A Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on book bans took a racy turn Tuesday, as Republican senators and a witness read scenes of various sexual content into the congressional record to defend the banning of multiple titles from U.S. schools.
…
The hearing on book bans was called as multiple Republican-led states have made it easier for books to be challenged in classrooms and as school board meetings have been flooded with arguments on what is appropriate for children to read.
The American Library Association said the number of book challenges in the United States doubled between 2021 and 2022.
…
Republicans and Democrats found common ground in agreeing there are books that are inappropriate for some children, but Democrats said the argument that all the books under discussion are sexually explicit is a scapegoat for the issue.
“No one is advocating for sexually explicit content to be available in an elementary school library or in [the] children’s section of the library,” Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said. “That’s a distraction from the real challenge. I understand and respect that parents may choose to limit what their children read, especially at younger ages. My wife and I did. Others do, too. But no parent should have the right to tell another parent’s child what they can and cannot read in school or at home. Every student deserves access to books that reflect their experiences and help them better understand who they are.”
These people are wild. American first and freedom of speach, then something says something they don’t like and its ban this, make this illegal.
So you want elementary schools to have sexually explicit books in their libraries? Do you have kids of your own?
“No one is advocating for sexually explicit content to be available in an elementary school library or in [the] children’s section of the library,” Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said. “That’s a distraction from the real challenge. I understand and respect that parents may choose to limit what their children read, especially at younger ages. My wife and I did. Others do, too. But no parent should have the right to tell another parent’s child what they can and cannot read in school or at home. Every student deserves access to books that reflect their experiences and help them better understand who they are.”
This is Lemmy. Of course they don’t have kids. Most of these people are severely emotionally stunted teenagers going through a Che Guevara phase.
I have a now 6th grader and it’s called parenting. I decide what is appropriate and not appropriate for my child. Not someone else.
I have a kid of my own. I want her to have access to all kinds of book content, sexual or not.
Sexual content in books is not going to ruin children. The vast majority are mature enough to handle it and it will more often than not help teach them to navigate the real world with more nuance than they would otherwise.
It can give words to the actions and feelings they come across, say for example, when a child is sexually assaulted and isn’t aware that it’s wrong, so they don’t speak up about it.
The books are not the problem. Books are never the problem and banning them is a huge infringement of the government on people’s freedom.
They are suspiciously silent about violence and gore.
Apparently understanding procreation exists is more dangerous than a heaping helping of the ol’ ultraviolence.
That’s something us Europeans find weird all the time. Splatterfest 9000 Ultra Bloody Gore edition is fine, but God forbid there is a literal mm of female areola in screen for a fraction of a second!
I like the glib answer that the USA was founded by religious nut jobs so uptight and conservative that they got kicked out of Europe for being so annoying - the puritans.
What’s amusing to me is that one of the stated reasons the religious nut jobs were persecuted was for their anti-war beliefs. Somehow that script got flipped.
Wait until they find out about fan fiction. Hope they get hard reading it to each other on the house floor.
Parents have a right to decide which materials are taught to their kids. I know parental rights make some of you uncomfortable, but you’ll just have to find a way to get over it. I won’t allow my young kids to be given literal child porn.
Lol, let me guess hetro teen romance with heavy sexual innuendos is fine for your child?
Parents have a right to decide which materials are taught to their kids
- So if my family is a holocaust denying family I can get books about holocaust banned?
- Or if I’m a young earth creationist I can get books on history and evolution banned?
- Perhaps if I’m a flat earther then I can get books on geology banned? Especially the ones about vulcanos which I liked so much when I was a kid?
- If I don’t want my children to read about incest I can get the bible banned?
Is there any limit to that or will every book be banned on the future?
People like you screaming about parental rights always forget that parents who don’t want their children taught theocracy or white supremacy are in the majority.
If you actually believe that your child is being handed books with literal child porn, you ought to be contacting the police and FBI immediately, not posting links to it on the fediverse.
I won’t allow my young kids to be given
That’s a page from Gender Queer. Which is a book for 18 and up. Nobody is trying to give it to young kids you absolute spanner.
Nobody is being forced to read any of the books you reactionaries are worried about. If you don’t want your crotch goblin reading Genderqueer you’re perfectly within your rights to forbid that but you don’t and shouldn’t have the right to deny someone else’s kid from actually developing their own healthy sexuality.
You’re allowed to not let your kid go to public schools if they’re teaching things you find offensive. You’re welcome to be that weirdo homeschooling kids; or paying to send them to private schools that do all the brainwashing for you.
There’s your parental rights. What you should not be allowed to do is decide what books are available to children-not-your-own.
Wish I could set a remindme! Bot for a decade from now when your kids experiment and hunt down this shit on their own and the fallout from that. Have fun with that one
Also, have you read the Bible? Kid fucking, beastiality and genocide abound. I assume you’re cool with that tho
Would you look at, the Bible is missing from their evidence of sexually explicit books read to children. All the prof you need that this has nothing to do with child safety
