WEBVTT - The War on Trans People: Part 4, The Legislative Onslaught 0:00:04.000 --> 0:00:08.719 Do you know what I love is decadent Western sexual mores. Well, 0:00:08.760 --> 0:00:10.560 that actually does tie you into what we're talking about. 0:00:11.320 --> 0:00:18.320 What you were reading, Jesus Dear God when I when 0:00:18.360 --> 0:00:20.919 I logged into this call an hour late, Garrison was 0:00:20.960 --> 0:00:26.160 studiously reading reading a book by with the screen centered 0:00:26.200 --> 0:00:28.840 on the cover. We gotta bleep this out and have it, 0:00:28.920 --> 0:00:31.000 have it be the new thing that's bleeped out. I 0:00:31.080 --> 0:00:36.280 agree with that. Actually, yes, good call. That way, we 0:00:36.280 --> 0:00:38.680 can just do a whole series of jokes where we 0:00:38.760 --> 0:00:45.760 just like pill people on fascist esotericism. What a what 0:00:45.840 --> 0:00:51.360 a fun joke that would be happen here show we 0:00:51.440 --> 0:00:55.920 talk about things that could happen, of about just talking 0:00:55.920 --> 0:00:59.880 about the onslaught of of bills that have been introduced 0:00:59.880 --> 0:01:02.440 the past few months that attacking kind of trans rights 0:01:02.480 --> 0:01:06.680 and queer people in general. Yeah, so we've we've we 0:01:06.800 --> 0:01:10.240 we've heard about gay marriage, We've heard about turfs a 0:01:10.319 --> 0:01:13.880 lot the past the past few episodes, and now we're 0:01:14.120 --> 0:01:17.520 going to be kind of focusing on the Yeah, like 0:01:17.560 --> 0:01:20.679 I said, the kind of current legislation that's happened specifically 0:01:20.720 --> 0:01:23.920 within the past six months, um that I've been targeting 0:01:24.240 --> 0:01:28.440 kind of LGBTQ people in in schools, particularly that, and 0:01:28.520 --> 0:01:33.440 a lot of it's been targeted towards towards miners, teen teens, adolescents, 0:01:33.760 --> 0:01:37.600 UM and restricting the visibility and uh and kind of 0:01:37.880 --> 0:01:40.800 what's allowed to be said and mentioned in schools. So 0:01:41.760 --> 0:01:44.559 we're gonna kind of actually talk about UM books first, 0:01:44.760 --> 0:01:46.480 because a lot of this stuff is kind of tied 0:01:46.520 --> 0:01:52.919 into the critical race theory UM kind of like organizing 0:01:53.000 --> 0:01:59.440 that the right was doing. So. Yeah. The American Library 0:01:59.440 --> 0:02:05.440 Association says that between September and December alone, they received 0:02:05.840 --> 0:02:09.799 more than three thirty reports of book challenges, for which 0:02:09.840 --> 0:02:12.680 is the most over two decades in terms of people 0:02:12.760 --> 0:02:16.160 trying to restrict what books are allowed to be in schools. Boy, 0:02:16.440 --> 0:02:21.280 I experienced a book challenge lately. Tell you what, trying 0:02:21.320 --> 0:02:25.240 to read through the new James Patterson book. What do 0:02:25.320 --> 0:02:28.280 either of you know who James Patterson is? No? Was 0:02:28.440 --> 0:02:30.519 this was this was a bad idea on my back? 0:02:30.639 --> 0:02:33.720 Please continue, Garrison, I was. I was busy reading the 0:02:34.600 --> 0:02:37.359 before you logged on. I have a different interest in books. 0:02:38.080 --> 0:02:42.600 You know, actually very similar books, very similar and the 0:02:42.639 --> 0:02:46.480 Pelican brief basically identical. I have no idea how much. 0:02:46.520 --> 0:02:49.480 That's gonna get bleeped, but it's gonna be funny. Um 0:02:49.639 --> 0:02:55.120 so yeah. A Tennessee school's removal of Mars the Holocaust 0:02:55.280 --> 0:02:58.720 graphic biography became kind of the most famous example of 0:02:58.720 --> 0:03:01.600 this trend a few months ago. Um, the book was 0:03:01.639 --> 0:03:04.960 allegedly banned due to due to nudity and because of 0:03:05.000 --> 0:03:08.440 curse words. But this is kind of you know it was. 0:03:08.720 --> 0:03:12.600 They claimed it had nothing to do with actual political content. Um, 0:03:12.639 --> 0:03:16.360 it was just because of the the inappropriate images to children, 0:03:16.840 --> 0:03:19.720 which is a little a little dubious since it's all 0:03:19.760 --> 0:03:25.400 you know, starring mice. Um yeah, yeah. But the majority 0:03:25.400 --> 0:03:28.680 of challenged books have been kind of those focused on 0:03:28.880 --> 0:03:33.639 lgbt Q characters or themes. Back in November, nearly two 0:03:33.680 --> 0:03:36.760 dozen people a day we're dying from COVID nineteen in 0:03:36.920 --> 0:03:40.120 South Carolina. Thank god that god better. Thank god we 0:03:40.240 --> 0:03:44.080 knocked that ship out. But rather than try to handle 0:03:44.120 --> 0:03:49.320 the public health crisis, Governor Henry McMaster seemed more interested 0:03:49.360 --> 0:03:52.360 in pressuring the state's Department of Education to crack down 0:03:52.360 --> 0:03:55.160 on queer theme two books. He directed the Department of 0:03:55.200 --> 0:03:58.240 Education and the State Board of Education to create quote, 0:03:58.480 --> 0:04:03.040 statewide standards and directives prevent pornography and other obscene content 0:04:03.160 --> 0:04:06.920 from entering our state's public schools and libraries of the 0:04:06.960 --> 0:04:09.640 Governor said in a letter to the Superintendent of Education. 0:04:10.080 --> 0:04:13.680 Inside the letter, it was specifically targeted towards uh Maya 0:04:13.760 --> 0:04:17.960 Kobe's book Gender Queer, a Memoir UM, which is a 0:04:18.400 --> 0:04:21.359 gender queer graphic novel kind of detailing what it's what 0:04:21.480 --> 0:04:24.600 it's like to be gender queer. It's definitely popular among 0:04:24.760 --> 0:04:27.240 kind of the adult like a young adult kind of 0:04:27.279 --> 0:04:29.599 age range and and as and as a good resource 0:04:29.640 --> 0:04:32.680 for kind of gender bending type stuff. Um and it 0:04:32.760 --> 0:04:35.719 has faced a large amount of a large amount of 0:04:35.720 --> 0:04:39.240 the onslaught and like the bashing of queer books have 0:04:39.320 --> 0:04:44.520 been focused on this specific book. It's an autobiographical book 0:04:45.240 --> 0:04:48.000 based on the Bay Area non binary writer and the 0:04:48.040 --> 0:04:52.400 illustrator UM. It's been challenged and it started being challenged 0:04:52.400 --> 0:04:55.080 at one of South Carolina's nearly five hundred schools and 0:04:55.080 --> 0:04:56.960 then got banned from all of them just because people 0:04:56.960 --> 0:04:59.680 were mad at about it. At one school, it was 0:04:59.720 --> 0:05:02.400 being recommended for those in the tenth grade or higher 0:05:02.520 --> 0:05:05.560 to learn about kind of queer issues UM and it 0:05:05.760 --> 0:05:09.000 is now become one of the most banned books of 0:05:09.080 --> 0:05:12.400 this past year. It's been removed from schools in Virginia, 0:05:12.640 --> 0:05:17.279 New Jersey, Florida, North and South Carolina, Texas, and a 0:05:17.360 --> 0:05:21.200 large amount of other states in the South. Um. Speaking 0:05:21.240 --> 0:05:24.359 speaking of Texas, the Agenda Queer Graphic novel was just 0:05:24.640 --> 0:05:28.039 one part of a massive kind of horrifying purge led 0:05:28.080 --> 0:05:33.400 by Texas Republican state Representative Matt cross Uh. He he 0:05:33.760 --> 0:05:36.400 led an effort to pressure and forced schools and libraries 0:05:36.600 --> 0:05:40.440 to remove books based on a list of undesirable reads 0:05:40.480 --> 0:05:44.120 that he compiled himself. Um. The list is a sixteen 0:05:44.200 --> 0:05:48.080 page spreadsheet with over eight hundred and fifty books cataloged 0:05:48.839 --> 0:05:52.800 on Crouse's eight hundred and fifty strong list of titles 0:05:52.960 --> 0:05:57.000 that he wants spanned from Texas libraries, of them concerned 0:05:57.120 --> 0:06:00.279 LGBTQ issues. Um, it's kind of clear that what he 0:06:00.320 --> 0:06:03.760 did this, Yeah, well what what what? What? What he 0:06:03.760 --> 0:06:06.599 did to make this list is just like googling the 0:06:06.640 --> 0:06:09.320 words like queer and l g b t Q and 0:06:09.400 --> 0:06:12.440 g and trans like with book and just found a 0:06:12.480 --> 0:06:15.000 list of books that have it like mentioned to somewhere, 0:06:15.480 --> 0:06:17.840 so like a lot of so many books are just 0:06:17.920 --> 0:06:20.479 like completely a banned that aren't even really like yeah, 0:06:20.640 --> 0:06:23.520 like the list is nearly one thousand books, like log 0:06:23.680 --> 0:06:26.200 so like he was just like Google searching to like 0:06:26.200 --> 0:06:27.760 add as many books to lists as that he could. 0:06:28.120 --> 0:06:30.680 It's not actually about the content beyond the fact that 0:06:30.720 --> 0:06:35.240 the content acknowledge the existence of queer people. Like yeah, 0:06:35.360 --> 0:06:37.480 that's to the extent that he knows about the content. 0:06:37.520 --> 0:06:40.560 That's it, Like, you can't be reading all these books no, 0:06:40.640 --> 0:06:42.640 because like one of the more interesting trends that you 0:06:42.640 --> 0:06:46.480 can find on this list is that it challenges and 0:06:46.520 --> 0:06:50.239 tries to ban books that teach students like their legal rights, 0:06:50.680 --> 0:06:53.960 um like not even counting books about like reproductive rights 0:06:54.080 --> 0:06:55.799 or writes his like l g b t Q people. 0:06:56.360 --> 0:06:58.720 It also it includes in this list like titles like 0:06:58.800 --> 0:07:01.560 the Legal Atlas of the Unit in States, um Team 0:07:01.640 --> 0:07:08.120 legal Rights, Uh, the legal Rights, Yeah, equal Rights, we 0:07:08.240 --> 0:07:13.000 the students, Supreme Court cases for and about students. Uh yeah, 0:07:13.040 --> 0:07:17.239 I mean this is my my support for LGBTQ people 0:07:17.440 --> 0:07:21.000 is worring here with my belief that children should not 0:07:21.120 --> 0:07:24.160 know their rights because they're they're they're they're they're getting 0:07:24.160 --> 0:07:26.440 too upty. As it is, we gotta we gotta crack look, 0:07:26.440 --> 0:07:28.200 could we crack down on kids in a way that 0:07:28.320 --> 0:07:32.920 isn't bigoted, That's all I'm asking for. Nope, nope, absolutely no, 0:07:34.440 --> 0:07:38.040 we gotta slow them down. Kids. You must know your rights. 0:07:38.080 --> 0:07:39.840 And the very important thing here is that if you 0:07:39.920 --> 0:07:41.760 keep WE in your locker, the school can just search it. 0:07:42.080 --> 0:07:44.320 So don't put in your locker. If you put it 0:07:44.320 --> 0:07:46.480 in your car, they it's it's way harder for them 0:07:46.480 --> 0:07:52.640 to search it in the principles car store guns. They're wait, okay, sorry, 0:07:52.760 --> 0:07:55.040 let's um. Yeah, I'm not sure if you can find 0:07:55.080 --> 0:07:56.920 that in the legal acts less of the United States. 0:07:57.040 --> 0:07:59.560 But to be fair, Texas kids can't read that book 0:07:59.560 --> 0:08:03.520 either now, so who knows who knows what it sets? Yeah, 0:08:03.640 --> 0:08:06.880 So to Virginia, school board members kind of called for 0:08:07.040 --> 0:08:10.120 a sexual books quote unquote sexual books to be burned 0:08:10.200 --> 0:08:13.120 at a meeting last year. Um, and a lot of these, 0:08:13.160 --> 0:08:15.120 like a lot of the rhetoric around like book book 0:08:15.160 --> 0:08:18.600 burnings and book bannings was specifically tied to the kind 0:08:18.640 --> 0:08:23.120 of the effort to harass and gain support in school boards. 0:08:23.200 --> 0:08:25.000 And we saw us last year with like proud boys 0:08:25.000 --> 0:08:27.960 and extremists, and it's like other like random people who 0:08:28.120 --> 0:08:31.880 got their brains kind of warped by propaganda kind of 0:08:31.960 --> 0:08:35.880 leading these like incendiary charges against against the school board members. 0:08:35.920 --> 0:08:38.400 Some you know, the school board members got fired, like 0:08:38.559 --> 0:08:42.400 threatened with arrest just for allowing books that mentioned the 0:08:42.400 --> 0:08:45.560 existence of being queer. It was, it was, it was 0:08:45.640 --> 0:08:48.559 quite quite a problem that is now influencing this current 0:08:48.640 --> 0:08:52.680 legislative cycle. UM. In almost every case, quote unquote, like 0:08:52.760 --> 0:08:56.760 concerned parents have swarmed school board meetings and flooded kind 0:08:56.760 --> 0:09:02.800 of mailboxes with outrage over what they call pornography UM 0:09:02.840 --> 0:09:07.240 being distributed to their children. You know, people will will 0:09:07.360 --> 0:09:11.120 plaster signs with you know, scenes from the gender queer 0:09:11.240 --> 0:09:15.959 graphic novel that is like what they they they deem 0:09:16.000 --> 0:09:19.960 as being like porno like pornographic UM when it just 0:09:20.000 --> 0:09:24.559 depicts like how how like adults and young adults behave accurately, 0:09:24.640 --> 0:09:26.200 just like you can find in any like fucking like 0:09:26.240 --> 0:09:29.080 Batman comic. Like it's not like it's it's like it's 0:09:29.120 --> 0:09:31.920 like not it's it's it's it's both in line with 0:09:31.960 --> 0:09:34.719 other comic books and also like it's obviously dealing with 0:09:34.760 --> 0:09:38.440 like issues around being queer as like that's the whole 0:09:38.440 --> 0:09:42.360 point of it. So but yeah, just blasting this blasting 0:09:42.440 --> 0:09:46.280 like queerness as innately pornographic, is you know, a big, 0:09:46.280 --> 0:09:50.560 a big part of this type of propaganda push. It's it's, uh, 0:09:51.360 --> 0:09:53.480 it's pretty upsetic because I mean a lot of these 0:09:53.480 --> 0:09:56.839 adults and like quote unquote parents, you know, who knows 0:09:56.880 --> 0:09:59.560 if they're actually parents. You know, it even goes and 0:09:59.600 --> 0:10:02.520 stuff to being like, you know, they're accusing librarians and 0:10:02.600 --> 0:10:05.360 teachers of being pedophiles for having this, for the having 0:10:05.360 --> 0:10:10.400 these type of materials. In Wyoming, prosecutors considered charging library 0:10:10.400 --> 0:10:15.160 staff with stalking books about sexuality, um, including like literary 0:10:15.160 --> 0:10:17.959 classics under like the sex said banner, like sex is 0:10:18.000 --> 0:10:20.760 a funny word and this book is gay. Um, but 0:10:21.240 --> 0:10:25.000 I considered charging library staff, like with cribs, for for 0:10:25.120 --> 0:10:28.200 stalking these books, which are like very typical sex said books. 0:10:28.559 --> 0:10:31.240 It's it's incredible because when I was in a Texas 0:10:31.240 --> 0:10:33.800 public school, I read all of the Wheel of Time 0:10:33.800 --> 0:10:36.360 books from my school library, and those are horny in 0:10:36.360 --> 0:10:39.200 a much much more unhealthy way than any of the 0:10:39.200 --> 0:10:42.880 books that you're talking about could possibly be described as well. 0:10:43.400 --> 0:10:45.280 You get that, you get this fun thing where it's 0:10:45.320 --> 0:10:47.800 like they're basically running the clock back on the turf 0:10:47.920 --> 0:10:49.440 arc like if you if you remember, we're talking about 0:10:49.520 --> 0:10:52.840 church in Mexico. It was okay, So the ark that 0:10:52.880 --> 0:10:54.920 they did was they were anti porn people, but then 0:10:54.960 --> 0:10:59.080 they lost anti porn wars, so they became anti trafficking people. 0:10:59.600 --> 0:11:02.280 And then when sort of turfishing came back, they went 0:11:02.280 --> 0:11:05.280 from anti trafficking back to being turfs. And it's like this, 0:11:05.520 --> 0:11:07.640 this is literally they're they're doing this whole thing in 0:11:07.679 --> 0:11:09.760 reverse right there. Their starting position is that their anti 0:11:09.760 --> 0:11:12.360 trans and they're just going back to like the anti 0:11:12.360 --> 0:11:14.559 porn stuff, but like bringing in and sort of like 0:11:14.640 --> 0:11:17.040 bringing in an anti trafficking angle, and it's it's great, 0:11:17.320 --> 0:11:21.480 It's extremely fun. Yeah, this is I would describe this 0:11:21.559 --> 0:11:24.680 is fun. This is what I consider a fun time. Yeah, 0:11:24.800 --> 0:11:28.320 well I know what you consider a fun time here. 0:11:31.200 --> 0:11:34.960 You do notice my my carefully place, carefully placed books 0:11:35.000 --> 0:11:40.080 on on my Yes, I'm extremely aware of that. Garrison. 0:11:41.480 --> 0:11:44.079 Harrison is reading books that will get them canceled by 0:11:44.200 --> 0:11:47.640 like five specific people if we talk about them too 0:11:47.760 --> 0:11:50.240 much on this show. That is always the fear of 0:11:50.480 --> 0:11:52.559 that's always the fear of Twitter. It's being canceled by 0:11:52.559 --> 0:11:55.720 five people. My favorite thing about doing a podcast for 0:11:55.720 --> 0:11:58.520 an audience of millions, Garrison is telling a joke that 0:11:58.640 --> 0:12:03.480 is that is precisely for you and me and making 0:12:03.480 --> 0:12:08.160 that like several minutes of content. Sorry. Um, And Oklahoma 0:12:08.240 --> 0:12:10.800 bill was introduced to the state Senate that would prohibit 0:12:10.880 --> 0:12:15.520 school libraries from keeping books that focused on sexual activity, 0:12:15.520 --> 0:12:18.560 sexual identity, or a gender identity. Um, you're gonna gonna 0:12:18.640 --> 0:12:20.679 use the word gender identity a lot. That kind of 0:12:20.720 --> 0:12:23.959 just refers to anything that even I mean, like it 0:12:24.400 --> 0:12:27.240 refers to even mentions of being cinis gender, right, because 0:12:27.280 --> 0:12:29.520 if you bring up the concept of cis gender, that 0:12:30.240 --> 0:12:32.880 infers that there is an alternative to that. So so 0:12:32.960 --> 0:12:35.120 like even any if anything even mentions being sis, it 0:12:35.160 --> 0:12:37.120 means that there must be something other. So that already 0:12:37.160 --> 0:12:39.839 falls into the gender identity kind of framework. So it's 0:12:39.880 --> 0:12:43.120 just like anything that suggests that you are that you 0:12:43.280 --> 0:12:45.600 that there's like, gender identity is not something you are 0:12:45.640 --> 0:12:49.760 innately born with and are forever, is is gonna be 0:12:49.840 --> 0:12:53.920 it's gonna be is banned and is seen as pornographic 0:12:54.000 --> 0:12:57.560 what I'm seeing or is like grooming children or whatever 0:12:57.600 --> 0:13:00.560 kind of words that they use. Um, And like all 0:13:00.600 --> 0:13:03.599 of this rhetoric is much worse for l g B 0:13:03.720 --> 0:13:06.520 two Q authors who are black or people of color. 0:13:07.040 --> 0:13:11.560 There's books like All Boys Aren't Blue by writer George M. Johnson, 0:13:11.960 --> 0:13:15.360 whose whose book led one white school board member to 0:13:15.480 --> 0:13:19.439 call the police on her own district's librarian for keeping 0:13:19.480 --> 0:13:24.160 it in stock. It's uh the the the Central York 0:13:24.240 --> 0:13:28.160 School District in Pennsylvania, and an extensive list of books 0:13:28.360 --> 0:13:30.920 last year that was almost entirely written by the authors 0:13:31.000 --> 0:13:33.679 of color. This is all the stuff has been happening, 0:13:33.760 --> 0:13:37.760 like concurrently with the anti critical race theory, like organizing 0:13:37.800 --> 0:13:41.559 in protests, which again obviously isn't about actual critical race theory, 0:13:41.880 --> 0:13:45.880 just about the suggestion that maybe racism is something that 0:13:46.000 --> 0:13:48.600 is not just an individual problem, but it's maybe kind 0:13:48.600 --> 0:13:52.280 of built into our entire culture and system of governance, 0:13:52.640 --> 0:13:56.160 UM and education. So it's it's not actual critical race theory, 0:13:56.200 --> 0:13:57.920 it's that. But I think everyone listening to this kind 0:13:57.960 --> 0:14:01.600 of already are already knows that Texas Governor Greg Abbott, 0:14:01.720 --> 0:14:03.560 which is gonna be just who's gonna be a recurring 0:14:03.640 --> 0:14:07.839 character on this episode, UM, kind of has taken this 0:14:07.880 --> 0:14:11.439 whole you know, calling the police on librarians thing, uh 0:14:11.520 --> 0:14:15.080 much further kind of demanding that the state's education agency 0:14:15.320 --> 0:14:19.600 quote investigate any criminal activity in our public schools involving 0:14:19.680 --> 0:14:24.400 the availability of pornography, a move that kind of librarians 0:14:24.400 --> 0:14:27.440 in the state fear could make them targets of criminal complaints. 0:14:27.480 --> 0:14:30.240 For again, the stalking books about sex said, or you know, 0:14:30.360 --> 0:14:32.840 stalking books that not even not not not even not 0:14:32.880 --> 0:14:34.600 even not even but like sex head, just just like 0:14:34.920 --> 0:14:39.160 books that mentioned an alternative to the heteronormative, like you 0:14:39.200 --> 0:14:41.760 are the gender that you are signed at birth, like idea, 0:14:41.840 --> 0:14:44.960 like anything other than that is now could get them 0:14:44.960 --> 0:14:47.360 in trouble. So anything that doesn't kind of fall under 0:14:47.400 --> 0:14:51.800 the Christian supremacist like worldview of sexuality and gender. It's 0:14:51.920 --> 0:14:56.320 it's not great. There's a it's so yeah, all boys 0:14:56.320 --> 0:14:59.680 aren't blue. The book written by by George M. Johnson, 0:15:00.320 --> 0:15:03.120 has been similar to the gender queer graphic novel is 0:15:03.400 --> 0:15:05.800 one of the most banned books of last year, targeted 0:15:05.840 --> 0:15:09.280 for removal in at least a fifteen states. Um, it's 0:15:09.600 --> 0:15:11.320 a lot of the organizing of these efforts kind of 0:15:11.360 --> 0:15:15.000 start online. There's like Telegram channels, Facebook groups, and then 0:15:15.000 --> 0:15:17.680 they carry over into like school board protests, and then 0:15:17.720 --> 0:15:20.680 eventually like you know, maybe some school board members will 0:15:20.720 --> 0:15:23.040 will will catch onto this and start advocating for it. 0:15:23.440 --> 0:15:25.720 Then you know, the state governor, does you know it's 0:15:25.880 --> 0:15:28.000 city city councilman. Like all of this thing is is 0:15:28.120 --> 0:15:30.920 is his whole cycle of organizing that's really picked up 0:15:31.120 --> 0:15:35.560 alongside the anti CRT stuff many many parents have seen, 0:15:35.600 --> 0:15:38.920 like Google docs or spreadsheets like the sixteen page one 0:15:39.000 --> 0:15:42.360 made by Matt Krausse of of contentious titles posted on 0:15:42.360 --> 0:15:46.600 Facebook by local chapters of organizations such as Mom's for Liberty. 0:15:47.360 --> 0:15:50.640 So people will make these giant, giant spend streets talking 0:15:50.640 --> 0:15:52.840 about books that they don't like, and then they'll get 0:15:52.840 --> 0:15:57.280 shared around on Facebook groups, Telegram channels from their librarians. 0:15:57.640 --> 0:16:00.600 Uh say that parents will ask their schools if these 0:16:00.640 --> 0:16:04.720 books are available inside libraries, and then we'll start rallying 0:16:04.760 --> 0:16:09.360 and organizing to get them banned from being available in 0:16:09.400 --> 0:16:12.080 any kind of public, public government setting, whether that be 0:16:12.160 --> 0:16:16.320 school libraries, whether it be like public libraries, whether that 0:16:16.360 --> 0:16:21.440 be like online access, all this type of stuff. So yeah, 0:16:21.640 --> 0:16:26.560 it's a it's I don't know, it's Organizing against these 0:16:26.560 --> 0:16:29.840 types of things is never the easiest thing, um, because 0:16:29.880 --> 0:16:32.800 a lot of times they these people get really get 0:16:32.880 --> 0:16:37.440 really dedicated onto this because it is such a it's 0:16:37.480 --> 0:16:39.200 it's it's the whole save the children a kind of 0:16:39.240 --> 0:16:42.320 idea which gave Q and On such strength, and Q 0:16:42.480 --> 0:16:44.280 and On is kind of taking a dip down. This 0:16:44.320 --> 0:16:46.640 stuff is taking a rise up. It's kind of it's 0:16:46.680 --> 0:16:51.000 passing over the same type of organizing principles online. As 0:16:51.040 --> 0:16:54.280 as mentioned before, the governor of South Carolina asked the 0:16:54.280 --> 0:16:57.840 state's Superintendent of Education but also it's law enforcement division, 0:16:58.040 --> 0:17:01.400 to investigate the presence of quote obscene in pornographic materials 0:17:01.400 --> 0:17:04.560 from its public schools um you know, citing the Gender 0:17:04.560 --> 0:17:07.760 and Queer graphic novel as an example that you've seen. 0:17:08.760 --> 0:17:11.800 You've seen mayors in difference in different cities withhold funding 0:17:11.840 --> 0:17:15.280 from county libraries saying that he will not release money 0:17:15.320 --> 0:17:19.159 to these candy library systems until books with lgbt Q 0:17:19.359 --> 0:17:23.880 themes are removed. It's it's pretty grim, uh, And so 0:17:23.920 --> 0:17:27.760 far efforts to bring criminal charges against librarians and educators 0:17:27.920 --> 0:17:32.560 have largely faltered, as as law enforcement officials in like 0:17:32.640 --> 0:17:35.600 Florida and Wyoming and other sites for this type of 0:17:35.600 --> 0:17:38.679 thing has been attempted. Have you know, found really no 0:17:38.760 --> 0:17:42.520 basis for criminal investigations. But still it's like the same 0:17:42.560 --> 0:17:46.119 thing for like, even even if this process gets started, 0:17:46.160 --> 0:17:48.919 it's about building like fear that it could happen to you. 0:17:49.160 --> 0:17:52.160 It's about you know, this fear that someone's always watching 0:17:52.240 --> 0:17:55.160 and someone's always wanting to report you. Um, and it's 0:17:55.160 --> 0:17:57.800 the thing that they happened with Texas and abortion. It's 0:17:57.840 --> 0:18:00.720 like trying to have like the bound hundred idea of 0:18:00.760 --> 0:18:03.480 be like parents are trying to find examples of this 0:18:03.560 --> 0:18:06.119 to report it. So then so it's like this like 0:18:06.240 --> 0:18:10.240 proactive kind of surveillance of anything that doesn't fall into 0:18:10.280 --> 0:18:15.880 the Christian supremacist idea of gender and sexuality. It's you know, now, 0:18:16.000 --> 0:18:18.480 of course that's like a specific interpretation of Christianity. I'm 0:18:18.520 --> 0:18:21.040 not not saying all Christianities like that, but it is 0:18:21.560 --> 0:18:24.000 the one of it's them in the South, it's it 0:18:24.080 --> 0:18:27.000 is like one of the bigger strains of that type 0:18:27.000 --> 0:18:30.440 of of that type of kind of religious and politic synthesis. 0:18:32.520 --> 0:18:36.240 Let's let's see. So courts have generally taken the position 0:18:36.320 --> 0:18:40.040 that libraries should not remove these books from circulation um, 0:18:40.080 --> 0:18:43.400 but sometimes due to pressure via like loss of funding 0:18:43.800 --> 0:18:45.800 or depending on how like the how much how much 0:18:45.880 --> 0:18:48.240 like who is in charge of each state's kind of 0:18:48.320 --> 0:18:50.159 education system? A lot of a lot of a lot 0:18:50.160 --> 0:18:51.920 of these books have been banned and have have been 0:18:51.920 --> 0:18:55.920 pulled from many school libraries and many public libraries. Even 0:18:55.960 --> 0:18:58.160 if it doesn't like go all the way to being 0:18:58.200 --> 0:19:01.679 like you know, court mandated all of it, sometimes it 0:19:01.680 --> 0:19:06.000 doesn't need doesn't even need to get that far. So yeah, 0:19:06.000 --> 0:19:08.120 because like even if it doesn't get to the court, 0:19:08.320 --> 0:19:11.920 librarians kind of librarians have said that just the threat 0:19:11.960 --> 0:19:14.800 of having to defend against charges and having to defend 0:19:14.840 --> 0:19:17.159 against like accusations of pedophilia and grooming and all this 0:19:17.280 --> 0:19:19.919 kind of nonsense is enough to get many educators to 0:19:20.000 --> 0:19:22.439 censor themselves by just not talking these books to begin with, 0:19:22.520 --> 0:19:25.840 to avoid that whole kind of debacle, because even just 0:19:25.920 --> 0:19:28.879 the public spectacle of an accusation can be enough to 0:19:28.960 --> 0:19:31.720 like ruin someone's life inside like a small like in 0:19:31.840 --> 0:19:34.240 like a small community. Right, it's it's it's is if 0:19:34.280 --> 0:19:36.040 you know parents, if you know kids, and this is 0:19:36.040 --> 0:19:37.639 like part of your social group, it's part of like 0:19:37.640 --> 0:19:41.520 wherever you're like situated in your community. If this type 0:19:41.520 --> 0:19:43.320 of thing starts up, it can really be devastating to 0:19:43.359 --> 0:19:47.160 someone's personal life. And of obviously this is very ironic 0:19:47.440 --> 0:19:50.000 because all these same people who are trying to get 0:19:50.000 --> 0:19:52.240 get these books banned also crying and scream about like 0:19:52.280 --> 0:19:56.520 censorship and cancel culture um, while literally advocating the burning 0:19:56.520 --> 0:19:59.600 of comic books um, and even like fucking like advocating 0:19:59.600 --> 0:20:03.520 the burning of know your Rights books. So it's it's like, yes, 0:20:03.600 --> 0:20:06.919 they will cry and scream about canceler culture um, but 0:20:07.000 --> 0:20:08.680 they will do all of this stuff as well. It's 0:20:08.680 --> 0:20:12.320 not it's not right. There is no ideological consistency. They're 0:20:12.320 --> 0:20:14.280 they're they're they're not they're not trying to that's not 0:20:14.320 --> 0:20:17.760 that's that's not part of the point. It's because it's 0:20:17.800 --> 0:20:20.439 not even hypocrisy in their own eyes, because all of 0:20:20.480 --> 0:20:22.800 this is for the greater good. It's it's about protecting 0:20:22.840 --> 0:20:25.840 the innocence of children. Right. If you'll notice that a 0:20:25.840 --> 0:20:28.440 lot of these bills and efforts try to not explicitly 0:20:28.480 --> 0:20:31.439 attack books for being gay or queer. Instead, they will 0:20:31.520 --> 0:20:36.040 label them as pornographic or obscene um. Obviously, many books 0:20:36.040 --> 0:20:39.439 that conservatives will defend have just as graphic depictions of 0:20:39.480 --> 0:20:45.000 intimacy or autonic like or um or anatomy um, but 0:20:45.240 --> 0:20:49.360 usually heterosexual in nature, and alongside other kind of values 0:20:49.400 --> 0:20:51.720 that the right wants to push. Um. You know, even 0:20:51.720 --> 0:20:54.439 like the fucking Bible is more graphic than the gender 0:20:54.480 --> 0:20:59.240 queer and graphic novel um. But when conservatives say pornography, 0:20:59.320 --> 0:21:02.240 what they just mean that is any display of queerness, right, 0:21:02.600 --> 0:21:06.760 anything outside the mold of the fundamentalist Christian supremacist worldview 0:21:07.040 --> 0:21:10.399 that they're fighting for. Just like when they say banned 0:21:10.400 --> 0:21:12.760 critical race theory, they don't they don't actually mean that. 0:21:12.800 --> 0:21:15.840 What they mean is ban any discussion on racism that 0:21:16.200 --> 0:21:19.679 kind of disrupts white comfort. It's it's it's it's they 0:21:20.200 --> 0:21:22.840 they have their own framework to view this and they 0:21:22.840 --> 0:21:26.439 can justify it within their own framework, so you know, 0:21:26.560 --> 0:21:28.760 it's It should not surprise anyone that many of these 0:21:28.800 --> 0:21:33.200 queer book bannings are being organized alongside bands on books 0:21:33.200 --> 0:21:37.440 focusing on race and racism. UM. Matt Cross's sixteen page 0:21:37.520 --> 0:21:42.240 spreadsheet was was was made to accompany House Bill three 0:21:42.359 --> 0:21:45.840 nine seven nine, the so called anti CRT bill, that 0:21:45.920 --> 0:21:49.320 band's teaching of any materials that could mean quote an 0:21:49.320 --> 0:21:53.320 individual should feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other psychological 0:21:53.320 --> 0:21:57.000 distress on account of the individual's race or sex. So 0:21:57.280 --> 0:22:00.520 just banning teaching of things that could make a medical 0:22:00.560 --> 0:22:05.800 person kind of uncomfortable, which is it seems like a 0:22:05.800 --> 0:22:10.639 great way to view education. Uh yeah, let's just skip 0:22:10.640 --> 0:22:12.879 over the parts that are uncomfortable and that I'll make 0:22:12.920 --> 0:22:18.000 a great society. Wow. So I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm 0:22:18.000 --> 0:22:22.800 gonna quote from a great article by Samantha Rydell in 0:22:22.880 --> 0:22:27.720 them dot Com quote small. Wonder then that much of 0:22:27.760 --> 0:22:30.040 the current of fervor can be traced back to the 0:22:30.080 --> 0:22:34.280 conservative group No Left Turn, founded in to ban books 0:22:34.320 --> 0:22:40.919 about racial inequality from classrooms by Elena fish Being. An 0:22:41.000 --> 0:22:43.840 a line of fish Being believes that Antifa children quote 0:22:44.000 --> 0:22:46.720 quote quote Antiva children are going to assault her kids 0:22:46.760 --> 0:22:50.480 for being white. Um. The organization No Left Turn rocketed 0:22:50.480 --> 0:22:53.800 to prominence in the anti education right wing after fish 0:22:53.880 --> 0:22:57.400 Being was interviewed by Tucker Carlson on Fox News. UM 0:22:57.440 --> 0:23:00.760 a tie, which similarly lifted like minded boat such as 0:23:00.800 --> 0:23:05.000 Moms for Liberty. No Left Turns website directs parents to 0:23:05.160 --> 0:23:07.359 a laundry list of books that they claim are used 0:23:07.400 --> 0:23:11.800 to quote indoctrinate kids into a dangerous ideology. Including a 0:23:11.880 --> 0:23:16.680