Georgia’s second-largest school district says that it has removed two books from 20 school libraries, saying the books had “highly inappropriate, sexually explicit content.”

The announcement, sent in an electronic message to parents in some Cobb County schools on Monday, comes days after the Republican-majority school board voted 4-3 along party lines to fire a teacher for reading a book about gender identity to fifth-grade students.

Although not new, book removals have surged since 2020, part of a backlash to what kids read and discuss in public schools. Conservatives want to stop children from reading books with themes on sexuality, gender, race and religion that they find objectionable. PEN America, a group promoting freedom of expression, counted 4,000 instances of books banned nationwide from July 2021 to December 2022.

  • treefrog@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    “Flamer” is a graphic novel about a boy who is discovering he is gay and how he is treated at summer camp. “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl” contains some discussion of sex and a lot of profanity, but is mainly about two high school boys who befriend a girl dying of cancer.

    From the article.

    • gabe [he/him]@literature.cafe
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      1 year ago

      I’ve read flamer and it’s kind of telling how people want it banned. It makes me wonder if people who are deeply opposed to it feel called out by it’s core messaging

          • JackbyDev
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            1 year ago

            The irony of this statement is that it is not a hell of a drug for people. Cognitive dissonance does not refer to the state of having contradictory beliefs, it refers to the feeling of discomfort one should experience from hold contradictory beliefs.

              • JackbyDev
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                1 year ago

                Yeah of course, I don’t think we should stop using it the colloquial way

                • gabe [he/him]@literature.cafe
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                  1 year ago

                  Dude it’s 9am where I am, I just woke up and posted a comment without fully proofreading it. Maybe consider not being an aggressive asshole and gently correct me instead? My intention was to say that they likely do read it and reach the conclusion they want and the irony of that goes over their head. I simply stated I assumed you understood what I actually meant

      • treefrog@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        If the message is understanding for gay children it stands against their whole fascist agenda.