In the latest developments of Florida’s book-banning boom, much attention has been paid to the hours-long pornothons organized by Moms for Liberty chapters at select School Board meetings across the state.
It’s comedy gold, to be sure. Ultra-right wingers rattling off lists and counts of naughty words, or reading steamy prose in robotic tones: “…and we’re kissing watering tongue springy lips tugging pulling and we lay down and she peels off my shirt…” chanted one Moms for Liberty member at the Sept. 19 school board meeting, reciting what sounds like a fairly poetic passage in the grim tones of a juror reading a guilty verdict. (Suspiciously, only a few of them provided the titles of the books they claimed were available in public school libraries.)
But it’s the other voices — the testimony of sex-abuse victims, memories of high-school friends struggling with issues no teenager should have to face, painful recitals of the fear and isolation felt by members of sexual minorities — that really resonate. During Banned Books Week, which wrapped up Saturday, it’s shameful that the nation is looking to Florida as an example of what might happen if narrow-minded bigotry is allowed to barricade young minds from voices exploring the trauma, racism, sexual pressure and anguish many are facing on a daily basis in real life.
The dirty truth
“Banning is about looking at the face of authors and telling them that their story doesn’t matter. That they don’t matter, because they’re different. They don’t matter because their color might be different, their sexual orientation might be different, they might be gender non-conforming or not identify with gender at all. Their viewpoint on life is different and that’s a good thing,” said Renee Davis, a Brevard County resident attending the Seminole meeting.
Editorial: Don’t use Florida’s children as pawns in political games
That’s the fundamental truth here. While Moms for Liberty clearly mined their “naughty bits” passages wherever they could find them — including some romance novels that probably didn’t possess all that much literary merit — their real focus has been clear from the start from the lists of books they’re going after. Books like “The Bluest Eye,” by Toni Morrison, which explores critical themes such as the Caucasian-focused beauty standard that undermine the confidence of many young women while recounting shattering experiences such as incest and child molestation. Judy Blume’s classic “Forever,” which recounts the heated obsession of teens in their first relationship. “Milk and Honey” by Rupi Kaur, a book of prose and poetry centered around sex and romance.
At a Broward County School Board meeting Sept. 20, Moms for Liberty members and others initiated a shadow play of mass deception, pretending they were there to talk about a teacher-union agreement but then delving into steamy prose from these books — only to be cut off again and again. This was their goal: To get as much smut on the public record as possible, then claim the martyrdom of the silenced. Ironic, given their blatant and brutal attempts to silence others.
Some defend, some cave
Voters in Broward and Seminole counties can be proud of the way their board members stood up to the barrage, even though they chose different methods — the chairman of the Broward board shut down the steamy prattle as soon as the speakers veered off-course, while Seminole County board members sat impassively as each Moms for Liberty member approached the podium.
But there are disturbing signs that these messages are taking hold — with one chilling example from Charlotte County in which the school board’s general counsel confirmed that books with LGBTQ characters should be stripped from school shelves. “These characters and themes cannot exist,” said a leaked “training document” obtained by Florida Freedom to Read and shared with a Florida news site. In Indian River County, where book-banners unleashed another steamy barrage of excerpts in late August, Treasure Coast newspapers reported that upwards of 120 books have been pulled from shelves. Both districts say they are following standards set by the Legislature in the name of parental rights.
That’s why it was good for school boards to hear from people who remember growing up and realizing they were different from other students — but had nowhere to turn to get a frame of reference for their experiences.
“I want to let you know you are not dirty. Your story is not dirty. You are powerful. You are loved and you are cared about,” one member of the anti-censorship group Women’s Voices said at the Seminole School Board meeting. “I found solace finding and figuring out that I was not the only one.”
Floridians can be proud of groups that are stepping forward to protest the attacks on intellectual freedom, particularly the dogged documentation provided by Florida Freedom to Read. That group has focused its firepower on digging out the real evidence, in the form of public record, that proves the agendas behind the salacious chicanery in public forums. Their work is a powerful rebuke against state lawmakers and local officials who are using vulnerable teens for target practice, heedless of the pain their bigotry provokes.
Don’t believe the hype: Parents have plenty of ways to control the materials their children read in public schools. It’s about suppressing any mention of humans that a group of narrow-minded people believe are unworthy of a voice. It’s about reviving a culture where LGBTQ people could be arrested just for being who they were. Where sexual abuse, incest and bigotry were shoved into the shadows, along with the immeasurable suffering they caused.
Banning books isn’t about literature. It’s about denial. Repression. Erasure. And every Floridian who believes this is wrong should speak out — and say that here, we no longer tolerate that.
The Orlando Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Opinion Editor Krys Fluker, Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson and Viewpoints Editor Jay Reddick. Contact us at insight@orlandosentinel.com.
