A school district in northeast Florida must put back in libraries three dozen books as part of a settlement reached Thursday with students and parents who sued over what they said was an unlawful decision to limit access to dozens of titles containing LGBTQ+ content.
Under the agreement the School Board of Nassau County must restore access to three dozen titles including “And Tango Makes Three,” a children’s picture book based on a true story about two male penguins that raised a chick together at New York’s Central Park Zoo. Authors Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson were plaintiffs in the lawsuit against the district, which is about 35 miles (about 60 kilometers) northeast of Jacksonville along the Georgia border.
The suit was one of several challenges to book bans since state lawmakers last year passed, and Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law, legislation making it easier to challenge educational materials that opponents consider pornographic and obscene. Last month six major publishers and several well-known authors filed a federal lawsuit in Orlando arguing that some provisions of the law violate the First Amendment rights of publishers, authors and students.
Imagine seeing a true story about penguins and deciding it’s gay propoganda
And also, how has the US got itself into a position where LGBTQ+ needs to be suppressed? Gay or not, why should these homophobic politicians get to decide what the children can be exposed to without involving the parents in the decision.
Because they’re probably closeted themselves, and it makes them feel things.
Because we have such a large number of people convinced that love is “obscene” and that love and sex are for procreation only and shouldn’t be talked about except to congratulate people who are making babies. But mostly because the people pushing those ideas are people have never truly loved anyone other than themselves and/or want to rape without consequence.
How much did this one county cost you to find out, Florida? 10 million?
When christians beat you with their bible, beat them back with a children’s book about gay penguins!
Let’s normalize Luxury Gay Space Libraries.
I don’t get it? A space for gays? Or Gaaaaaays in spaaaaaace!!! I need to know!!
You can’t send gay men to space, their uteruses will explode. Or something, I ran out of excuses a while ago
I’m just going to drop this link off right here: https://www.queerliberationlibrary.org/ 🌈
As a cis ally, I’m totally here for it! That’s a great resource, and having those spaces in schools and public libraries are important!
Did the settlement include criteria or guidelines for other books the district is not allowed to ban going forword? Otherwise what’s to stop them from banning any other books they don’t like?
