The following letter was sent yesterday to Essex/Westford School Board members, in response to the discovery that a graphic novel about a transgender teen, containing pornographic images, is in circulation at the Essex High School/Middle School library.
Since the publication of a Vermont Daily Chronicle story, the Chittenden County State’s Attorney’s office has determined that “Gender Queer” does not sufficiently violate community guidelines to qualify as pornography. However, as the author below claims, the images in the book do include graphic presentations of oral sex and intercourse among minors.
Dear Essex School Board:
The above referenced title is on your library bookshelf and I’m requesting it be removed immediately. Your board & school owe the community answers regarding criteria for reading materials. To have such overt objectionable material reaching our children is unacceptable. The blurred images in the attached photos are not blurred in the book.
This title contains multiple graphic sexual images. Impressionable teens being able to read & view these including “blow jobs” “vaginal slime” & “masturbation” at school is breach of fundamental rights of parents to raise children as they see fit. Sexual morality education is parent/guardian responsibility, not activist teachers or school boards. We ask our educators to please stay in their lane.
‘Gender Queer’ would be categorized as child pornography, if there was a genre selection box to check. By allowing this book on your shelf, you’re demonstrating tacit approval of the material.
Bradford Broyles