“I do have friends, but they don’t know me, only someone I’ve created to take my place.”
- from Identical by Ellen Hopkins, a frequently banned book
#10 on the PEN America’s list of Most Banned Books list 2022-2023 school year.
Very popular
Ellen Hopkins is extremely popular…
New York Times best-selling author of young adult and adult novels Ellen Hopkins has won many awards, writing nonfiction titles with punchy, concise titles and go-for-the-jugular commitment to telling truth. She’s also a favorite of book banning enthusiasts, earning the distinction of the “most banned author” in the US. She writes about topics that certainly never affect young adults (sex, drugs, rape), so we may be asked to understand why some parents want their kids never to be exposed to such things… in books, anyway. Because not knowing about a thing definitely protects a person from that thing IRL.
Just kidding, just kidding. The effect on kids doesn’t really matter. It’s more about not offending parents’ delicate sensibilities.
Head fake
In reality, this is about sin. Not about all sin, mind you, just sin that they think is gross. Because I think we all can agree, stuff that grosses us out is obviously extra icky to God, too. That’s right, book banning is the blunderbuss mostly being pointed at… the gays. I mean, it’s just not natural, right? Coveting doesn’t get too much press, and adultery only matters if those people do it. But eeeew, can you imagine?!
For those using the Bible as a scoring manual, you’ll find that nothing resembling LGBTQ+ people or culture has been addressed in that text in the way that Bible thumpers be thumpin’. Yup, there’s whole whole Genesis 5:2 “Male and female he created them,” as if nothing else has happened since the beginning of time. Creation continues, and things that nobody in 0 BCE ever saw continue to spring up. Though the Bible never mentions dishwashers, we never see fervent Christians picketing a Whirlpool plant. And biblical scholars have said for years “that doesn’t mean what you think it means.”
In October 2023, the Human Rights Campaign reported that hate crimes against our LGBTQ+ siblings rose 13.8% compared to last year. And that number jumps to 32.9% for hate crimes based on gender identity. No surprise, since the 2024 presidential election season opened with its first primary debate in Wisconsin featured multiple candidates “attacking and maligning transgender kids to score political points with the most extreme and radical portions of their base.” And a buncha’ evangelicals want you to know that they are being persecuted because not everybody is saying “Merry Christmas” to them.
Bigotry isn’t born
But it can be legislated. Now, listen up. Hopkins quotes from Identical come in very handy for this topic: “Evil is not intrinsic. It’s fashioned.”
While anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination in the US hasn’t reached Uganda-level hatred, politicians work hard to stoke the fires of fear and resentment. As result, state legislatures have thrown bills against the wall to see what sticks across the US. You see, they are absolutely determined to burn down the veritable forest of straw men they created.
The ACLU tracks anti-LGBTQ+ bills in the United States, and let’s just say that the Midwest is making a strong showing—even compared to such perennial standouts like Florida, Texas, Mississippi, and Missouri. These laws restrict healthcare, student and educator rights, limit freedom of expression, and weaken civil rights, much of it in the name of religious freedom.
Freedom of what now?
You heard us, this agenda stems mostly from a voting bloc who claims that religious freedom means forcing other people to live according to your beliefs. Feel free to discriminate against people, limit their rights, even refuse to do business with them, as long as you say you’re grossed out because of your religious beliefs. Well, that works as long you ascribe to a very specific slice of evangelical Christianity.
Cue the next quote:
“Ask me, it’s a sin to pervert faith with religion. Despite every church, mosque, & synagogue in it, this is not the world any God worth his salt would have created.”
Ellen Hopkins, in IDENTICAL
Indeed, we agree. Humans made this world what it is. We refuse to leave it that way. So help us to prove that bigotry isn’t a Christian stance. Please learn about what Re:faith stands for. Help us show vulnerable people everywhere that people of faith have been represented by the loudest and most misguided.
“Never accept evil as something you must walk with, something you deserve.”
– you guessed it, Ellen Hopkins in Identical
