By ALEX GIMARC
Must Read Alaska ran a couple stories about investigation and removal of a book from one public school library.
The book, “Gender Queer,” is a graphic voyage of self-discovery for the fledgling gay. Think of it as an instruction manual.
As with most instruction manuals, it is loaded with illustrations. Graphic illustrations. Calling it gay porn isn’t far off the mark.
For some reason, this book has started showing up in the public schools nationwide. This includes right here in the Anchorage School District. One story by Downing carried a video of a parent reading the book in front of a school board meeting in Orange County, Calif. He was forcibly removed from the meeting.
The Texas Tribune a couple weeks ago ran a piece decrying parental outrage over the book’s presence in Texas public schools.
Must Read Alaska ran a second story about the South Carolina Governor ordering his Superintendent of Education to investigate how the book made its way into the public schools. Now that we have state governors getting involved, where, oh where is Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy in all this? Enquiring minds want to know.
Apparently, its introduction nationwide in the public schools has been underway for some time. So far, when caught, the public schools have grudgingly removed the book, which is much the approach taken by ASD Superintendent Deena Bishop.
So far, there is no word about who is actually behind its introduction, though my best guess would be the “Usual Suspects” from the teachers’ unions and the librarians.
Bishop ordered a report on the presence of the book. It was delivered sometime before Nov 13. Bishop claims only a single copy existed in the ASD public school libraries and that copy was supposedly removed, transferred to a Municipal Library.
It is clear that both Anchorage School District leadership and the School Board want this little controversy to disappear just as quickly and quietly as possible. I wrote the following e-mail to our Learned Elected Officials requesting additional information. So far, I have received no response.
Howdy from South Anchorage –
I note with no small amount of dismay and disgust that gay porn has made it onto the public school library shelves of the Anchorage School District. From the CRT recommended reading list to gay porn, you guys have had yourself quite the year.
Per the article, a single copy has been removed from ASD to the shelves of the Municipal public libraries. I have several questions, first and foremost, when will the report that Superintendent Bishop commissioned on this book be made public in its entirety? How might we get a copy?
The incident raises several other questions, all of which I would like an answer to:
- Which ASD school had this book on its shelves?
- How many students checked it out?
- Specifically, who authorized the purchase and display of this book?
- What was the rationale for its purchase?
- When was the book put on the shelves?
- When was it pulled?
- What has been done to discipline whomever made the decision to purchase and display this book?
- Finally, and most importantly, how many similar books exist on the ASD library shelves today?
Thank you for your assistance. I am asking these questions at two levels. First, as a concerned taxpayer. Second, as a local blogger preparing an article on this for one of the local online resources. I really want to get the story right. And if ASD and the School Board choose to stonewall this request, I will write about that also. Either way, there will be an article.
Thank you for your assistance. Cheers – AG
Due to the lack of response, I filed a public records request for the report given Superintendent Bishop on or before Nov 13 on the book. I’ve received response out of ASD as yet but will keep the readership up to date on the process.
While I have been told that the School Board briefly discussed the issue toward the end of a recent meeting, likely Nov 16, I have not yet found the discussion on video as yet. The School Board was apparently more concerned with underserving the gay population in ASD than exposing underage students to porn. Note that for some reason, they don’t expose straight kids to porn. And they shouldn’t.
Where we sit with this today is a stonewall of information to parents and taxpayers by ASD leadership and the Anchorage School Board. Perhaps they are simply hoping the issue will go away. Perhaps they think we will forget about it. Perhaps it is something else.
Either way, Board Chair Margo Bellamy has something new on her plate in addition to a proposed $111 million bond package and actively recruiting candidates to split the vote between challengers to the reelection of her majority this coming April.
We can do better. Perhaps it is time we did, as this School Board clearly doesn’t represent either the needs or interests of Anchorage parents and children.
Alex Gimarc lives in Anchorage since retiring from the military in 1997. His interests include science and technology, environment, energy, economics, military affairs, fishing and disabilities policies. His weekly column “Interesting Items” is a summary of news stories with substantive Alaska-themed topics. He was a small business owner and Information Technology professional.
The powers that be are grooming the children to accept sexual exploitation and abuse! There is no other sane explanation as to why this type of material would be located anywhere, whether it be a school library or a public library.
Alex, great article.
Do you think the AG should investigate based on Alaska Statutes 11.41.436 and 11.41.455 which describe the circumstances that define the felony of unlawful exploitation of a minor?
Given the fact that the public does not know what other materials are available through ASD, is this not just the illegal exploitation of a single minor, but potentially the entire minor age student population of the ASD?
Grooming for sexual exploitation of a minor can come in a myriad of deceptions.
Please keep in mind that the Teaching and Learning Department has formed a review committee for controversial concerns composed of school employees and not one member of the public.
Where are the clergy, the churches, the parents, and law enforcement? Children are the most precious and valuable possessions we have and they must be jealously guarded, yet few have risen to address this evil.
Great article and great comment. Pedophilia is borne out of severe psychological disturbances, much like gay porn, by the adults who perpetrate this dark act. Usually, it can be traced back to early childhood experiences from bad parenting or guardianship. God forbid if it ever becomes accepted, children will be so burdened that their chances of ever having a normal adulthood would be minimal at best. Mr. Tavoliero, I understand that there is a chance you will run for US Congress. If you do, please address this issue as part of your campaign, and if you win, please introduce federal legislation that protects children from adults who prey on children through these most devious and sinister means.
Thank you, Dr Dan, but running for any political office is not in my galaxy. Too much partying, too many women and way too much drugs and alcohol.
Regarding legislation, I would suggest such legislation first begin locally as this is where our focus has the most impact, support and influence.
There are way too many people in Anchorage and Alaska who either actively think this type of behavioral modification is appropriate for minors or who actually groom children to exploit them as they enter young adulthood.
It is up to us locally to lead the battle against this and change what started under presumptive yet clandestine pretense of innocence back in the ’60’s as sex education.
Public education has become the moral crisis of our current generation yet I’m afraid very few see it that way.
Love this!! NOTE: it is NOT just in Anchorage!
Thanks Alex for asking the questionx a lot of us have but just do not take the time to send a letter or make the calls..Our kids are all grown now and I never thought I would see such activity in our school system when they were there…
You think these books in school are bad, wait until you find out about cell phones.
The war is all around us.
Sad truth
We All need to pay attention!
The problem is “some” librarian in “some” school handled the gay porn book with his/her own hands, put the Dewey Decimal system labels on it, stamped the inside, and then walked it to the appropriate shelves.
If we found out what school, that librarian would be exposed as either not caring or most definitely caring a bit too much for most parents’ liking. And these days, we can’t decide who needs protection, I am afraid.
What makes you think this is gay porn?
I recall hearing a woman (forgot who) on a talk radio program saying that she had watched what she
called “gay porn” some years ago and her reaction was that it was disgusting.
She was a liberal person and felt this stuff (gay porn) needed cleaning up. Somehow, I suspect this book you refer to here is nothing of that caliber but more an educational tutorial for some folks that you just have a bias against.
Perhaps you are speaking of hardcore pornography and, while you can’t define it, you know it when you see it. Heheh! Maybe this is soft-porn.
Sounds like you are defending it, Bill. Do you defend Pedophilia too? Do you have a last name?
I haven’t seen or read the book, have you? I merely suspect the book is not pornographic and has nothing to do with pedophilia either.
You evidently are infatuated with pedophilia to bring it up where not even the author mentions it-further agimarc doesn’t consider pedophilia as one of his interests. You, on the other hand, seem to hang on it.
My thinking is you make assumptions you can’t back up and need to get a life. Easy to make up garbage when you don’t have the cajones to put your name to it-maverick must be what you hope to be. You don’t have the juice IMO.
Bill, those are mighty defensive words you choose. What are you trying to hide? Are you closeted? You seem to defend gay porn as “educational tutorial.” Do you also have a defense for pedophilia, Bill?
You are the one with “defensive words” without a hint that this book is “gay porn.”
Then follow up with “are you” and “you seem to,” then end it by bringing up “pedophilia” again.
Clearly you aren’t paying attention to all of the posts of this noxious weed of a book. I should think graphically depicting gay homosexual sex, naked body parts in action, and all that entails would qualify as porn. If not, then your kids are a lot more “urbane” than mine. It is illegal to show this crap to kids, period. Whomever bought this, put it on the shelves and let kids check it out needs to go to court.
This sounds like more “wishful thinking on your part” than anything else. I haven’t seen the book-have you?
So far as I know, this book hasn’t been declared as “porn” but your “I should think” it would qualify as porn simply because of your fear of “naked body parts in action” is absurd IMO.
Hope you (and Alex) can recover from this “noxious weed of a book.” Heheh!
Bill, you may want to review the story in Must Read Alaska, which has illustrations that will inform you. Not to dismiss your comment, but you may want to take a look first before going further with this argument. Thank you. – sd
https://mustreadalaska.com/anchorage-schools-remove-gender-queer-graphic-memoir-from-school-shelves/
Thanks for heads up and I hadn’t seen that article.
Are you suggesting these illustrations are pornographic?
I can certainly see where some folks are wigging out over this. That said, the issue for some seems to be “graphically depicting gay homosexual sex,” rather than say graphically depicting hetersexual sex. And then further, there are those wanting to somehow connect this to pedophilia.
Just about any high school kid can get access to similar pictures of actual sex acts these illustrations depict if they choose. And, of course, any school board can remove books they feel are an issue-frankly, we have much more pressing issues IMO
Not just the 4 states mentioned. Also in FL and VA. Va “studied” it for a while and put it back on the shelves. Cheers –
‘https://amgreatness.com/2021/11/24/fairfax-county-public-schools-returns-pornographic-books-to-school-libraries-calling-them-diverse-reading-materials/’
Who cares what they do in other States? What goes in the local library is up to local citizens. Social conservatives are always about State’s rights and local control until the narrative does not fit their narrowminded unconstitutional views
The ADN reported the book was part of a batch purchase and the ASD Superintendant removed the one book immediately after a complaint was filed. Other than approving the budget to buy books, the School Board did not have any involvement in this book purchase, or removal. School book decisions are best left up to local school districts. AGIMARC likes to conflate issues and mislead uninformed MRAK readers
you believe anything coming out of the adn youd better have your head examined
So, Alex Gimarc, how about petitioning Alaska’s Attorney General for a grand jury investigation?
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Courtesy copy Governor D. and Mayor B., read it on talk radio, send it to Sean Hannity or Tucker Carlson, send it to on-line news outlets like the “Daily Caller”, put a copy in your article for one of the local online resources, ask your state senator to read it into the record…
.
Make it really, really hard to ignore, an official response might come sooner than you think.
I would hope our champions would step forward into action. Unfortunately, political expediency and standing in the gap (think of Thermopylae) are juxtapositionally opposed by lack of certainty, discernment and courage.
Our children are our only future
There is nothing more important!
Yet in Alaska, they are in the back of a bus headed for disaster, while the drivers, the unions, the education industry, the health care industry and the welfare industry, work to install a collective hegemony which only recognizes power and control.
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