I totally agree with this take. Just wanted to add in that a good way to defend your public libraries in the US is by actually using them. Numbers help justify spending and funding.

Also taking part in (or creating) your library's friends group helps fight one party political decisions. A friends group can have all the ban books it wants on the shelf since its a different entity than a library.

A cool article on how a library fought back on ban request is below. (Basically, had patrons prove through multiple page literature analysis why the book should be banned. Most book banners don't even read books.)

https://newrepublic.com/article/170920/conservative-book-bans-libraries-fighting-back

Cool places to start learning how to help.
- https://uniteagainstbookbans.org/

- https://www.ala.org/advocacy/fight-censorship

- https://www.librariesforthepeople.org/

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Internet Lurker At Heart

Well, you got me thinking. I'd like to express my thoughts on the matter. In books, murder doesn't happen for the sake of murder. There's a story that explains the motive, the author condemns it, there's even a moral. One way or another, the author gives a certain color to the event. The books that are selected for school literature (most of them, I think) give ground for reflection and condemn actions such as murder, violence, suicide. The teacher discusses with the students, asks their opinion, their view of the story, and helps the children come to grips with the author's intent if they have trouble with it.
In other words, there is a moral to classic literature. And having LGBT books in school is not necessarily a call, but it is a kind of encouragement.
And I want to add that I respect anyone and think everyone is beautiful. But this kind of literature in school is absurd, in my opinion.

The comparison to murder, suicide etc. doesn't work because those things are choices. Sexuality isn't a choice, and even if it was, there's nothing wrong with being LGBT. If a school allows books that feature straight relationships, LGBT relationships should also be allowed. And health-related books should never be banned.

Reading a straight romance will not make you straight, nor will reading gay/lesbian romance make you gay/lesbian.
You are on a manga site, you should be well aware of that a lot of straight people read yaoi/yuri.

Last edited by lollylopmr at 6:32 pm, Jul 22 2023

Having books with LGBT+ characters and topics as part of the German school curriculum is older than me. The whole class had to read Die Verwirrungen des Zöglings Törleß (1906) in I think grade 11. The 16-year-old protagonist is pushed to participate in the sexual enslavement of a fellow classmate in a boy's school. The rape and torture victim is then driven to suicide and no one gives a fuck about it. Can a book be edgier? Can´t say I was a fan but the 1966 film that removed the sexual element and focused on the novel´s fascism exploration is solid. AIDS was a topic during my equivalent of middle school in biology with a 90s documentary about gay men literally dying of it in the hospital being shown. Homosexuality is now brought up in elementary school but don´t nail me on that. Gay characters showing up in kids' media goes back to the 90s here I would say and is now fully normalized on Y-7 US Disney shows. See The Owl House (2020-23)... which was of course canned for being gay under Bob Chapman´s short-lived regime. Urgh. So almost normalized. Let´s check back in 5 years.

1 in 5 Gen Z kids now identifies as queer in America: https://www.statista.com/statistics/719685/american-adults-who-identify-as-homosexual-bisexual-transgender-by-generation/
Can´t see it being any different here. Legit homophobes are still around but they are either 50+ or hardcore right-wingers who are automatically racist and so on.

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I also read EU/US comics and am a librarian.
Manga-Masters, My ANN-Lists + Imdb

Queer books have morals too! Like stop being a bigot, or love is beautiful, or just that every person faces difficulties.

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Internet Lurker At Heart