“More than grief, more than anger, there is a need. Someone to blame.”
- from Out of Darkness by Ashley Hope Perez, a frequently banned book
#9 on the American Library Association’s list of Top 13 Most Challenged Books of 2022. See what we are doing about it at Re:faith.
So who cares?
Ashley Hope Perez is such a gifted and persuasive author that we couldn’t resist another quote from her. This time, it’s from a perspective piece she authored for NPR. Though many would-be book banners focus on parents’ rights, Pérez focuses on students’ rights.
Out of Darkness is written for a young adult audience and deals with sexuality. And most teenagers’ lives deal with sexuality. The nexus seems clear. In fact, the CDC’s 2021 Youth Risk Behavior Survey data show 30% American teenagers agreeing that they have “ever had sexual intercourse.” This is down from 38% in the 2017 survey, but the time frame notably includes COVID. So, yeah, a lot less opportunity for hookups. That 2017 study revealed that a whopping 50% of respondents reported sex before age 18. And that’s just “sexual intercourse.” I think it’s reasonable to believe that the CDC’s methodology misses a lot of sexual behavior with that wording alone.
So what? Many well-intentioned parents seem to challenge books like “Out of Darkness” out of concern that their kids are “not ready” for this kind of topic, especially when they concern rape and other forms of sexual violence. However, think how ill-prepared they are for sex when accessible literature is not available to them. The 2021 survey report notes that 11% of respondents (17% of girls) have experienced sexual violence. Teens deserve literature and education that speaks to their experience. In fact, they require it to deal with daily life in a healthy way, to feel like they are not alone or invisible in our society.
One other thing…
We try always to assume good intent, and most people behave in ways that seem appropriate to them at the time. But there is a pernicious thread in these well-intentioned parents’ challenges: as Ms. Pérez says:
Book banners often cite “sexually explicit content” as their reason for objecting to books in high schools. What distinguishes the targeted titles, though, is not their sexual content but that they overwhelmingly center the experiences of BIPOC, LGBTQ+ and other marginalized people. If you were to stack up all the books with sexual content in any library, the tallest stack by far would be about white, straight characters. Tellingly, those are not the books under attack.
-Ashley Hope Pérez – NPR perspective piece – Dec 14, 2022
A nasty overtone suggests that somehow, it is these people who make the problems, or maybe that exposure to this culture that makes up 9% of our population according to an Ipsos poll this year. And this matches the approximately 9.5% of American youth identifying as LGBTI based on a UCLA School of Law Williams Institute report in 2020.
Often, parents’ implication, and even overt assertion, is that exposure to these people will somehow contaminate their children, “turn them gay.” Research doesn’t support this idea. Associating with someone who is gay doesn’t make you gayer. But it might give closeted LGBTI youth the courage to be authentically who they are. Some parents might prefer blissful ignorance, but their kids’ mental health suffers for it.
It’s about blame.
What does all of this add up to? Blame. Scapegoating. The term “woke” now doesn’t mean much. It’s an all-purpose political epithet that means “all the terrible stuff going on.” It means the scary social changes that don’t look like “Leave it to Beaver.” It’s bad enough that those people are here. You expect us to treat them with respect?? They are the ones making all the trouble. So the rationale goes.
Purportedly, gender identity is to blame for a school shooting in Nashville in March 2023, not guns. A mass shooting killed 5 in a Colorado gay club in 2022. It happened after months of politicking about how children are sexualized or “groomed” by the mere existence of LGBTQ people. Presidential hopeful and Florida governor Ron DeSantis proclaimed in March 2022 that anyone who opposed his wretched Don’t Say Gay bill “is probably a groomer or at least you don’t denounce the grooming of 4-8 year old children.” That’s right. So, you’re not for muzzling teachers? You don’t support denying the existence 9% of our population? Well then, you’re a creep on the corner with candy and a van.
It’s about freedom
In a 2023 Williams Institute report, the Williams Institute showed a scary trend worldwide. The leading assertion: “Democracy is increasingly under threat worldwide. The trend is striking: 80 percent of the global population now lives in a country that is experiencing some restriction on freedoms, which is the highest proportion since 1997.”
So what’s the result? Unsurprisingly, the people with the least power are most affected. Per the Williams Institute report, “backsliding on democratic freedoms of association and expression” matches anti-LGBT rhetoric and sentiment. Put another way, democratic freedoms track closely with how cultures’ most vulnerable are treated. So which causes which? Maybe it’s that hate is more easily tolerated in less democratic countries. Or maybe it’s that hate is weaponized by the powerful to become more powerful. And consolidating that power means less for everyone else. That seems about right in today’s world. And it’s bad for democracy.
It’s about time
Of course, LGBT youth and adults, like everyone else, need love and support. They want to live their lives, love, thrive, like everyone else. And they deserve it. Affording dignity and respect to the most vulnerable isn’t “woke” (whatever that means). It’s biblical. Feed and slake the thirst of the hungry and thirsty. Welcome the stranger. Clothe the naked. Tend to the sick. Visit the incarcerated. That’s a pretty good template to follow. Nobody’s scripture tells you to demonize the different. And nowhere did Jesus say “don’t associate with those you think are wrong.” It’s about time to re:juvenate our faith, re:focus on what’s important. It’s about time to re:faith.
So go in peace. Serve the Lord. C’mon, let’s go.
