As legislators continue discussing ways to address questionable content in school libraries, books promoting LBGTQ and gender ideology are readily available to children as young as 11 years old in a Scottsdale Unified School District middle school.
“Mohave Middle School offers 11-year-olds a book that encourages irreversible medical transition,” and that the book targets “pre-teens” and “promotes the idea that a girl can change into a boy,” Scottsdale Unites for Educational Integrity said in a Twitter (X) post on Tuesday.
Parent group Scottsdale Unites’ Jill Dunican told The Arizona Sun Times on Wednesday about one book discovered in the Scottsdale Unified School District. Titled “The Other Boy,” she said it “promotes irreversible medical transition to middle school students.”
Published in the fall of 2016 by HarperCollins Publishers, the book discusses gender identity, hormone therapy, and sexual orientation. The book is on the library bookshelf at Mohave Middle School in Scottsdale for 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students who range in age from about 11-13 years old.
One primary resource that librarians use to find recommended books for K-12 bookshelves is from the educational product provider Follett. The company offers a book-purchasing platform called Titlewave that carries curated collections, book lists from thousands of publishers, and reviews.
Librarians can choose from Titlewave’s vast collection of books that promote gender ideology and sexual orientation. Titlewave’s LBGTQ theme includes more than 500 “[n]onfiction and fiction titles that include a theme or character that is lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning, intersex, or asexual.” There are LBGTQ books for “lower elementary” students through high school.
The National Education Association (NEA) also promotes LBGTQ-centric materials through its Read Across America program. NEA suggests LBGTQ books that “[d]eepen understanding of LGBTQ” experiences on its recommended reading list for elementary school students through young adults.
LGBTQ activist group GLSEN amplifies gender identity and sexual orientation books in schools with its “Rainbow Library” program. The program sends free LBGTQ books to K-12 schools. According to GLSEN, “Over 6,700 schools in 33 states participate in GLSEN’s Rainbow Library, reaching over 5 million students.”
The American Library Association (ALA) actively supports gender ideology and LBGTQ books in schools. However, according to the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF), data from 2023 censorship reports reveal that “school libraries saw an 11% increase over 2022 numbers” regarding the number of books challenged for appropriateness.
The group calls any objections to library books “censorship.” In a press release from mid-March, ALA President Emily Drabinski said, “Every challenge to a library book is an attack on our freedom to read. The books being targeted again focus on LGBTQ+ and people of color. Our communities and our country are stronger because of diversity. Libraries that reflect their communities’ diversity promote learning and empathy that some people want to hide or eliminate.”
Previous legislative efforts, such as SB 1700, would have allowed parents to request the removal of objectionable content from school libraries. Though passed in the Senate on March 20, 2023, the bill remains held in the Arizona House.
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Debra McClure is a reporter at The Arizona Sun Times and The Star News Network. Follow Debra on X / Twitter.
Photo “Mohave Middle School” by Mohave Middle School SUSD.
