Alachua County school district bans book on LGBTQ issues after rare challenge from parent

After a wave of new Florida laws changed the criteria for documenting, assigning and challenging school books, LGBTQ advocates and parents in the Alachua County Public School district said they were concerned books on queer issues could be targeted.

Now, the district has banned a book about the experiences of transgender teenagers after a parent challenged its material.

Patty Duval, the media specialist for ACPS, said three books have been challenged by a Gainesville High School parent, including the now-banned “Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out." It is the first book challenge at an Alachua County public school in many years, she added, and the only one she has seen in her five years at the district.

“If there were any, they were few and far between,” Duval said.

More: Community members press school board to fight the state’s anti-LGBTQ education laws

The book debate is among the growing list of anti-LGBTQ policies and laws past by the Republican-led Legislature, including ordering schools not to allow students to use pronouns other than what was assigned at birth and strict rules on bathrooms for their assigned gender. During Tuesday's School Board meeting, one board member even opposed a symbolic proclamation that declared October LGBTQ History Month, saying there were "more important things to do."

At a school faculty meeting in July on how to deal with new state laws, an attendee said the district had seen only one book challenge in recent memory − the Bible.

Crystal Marull, a GHS parent, wrote on her complaint form that all three books, including “Being Transgender (Living Proud! Growing up LGBTQ) and “Understanding Sexual Identity: A Book for Gay Teens and Their Friends,” were attempting to “normalize queer identities.”

While a review by the school’s library advisory committee found two books could remain, “Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out” by Susan Kuklin has been banned because it contains phrases like "dick" and "oral sex.”

Since this story has been published online, Marull has submitted another complaint against the book “13 Reasons Why” by Jay Asher, claiming it contains sexual conduct and the justification of suicide.

Under the new Gov. Ron DeSantis-backed law that took effect July 1, HB-1069, books that contain any “sexual conduct” are allowed to be challenged by a parent and will then have to be removed.

More: Alachua County schools cope with new DeSantis-backed library book law

“I think the thing I was sort of stunned about is reading the rule what comes to mind is very lewd sexual acts, but the way that the media specialists are being told to interpret it is, basically any words that have to do with sex regardless of the context,” said Autumn Doughton, a parent to two GHS students and the parent liaison on the school’s library advisory committee. “They're being told, ‘if you don't take the book out, if it's been challenged and you don't remove the book, then now you, the actual media specialist, and the school staff are liable,’ and so they're scared.”

Doughton said she was disappointed Marull tried to get the three books removed from the library. She said parents already have the option to monitor what books their child checks out as well as make certain books off-limits to their child, and she wishes Marull had taken that approach instead of taking the book off the shelves for all students.

Doughton also said books written by Shakespeare and other classroom staples could similarly be banned from libraries if a parent were to challenge them due to the law.

“I was sort of stunned at how broad things are being interpreted,” she said. “With that kind of guidance, it just could open the door for so much more. It's such a slippery slope.”

Books that have faced complaints across Florida include "Beloved" by Toni Morrison, "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini and  "Gender Queer: A Memoir" by Maia Kobabe. In Alachua County, the book "A for Activist" by Innosanto Nagara is currently facing a challenge at Terwilliger Elementary School.

Pulling books

Another recent education law, HB-1467, requires all Florida schools to catalog every book on their shelves and implement a formal complaint process for books.

But unlike most other Florida districts, the Alachua County Public School district already had a catalog of its library books for years, and the district had also already established a complaint process for concerned parents or citizens who wish for books or instructional material to be reviewed.

“We didn't really have to make any adjustments because we were already following a strict selection criteria that mirrored what the state's requirements were,” Duval said.

The district’s book selection process includes looking at the suggested audience for a book, making sure it doesn’t contain pornography and evaluating the book’s literary value, Duval said.

Maggie Paxson, the science department chair and a science teacher at GHS, said targeting books about LGBTQ people and queer issues to be removed from school libraries is dangerous to young people.

“Representation and seeing yourself in media affects your mental health,” she said. “For many of these kids, it's not until they start seeing happy gender non-conforming people or other trans people who are happy that they stopped wanting to kill themselves.”

As a lesbian and the advisor to GHS’ chapter of GSA, Paxson said it’s harmful that a book was able to be banned due to a complaint that it normalized queer identities.

“There are queer people that work here, there are queer people in all of the classes,” she said. “It hurts the kids and it hurts the adults who are part of that community who are being told by the district, by our bosses, ‘yeah, it's wrong to normalize who you are.’”

Paxson added that book bans are harmful to all students, not just ones who wish to read books on LGBTQ topics.

“It’s government censorship, it's not in the spirit of education and the open exchange of ideas,” she said. “It's just not fair for one parent to be able to decide for every other student at the school and in the county.”

This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: ACPS sees rare book challenges, bans book on LGBTQ issues