But we've a situation on our hands that I've not seen or heard the likes of in this country. We've gone beyond banning books to closing county public libraries because of the political shenanigans of a few. As Andrew Tobias said, on the one hand it is a badge of honor, that one's writing is so powerful that some think it should be banned from being read by others. Krause's list of 850 books includes books that will also be seen as the promotion of "CRT" or Critical Race Theory, which is going to be part of the Republican campaign attack material in 2022. 

Again, as always, we must consider not only our visceral response but our collective action as well: will we, as citizens, let alone as LGBTQIA+ people of faith, remain silent and let these things happen, or will we speak out and, in the words of the late-John Lewis, do some "good trouble?"