Dem
51
GOP
49
This June, the school board in Hanover, VA, adopted stringent new Moms-for-Liberty-backed rules that made it much harder to add, and much easier to remove, books to the district's libraries. Then, they turned around and ordered these 19 books be removed:
We are not familiar with most of these books, but we have a pretty good idea as to what got, say, Flamer banned. That said, we do know what Toni Morrison wrote about, and it wasn't LGBTQ issues.
Of course, one of the primary effects of book bans is to dramatically increase interest in the banned books. That was certainly the impact on a Hanover Girl Scout named Kate (whose last name is being kept secret because the type of people who terrorize school boards are also the type of people who might well threaten a 14-year-old). And so, Kate tracked down some number of the banned books, read them, and found them enlightening. "It's really important in education to understand things from other perspectives," she explains.
Being something of a go-getter, Kate then did some networking with local businesses and community leaders and created a "banned book nook." You can see the website here, if you'd like; basically, local students can access e-copies of the banned books, or they can visit one of two local businesses to check out a hard copy, free of charge.
In short, thanks to the efforts of a young lady who decided that the status quo wasn't going to get it done, a bunch of banned books are now getting vastly more readers than would otherwise have been the case. That's one way to fight back against Klanned Karenhood, a pretty darn good one.
Have a good weekend, all! (Z)