A Poway Unified School District committee that reviewed two LGBTQ-themed books that had received formal complaints about their subject matter and appropriateness to students has decided that both books will remain in high school libraries.
Following complaints in October about the books “Gender Queer” and “Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic,” the district’s Review Committee, comprised of parents, students, teachers and district staff, met several times to review the books. The committee voted 9 to 3 to continue having both books available in general circulation, said Christine Paik, the district’s spokesperson.
Paik said the books are not part of the district’s required reading.
Carol Osborne, associate superintendent of Learning Services, said committee were “thoughtful and deliberate” in their decision.
“Despite the social pressures surrounding their decisions, the committee ultimately made their decision based on the books’ intended educational use and literary merit, as outlined in our istrative regulations,” Osborne said in a media release.
A copy of “Gender Queer,” a graphic novel that recounts author Maia Kobabe’s experience growing up and exploring their gender identity and sexuality, is available in one district high school library. And one copy of “Fun Home,” a graphic novel that serves as a memoir of author and cartoonist Alison Bechdel’s upbringing and experience as a lesbian, is available in three district high school libraries, Paik said.
The complaint about “Gender Queer” lists a number of “objectionable” subjects in the book, including “excessive focus on alternate gender ideologies, obscene sexual activities & nudity.”
The complaint refers to “Fun Home” as “vulgar comic book pornography” and says it could lead to outcomes such as “gender dysphoria, loss of innocence, self harm, threat to family values, risky behavior/sexual experimentation.”
The challenges faced by these books at Poway Unified a long list of challenges across the country. Locally, Fallbrook High School District is also facing a challenge for “Fun Home.”
“Gender Queer” has faced a similar review in a number of school districts such as Canutillo Independent School District in Texas, Kutztown Area School District in Pennsylvania, and Jefferson County Public Schools in Kentucky. Each district reviewed the book but also decided to let it remain in school libraries.
Other school districts, such as Granbury ISD and Keller ISD in Texas have removed the book and are now facing legal challenges for the removals.
On the heels of the decision to leave the two books in Poway Unified high school libraries, public comment at the district’s Board of Education meetings became an arena for charged input. of the conservative group Gays Against Groomers (GAG) made statements against the committee’s decision at the Jan. 12 meeting.
Frank Rodriguez, GAG’s executive director of operations, said “every teacher that hangs a Pride flag in their classroom should be fired and arrested.”
“All of you up here are pretty intelligent,” Rodriguez said to the board. “You have doctorate degrees, you’re educated and you lead this district. Yet, you turn a blind eye to the sexual things that happen in your classroom. I refuse to believe that any of you think that’s appropriate.”
Samantha Viscount, chapter lead for the Vista chapter of GAG, said that materials available in the district’s school libraries were “outrageous and dangerous.” Honing in on “Gender Queer” and another book titled “This Book is Gay,” Viscount said that the subjects discussed in the works are unsuitable for children.
“These are extremely elaborate concepts,” Viscount said. “Most adults struggle to understand these concepts in depth, let alone children.”
A month later at the Feb. 9 board meeting, parent Aya Snyder said the GAG group was politically motivated, and not Poway Unified parents.
“They travel around to school board meetings throughout the state giving the same exact speeches you all heard last month,” Snyder said.
Parent Lindsay Ball commended the district for being inclusive, and said that the world does “not conform to a neat little PG rating.”
“Books stir empathy and comion in their readers and help us challenge our preexisting ideas about the world,” Ball said. “It’s the reason that books like ‘The Diary of Anne Frank,’ ‘Beloved’ and ‘Gender Queer’ are so crucial for helping readers identify commonalities with people we may not initially see as being like us.
“We cannot expect our children to think for themselves if we are limiting the body of knowledge they have to choose from,” Ball said.
Parent Kristen Beer said it was “vital” for families and children to have access to multiple varied points of view, and that there was a necessity for more books and not fewer.
“Why do we have books at all?” Beer said. “Why do we learn about past events and far off places? It’s because we may never get to experience these things first hand for ourselves. Just as valuable books are about ancient civilizations and historical events are books about people who live a different experience from what we see in our daily lives. Reading about these things will help me to better empathize with my neighbors, my classmates and my friends.”
At the Jan. 12 meeting, Del Norte High student Ashley Cook commented about how she read “Gender Queer” and decided for herself that the content was not appropriate. Doan says that her input proved a point.
“A student can indeed use their reasoning skills to make that determination for themselves and either borrow the book, or not,” Doan said. “We prefer these titles remain in our school libraries because another student, perhaps a queer student, might make a very different choice regarding these titles for themselves.”
According to PUSD’s istrative Regulation on selecting school library materials that present controversial material, materials that present incidents on sex are subjected to a test of literary merit.
“While the sensational or over-dramatic should not be included, the fact of sexual incidents appearing should not automatically disqualify a book,” the regulation reads. “Such episodes should be objective, accurate, simple in presentation, and in good taste, and the books should be of literary value.”
