KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Leaders at Knox County Schools said they would discuss restricting access to some LGBTQ+ books from the shelves of school libraries during KCS' April meeting. Those books are Gender Queer: A Memoir and Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic.
WBIR received an email from someone who did not have students in the district. That email did not mention Gender Queer but did also say they were also concerned high school students had access to The Handmaid's Tale. It said the books were available at high schools in the district.
Betsy Henderson, a KCS board member, said during a KCS meeting that Gender Queer and Fun Home had sexual images and she believed they were inappropriate for minors. The statements come after organized, national efforts to restrict access to some books in schools across the country.
"I independently verified that the books that were brought to our attention are indeed in our libraries for students to check out, and these books are paid for by taxpayer dollars," she said. "The books that have been brought to our attention this week are not challenging texts."
Gender Queer is a 2019 memoir written by Maia Kobabe, recounting their explorations of gender identity and sexuality from adolescence to adulthood. It shows how they came to identify outside of the gender binary — a gender-queer person whose journey of self-discovery included experiences with sex.
Fun Home was adapted into a musical and explores a young woman's relationship with her father and family after they isolate themselves from art. Soon after coming out as lesbian, the character's father killed himself, complicating her relationship with the rest of her family and with her own identity.
It was removed from a Pennsylvania school district last year after its review committee recommended keeping it.
The American Library Association tracked more than 1,200 demands to ban books in libraries across the U.S. in 2022.
"Among the reasons cited in the challenges are LGBTQ+ subject matter, sexually explicit content or content that depicts equality, diversity and inclusion," the Southern Poverty Law Center said.
Knox County Superintendent Jon Rysewyk said parents with concerns about the materials in school libraries can already request schools to limit access to those materials for their child.
"It's always difficult to define, when you get the materials and media, to define obscene and profane," he said.
KCS also has a policy to review the materials going into any school library. Every year, educators assess, select, evaluate and decide on which materials will be available in libraries. Rysewyk said board members will discuss how materials are selected and review during KCS' April meeting,