The father of two attending D99 is again appealing to Superintendent Hank Thiele to remove “Gender Queer,” a book with images of gay sex, from the school’s library.
In an email note to Thiele, Terry Newsome, the Illinois President of Parents Involved in Education, wrote that recent developments should convince Thiele that the book is pornographic – something that he has repeatedly denied.
Congressman Sean Casten and Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias, supportive of the book’s inclusion in school and public libraries, have nonetheless recently characterized passages and images in it is as “disturbing” and “pornographic.”
“Now that we have two senior IL political figures of your party admitting these images are pornography,” Newsome wrote in his September 25 appeal to Thiele, “will you retract your prior statements claiming the images are not pornography? Who should the parents of D99 believe?”
Newsome also noted in his letter that the book’s author, Maia Kobabe, recently told the Washington Post that the book was never intended for children.
Kobabe was reacting to Sen. John Kennedy's (R-La.) reading of a passage from the book at a September 12 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing entitled “Book Bans: Examining How Censorship Limits Liberty and Literature.”
“I got a new strap-on harness today. I can’t wait to put it on,” Kennedy said at the hearing. “It will fit my favorite dildo perfectly. You’re going to look so hot. I can’t wait to have your cock in my mouth. I’m going to give you the blowjob of your life. Then I want you inside of me.”
Giannoulias responded: “With all due respect, Senator, the words you spoke are disturbing, especially coming out of your mouth, it’s very disturbing. But I would also tell you that we’re not advocating for kids to read porn.”
At an August 22 roundtable, hosted by Casten on a new so-called anti-book banning law, Newsome brought to the meeting blow-up posters of graphics from Gender Queer showing young people engaged in oral sex, compelling Casten to exclaim that the images were “pornographic.”
“Now I’m confused,” Newsome told the DuPage Policy Journal for an earlier story. “For two years we've been told by Hank Thiele, D99 Superintendent, principals and librarians that the oral sex images are not pornography, and then two weeks ago Casten chastises me for bringing what he now claims is pornography to the library. I would like to understand why after two years did Sean Casten change his mind agreeing these images are pornographic.”
Responding to a request for reaction to Newsome's appeal, Thiele wrote in an email: "On June 6, 2022, after following a process that began in November 2021, the District 99 Board of Education voted to take no removal action of the title Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe in our school libraries. It was shared then that this decision could be challenged after one year."
He also attached instructions as to how to begin the appeals process, Instructions that lead with the pronouncement that "any parent/guardian of the school district may raise objection to instructional materials used in the district's educational program."
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