Everybody Has A Place In A Story
To the Editor:
Recently, at La Grange ISD, it was put forth that a committee would be made to curate library book purchases. The genesis of this revolves around parental concerns about books that contain gay/ lesbian/trans characters and actual people. Perhaps this is in response to the growing kickback of books overall in this state, along with the Texas Legislature pushing for laws like HB900 and SB13. These laws try to prohibit sexually explicit material in our school libraries. SB13, specifically, addresses forming such a committee.
While these laws sound agreeable on the surface, the issue is that proponents of these bills strike specifically at the LGBTQ community. Looking at the public comments on HB900 complied on March 22nd confirms this. Certainly not all books belong in a school library, but these lawmakers and proponents never worried about sexual scenes in books before, e.g., Lonesome Dove. But now that LGBTQ characters started gaining some prominence in storylines, they’re outraged. Many of these books are not truly explicit and some are even written by Texas authors. These bills are a targeted attack.
One book at La Grange Elementary was pulled a year and a half ago for review. Again, on the surface that seems fine. But this particular book is titled “People of Pride: 25 Great LGBTQ Americans” by Chase Clemesha. It was flippantly called pornography at a school board meeting. It contains nothing but short excerpts on the professional accomplishments of people who happen to be gay or transgender. It’s meant to show that everyone has a place in this world and can do great things. In fact, that just summarized the prologue which you can read for free on Amazon. Now we have a book committee so that intolerance has an even bigger voice.
We cannot simply label an entire community as pornographic, but that’s what many parents here are doing. La Grange is on its way to becoming a fear mongering, intolerant, little Texas town. I’d like to show my son we’re not that. I’d like him to know we’re not just tolerant but ac- cepting.
What are we afraid of? Do we think a book is going to make our kids gay? A book or an idea isn’t going to simply make our kids gay. That kind of logic was expunged decades ago. Does not having these books make you feel safer? We have school shootings occurring in small town Texas and this is what we spend time on? We haven’t truly done anything to further our kids’ safety in school, instead, we have security theater. I’m sorry but clear backpacks do nothing, and to be fair, our school administration cannot do much. It’s a systemic problem that needs to be addressed at a much higher level. So perhaps parents concerned for the well being of their children could spend time working towards those solutions.
Are we afraid our kids are going to ask us about gay/lesbian/ trans issues? What do we tell them about war? That it doesn’t exist? Do parents in this town just check out when the conversations get tough? Even war has a little bit of love in it when it comes to protection of family, friends, and country. And the implications are far more violent! But when it comes to a man loving another man just out of pure love, ewwww, we just can’t have that. It’s easy, someone loves someone else in a way that they might like to marry them one day. I find that a much easier conversation than war and politics. Transgender and gender fluid issues are certainly more complicated. And though we might want to ignore them these folks are here. My only advice is to encourage people to be the best versions of themselves as they are now, but know that sometimes that’s not enough for them to feel whole. Hopefully, someone else can put that more eloquently.
Goodness, there are church congregations here in Texas debating whether they will allow gay marriage; and some already do. I think that is actually “acceptance.” But, whatever they decide, they are genuinely, lovingly, broaching the subject. Many are at least tolerant and welcoming to an idea. The genesis of that discussion comes from respect and love for people. This book committee, SB13, and HB900 are spawned from intolerance and disdain. It doesn’t matter what spin you put on it, oh it’s good for this, or, it protects that person over there. The ONLY thing this book committee serves to do is give intolerance a platform. It will stain this community permanently.
If the idea of SB13 and HB900 are favorable, then let our representatives know we need wording specifically addressing the protections of the LGBTQ community. Otherwise, these laws should not pass and the school’s book committee should be dissolved. We need to know these characters will not simply be eliminated from our world as the implications of that are far worse for our children’s future.
Intolerance is already winning. Is that what we want?