About ‘Gender Queer’

I finally got to read the article in the Independent “Havoc at Hope School District Over ‘Child Porn’” online.

I want to thank so much the “activists” who distributed the flyers to alert us, the trusting public, to the inappropriate, sexual liberties some of the SBUSD staff are taking with the children and youth of Santa Barbara.

I took a look at the SBUSD library book, Gender Queer. It is not what Nick Masuda, a spokesperson for S.B. Unified, described as “a graphic novel about falling in love.”

It is a pornographic “novel” about lust, written to sexualize our children and youth before their time with no reference whatsoever to self-respect and good choices for their future family life.

So, thank you, “activists,” for revealing to us what the SBUSD staff we were trusting have allowed and support in our children’s and youth’s schools, whether or not it is “part of the curriculum.”

I will be looking into that California Parents’ Union that was mentioned. With seeing SBUSD administrators actually defending this choice of book for our youth, I can see that we community members, especially parents, need to investigate and communicate much more effectively what is and is not appropriate and recommended for our children and youth in our schools.

Editor’s Note: Author Maia Kobabe wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post that explained why books like Gender Queer were helpful to teenagers. She included this panel: