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Librarians in public schools in Charlotte County, Florida, were instructed by the school district superintendent to remove all books with LGBTQ characters or themes from school and classroom libraries. The guidance by Charlotte County Superintendent Mark Vianello and the school board's attorney, Michael McKinley, was obtained by the Florida Freedom to Read Project (FFTRP) through a public records request and shared with Popular Information. FFTRP requested "electronic records of district and school decisions regarding classroom and library materials." In response, FFTRP received a document memorializing a July 24 conversation between Vianello and district librarians, known in Florida as media specialists.

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[-] lettruthout@lemmy.world 117 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

So taking away those books is supposed to stop all kids from turning gay?
Why haven't all the thousands of straight character books turned gay kids straight?

Enough of this stupidity.

[-] Neato@kbin.social 98 points 1 year ago

Nah. It's supposed to make all LGBTQ+ kids feel like they are alone and that something is wrong with them so they hide who they are and are easier for others to manipulate.

[-] LadyAutumn@lemmy.blahaj.zone 26 points 1 year ago

There's an even more sinister intention behind making queer children think they are alone and teaching them that they are fundamentally broken and that no one will ever accept them for who they are.

[-] BackOnMyBS@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

What is the intention you're alluding to?

[-] LadyAutumn@lemmy.blahaj.zone 27 points 1 year ago

Queer children who are unable to find acceptance often take their lives. This isn't some unknown fact either, it's an intended consequence of the transphobic hate movement.

[-] jasondj@ttrpg.network 10 points 1 year ago

If you find yourself googling art from YA fiction, you’ll soon realize that the straight characters have a better chance of turning the gay kids gayer.

[-] shalafi@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago

I'd guess the district is practicing CYA given all the fucked up legislation Desantis is signing into law. School admins are notorious cowards.

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[-] Kandorr@lemmy.world 91 points 1 year ago

Is the goal to create places so inhospitable to open minds, that those who possess a shred of empathy flee, creating a conservative gravity well of votes? Is that even sustainable

[-] NegativeInf@lemmy.world 48 points 1 year ago

I don't know whether to be appalled or hope that the gravity well becomes large enough it generates an event horizon that no stupidity could cross out of.

[-] lettruthout@lemmy.world 13 points 1 year ago

'Wish I could upvote a second time for great use of the term "event horizon"!

[-] Aielman15@lemmy.world 13 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

"We're leaving."

"No, we can't leave. Our orders are specific."

"Rescue the liberals, salvage what's left of Florida. The liberals are dead, doctor. Florida killed them."

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[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 29 points 1 year ago

The goal is to create little Republicans.

[-] Jaysyn@kbin.social 11 points 1 year ago

I have a high school age kid in rural FL. If that is the intended effect, it's not working.

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 12 points 1 year ago

They haven't finished fucking with the educational system yet.

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[-] queermunist@lemmy.ml 14 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

That's half the goal.

The other half is to make areas so hostile that the people who can't flee just keep their heads down and stay closeted so no one hurts them.

And to increase suicides

[-] Fredselfish@lemmy.world 55 points 1 year ago

Florida the fascist state.

[-] Moobythegoldensock@lemm.ee 48 points 1 year ago

Don’t forget to throw out the Bible!

[-] BackOnMyBS@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago

21 And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent.

22 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without.

23 And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father's nakedness.

24 And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him.

Uh oh! Ham and woke Noah better not be in any elementary schools teaching kids about drunk gay incestuous nudity.

[-] Moobythegoldensock@lemm.ee 16 points 1 year ago

Genesis 19:

4 Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city of Sodom—both young and old—surrounded the house. 5 They called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them.”

There’s a whole town of gays in this book!

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[-] alekwithak@lemmy.world 39 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Please support Foundation 451 and consider donating. It is a Florida teacher-led organization that has already provided thousands of banned books to Florida students and is opening up banned book libraries all over the state.

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[-] febra@lemmy.world 36 points 1 year ago

Fascism. In 1935 the nazis were burning books. Nowadays they banish them from the public. Same ideology. Fascism always stays the same

[-] winterayars@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 year ago

The Nazis started with books about "sexual deviance", specifically they started with the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft. That's where that one famous picture of them comes from.

They started with gay and trans people, same as here.

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[-] SeaJ@lemm.ee 33 points 1 year ago

The fact that they are not taking out books with heterosexual characters as well shows this is only about bigotry.

[-] _number8_@lemmy.world 30 points 1 year ago

can somebody actually do something about the continually encroaching evil? i feel like you shouldn't be able to demand that

[-] darq@kbin.social 17 points 1 year ago

Mass organisation would work. Protests and strikes. Not just from LGBT+ people, but from the population broadly. But that seems unlikely, sadly.

[-] JoJoGAH@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago

I keep thinking about the 1960s and the feds. Florida has to he breaking federal laws.

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[-] Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social 26 points 1 year ago

I'd take out all the books that have any characters that don't mention their sexuality and say that I'm protecting kids because Huck Finn could be gay.

[-] snooggums@kbin.social 16 points 1 year ago

Any character that isn't actively pursuing someone of the opposite gender is clearly asexual. There is absolutely no other possibility.

[-] grysbok@lemmy.sdf.org 9 points 1 year ago

Even those in heterosexual relationships could be bi.

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[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago

Huck did have quite the close relationship with Jim. Just sayin'.

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[-] BeanGoblin@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 points 1 year ago

They'd probably be fine with that. Honestly, they probably wish they could just shut the whole place down; you'd be doing them a favor.

[-] RubberStuntBaby@kbin.social 26 points 1 year ago

Republicans are afraid that LGBTQ characters will humanize LGBTQ people and children might learn to empathize with them, which would reduce bigotry against them.

[-] xc2215x@lemmy.world 25 points 1 year ago

This is about homophobia not being appropriate or not.

[-] Arotrios@kbin.social 25 points 1 year ago

Fuck censorship - posted for the kids of Charlotte County.

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 24 points 1 year ago

When is DeSantis holding the book burning?

[-] Nipplecreek@lemm.ee 22 points 1 year ago

Damn. Republicans really are fascist. As if we didn't know already but God damn.

[-] protovack@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago

"theocrats" would be more specific. fascist is a more generic term.

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Jesus told me to love my brother 👀

[-] nybble41@programming.dev 14 points 1 year ago

Allegories aside, the Bible definitely has a few LGBTQ characters, even if they're not portrayed in a very positive light. I suppose that means they'll be banning the Bible from school libraries? Not to mention a fair amount of historical literature… including anything featuring Leonardo da Vinci, Florence Nightingale, King James (yes, that King James), William Shakespeare, King Richard I, or Julius Caesar.

It will be interesting to see whether this makes the history classes easier, for lack of material to cover, or harder, for lack of references.

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[-] Pratai@lemmy.ca 15 points 1 year ago

Imagine being that afraid of who other people love. The world has never seen such cowardice.

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[-] GiddyGap@lemm.ee 10 points 1 year ago

Florida has really turned into crap over the past few years. Politically, it wasn't great to begin with, but it has certainly gone south for a while now.

[-] morphballganon@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago

So what happens to the books that get removed?

Trash? Donated to public libraries?

[-] NXTR@artemis.camp 10 points 1 year ago

Something something Celsius 232.8

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[-] potpotato@artemis.camp 7 points 1 year ago
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[-] formergijoe@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago
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[-] Pyr_Pressure@lemmy.ca 6 points 1 year ago

It's alright people, we can pretend that portion of the population just simply doesn't exist and all will go back as it was in 1950.

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[-] Elric@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

Wow purging lgbtq books in Florida while Ontario is purging any book written before 2008... can we all please stop purging books it never ends well!

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this post was submitted on 27 Sep 2023
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