Dupage Policy Journal

Despite criticism, Gender Queer, an LGBT-positive book by Maia Kobabe, will be staying in libraries at Community Unit School District 200.

“I read the book before we got the documentation for the complaint last month,” Dave Long, secretary for the district, said during the July 13 Board of Education meeting. “And I had two things that I felt I empathized with the author and what her story was. (I) feel like some of the graphic parts that are getting most of the attention are kind of a small part of the book, and if you look at them by themselves, it's a much different interpretation than if you read it in the context of the book.”

Gender Queer is a memoir by Kobabe that was published in 2019. The book describes the author’s story of recognizing their own identity and was written as a way to try and explain their identity to their family and the world at large.

A motion passed the board on a 5-1 vote in favor of keeping the book in the high school libraries. The board members spoke against banning books from the library as it can create more division and confusion within a community and promote some beliefs as more important than others.

Plenty of parents came to a school board meeting in July to express either their opposition or support of specific books in the high school library. Parents complained against the sexual and explicit nature of the book Gender Queer, while others praised its inclusion and acceptance of  the LGBT Community.