The human rights and humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan threatens everyone there, but lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people, and other sexual and gender minorities, face an acute threat of violence and even death from the Taliban authorities. These people find hope in Rainbow Railroad, a nongovernmental organization that helps LGBT people flee across borders to safety.
Rainbow Railroad has a mandate to help LGBTQI+ persons facing persecution find pathways to safety. We’ve been doing this work since 2006. We’re based in Canada and the United States, and we have been successful in helping nearly 2,000 people.
How did you find yourself in this line of work?
I’ve been invested in social justice for most of my career. But my own background gives me an affinity for Rainbow Railroad. Although I’m a cisgendered gay male who was born in Canada, my parents were from Jamaica, a country that criminalizes same-sex intimacy. I both understand the privilege that comes with being born in Canada, as well as the risks that are associated with being in a country that criminalizes same-sex relationships. So that, and a real desire to tackle the challenges that we face globally, is why I really invested in Rainbow Railroad.
When was the moment when you thought, “Oh no, we need to work on Afghanistan…”?
Even though we’ve been around since 2006, we really built up ourselves as an organization over the past six years during my tenure as executive director. Up until that point, we focused on helping individuals at risk on a case-by-case basis. But since then, we’ve become more grounded in our work, expanded our international partnerships and networks, and built our capacity. We have worked on multiple crises in Chechnya, Egypt, and other countries.
However, up until this point we’ve never dealt with a full-blown geopolitical crisis that was affecting our community. With Afghanistan, we didn’t initially really realize we’d be working on this issue so intensely, until governments started to identify the LGBTQI+ community as people of concern. And while it’s a sign of progress that governments did proactively label this community as at-risk, it also put expectations on us to intervene. Since the fall of Kabul to the Taliban last August, requests for help just spiked.
Could you share a story or two about some of the people from Afghanistan that Rainbow Railroad helped?
I always find telling a story challenging because so many stories are… hard. They’re hard to listen to, and they really demonstrate the risky situations people are in. We had one individual describe what it was like to run from the Taliban when they took over. This person was identified as LGBTQI+ and went into hiding when the city was taken over, only to find themself under open gunfire because their whereabouts were discovered. This person escaped by running away. That story crystallized for me why this community is particularly vulnerable, and why evacuation was a necessity because of the immediate threat to life.
How does the work on Afghanistan compare to other countries Rainbow Railroad has worked on?
This was a major instance of when the persecution of LGBTQI+ persons intersected with geopolitical issues like conflict. A unique challenge was that governments did not have, and still do not have, diplomatic relations with the Taliban. This meant that civil society had to really take the lead on evacuation efforts and be on the ground and innovative, using approaches we’ve never done before. There are a couple key lessons from that. I think one is that we recognize now that state-sponsored crackdowns are always going to exist, but as we engage more with conflict, or climate issues, or humanitarian issues, the intersection between those and sexual orientation and gender identity is going to be acute. As an LGBTQI+ organization doing this work, we have unique expertise on this population, in order to be of assistance to those at risk.
How are governments doing at assisting LGBTQI+ Afghans who feel like they have no choice but to flee? Anything you would like them to do differently?
Governments have been slow to act. They don’t have the tools to act quickly. That’s been the biggest challenge that we’ve had: they’re not acting fast enough even though they’re saying they are committed to supporting Afghans, and particularly LGBTQI+ Afghans. Rainbow Railroad and civil society partners have been on the ground, doing this work in Afghanistan, for nearly six months. For any intervention to be successful during a crisis, governments need to allow us to refer cases for immediate resettlement into those countries.
Rainbow Railroad in particular, before the crisis began, was sounding the alarm. We were saying governments need to have proactive crisis response plans in place with nimble corridors to protect LGBTQI+ persons at risk. We already know from experience that when crackdowns happen, people are displaced immediately and need very quick solutions. Our plea to governments is: Let’s not wait for another crisis to occur, let’s think of proactive solutions now. And the thing that gives me hope, that I think governments should appreciate, is that civil society is equipped to be an active partner.
What do you think is going to happen in the next year or two in Afghanistan for LGBTQI+ people?
The Taliban are trying to signal that they’re not going to target women and girls, the LGBTQI+ community, etc. But we already know that won’t be the case. My fear is a humanitarian crisis where even more LGBTQI+ persons will be targets of violence, especially if there are not tools to provide international development assistance to people at risk, to help us build civil society on the ground, and to relocate people. If we don’t intervene, we could see much more targeted violence and potentially the deaths of LGBTQI+ persons, which we really want to avoid.
Lydia Caradonna says there’s “no way to work safely” as a sex worker as long as the coronavirus pandemic is ongoing.
COVID-19 has upended so many industries and it has resulted in countless people losing their jobs. Sex workers have been among the worst affected.
The Omicron wave has made the outlook even worse. Once again, sex workers have found themselves unable to meet clients safely, always working in fear that they could contract or pass on COVID-19.
High case numbers have also impacted on client numbers. Countless sex workers have found themselves struggling to make ends meet – and they no longer have savings to fall back on as they did at the start of the pandemic, Lydia says.
“Within the sex industry, most of us write off October to February as the slow season,” Lydia explains. “Lots of us will be living on savings in that time anyway because work always drops around that time of year. But the problem is, we haven’t been able to make any savings because we’re on – what is it, year three now? – of this pandemic.
“We’re having more than just a usual slow period – we’re having another wave of COVID, this huge Omicron wave. I’m in a group chat with 20 sex workers and last night we were all freaking out because no one was even getting time wasting texts, no one was getting phone calls. Last brothel shift I did, I came home with £80, which is absolutely terrible.”
Lydia says many sex workers have stopped “screening” – the process by which they assess if a client is safe – because they can no longer afford to turn anyone away.
“We’re having to take chances on the clients we can get,” she says. “Even dropping safety measures isn’t helping us make ends meet. We’re in really dire times.”
Lydia has resigned herself to the fact that she’s probably going to get COVID soon because it’s impossible to avoid it as a sex worker.
We really don’t have any option but to go and do really risky work with no way to protect ourselves, and then we get blamed for it.
“I’ve somehow – God knows how – managed to avoid it so far, but people are dropping like flies,” she says. “I’m in this awful situation where I’m going to a shift where I know I’m probably still not going to make enough for rent, and while I’m on this shift I’m risking getting seriously ill and in that time I won’t be able to work, so I still own’t be able to make rent. You’re going and doing this extremely risky thing because you have absolutely no choice but to with the way your finances are at the moment.”
The situation gives rise to feelings of guilt, Lydia says – she sometimes feels like it would be her fault if she ended up getting COVID.
“I know we shouldn’t feel guilty because the government put us in this situation where we have to go and work,” she says. “The self-employment income scheme has basically stopped. We really don’t have any option but to go and do really risky work with no way to protect ourselves, and then we get blamed for it. We get called vectors of disease, or people talk about these ‘prostitutes’ going out spreading COVID, but we’ve been given no choice but to.”
Some sex workers have stopped meeting clients – but the financial impact is severe
Kate McGrew, a sex worker who lives in Dublin, has faced similar challenges. She hasn’t worked with any clients in person since Omicron hit – she moved entirely online to avoid contracting the virus through her work.
“I have been surprised since the onset of the pandemic to discover how hot virtual work can be – the brain is a powerful sex organ – but I would prefer to meet these fellas in person,” she says. “I am very appreciative of my subscribers but creating content is not my preferred way of working.”
There’s also the fact that online work is “less lucrative” to contend with. “It takes way more time for way less money,” she says, adding that the platform she uses takes 30 per cent of her earnings.
“Like many people who are missing out on work at this time my earnings have taken a hit,” she says. “The bank account may halt but the bills never do.”
The pandemic has also impacted on sex workers who operate through websites like OnlyFans. Matt Lownik, better known to his fans as TenInchLondon, started sharing content through the platform shortly before the pandemic began. COVID meant that he couldn’t make new videos during lockdowns as he couldn’t get together with potential partners. Instead, he relied on unreleased footage and material, along with solo content.
The arrival of Omicron before Christmas disrupted his plans once again.
“When Omicron really started kicking off just before Christmas and we weren’t sure about the seriousness of the variant, I rescheduled the content that I was meant to be filming,” Matt explains. “I spent Christmas with my family and friends, and didn’t want to put them at risk through filming in those couple of weeks before.”
Matt considers himself lucky that COVID hasn’t disrupted his work in the same way it has affected other sex workers. He found himself in the unique position that his income actually increased over the latest COVID wave as more people turned to the internet for sexual fulfilment. The same phenomenon occurred in previous lockdowns, he says.
“I think people have been staying home and avoiding hook-ups or cruising, so actually have been engaging more with content on Twitter and fan sites,” he says.
Matt is back to work now, but he’s still taking precautions to make sure he can continue to earn a living safely. He’s gotten his booster, and he expects scene partners to have done the same.
“Keep safe, get boosted and do regular lateral flow tests to make sure your health – and the health of the people close to you – are always the top priority over filming,” he says.
Young LGBT+ people who have experienced sexual assault have reported being afraid to seek help because of prejudice.
A survey released Monday (7 February) by the NHS asked 4,000 people in England about their experiences of sexual assault.
Two in five people said they did not know where to get help after being sexually assaulted, while 56 per cent of sexual assault survivors sought no help from support services following the attack.
The NHS offers support for people who have experienced sexual assault including through specialised sexual assault referral centres, or SARCs. However, 72 per cent were unaware the NHS even offered such help.
Of the 150 LGBT+ people aged 18-33 surveyed, the trend remained the same. Two-fifths sought no support at all, and three out of five were not aware that the NHS provides various support services for sexual assault survivors.
Among LGBT+ people who had been sexually assaulted who did not report the attack, many cited a fear of not being believed or of being judged.
The poll was conducted as part of the NHS’ £20 million bid to boost awareness of SARCs and other support services for sexual assault survivors.
Across the next three years, millions will be injected into both sexual assaultand domestic violence services.
Such funding comes in response the troubling decline in the number of people receiving help from SARCs. Statistics from the NHS show SARC service-use halved after the first lockdown compared with the previous year, despite figures from the Office for National Statistics showing that domestic abuse and sexual assault sharply increased across 2020 in has been called a “shadow pandemic“.
Again, only 14 per cent of the 505 queer men surveyed by SurvivorsUK reported the incident to the police. Almost a third of LGBT+ people who told the police said the cops “disbelieved” them or refused to take their claims seriously.
In England, those who have been sexually assaulted can seek free medical, practical and emotional support from SARCs.
The 24-hour centres are staffed by healthcare workers and advisors, according to the NHS. Survivors can be connected to police officers and forensic examiners who support them as they report the assault to law enforcement.
Other options include people’s general practitioners (GP), sexual health clinics and hospital emergency departments as well as voluntary organisations such as Rape Crisis and Male Survivors Partnership, many of which operate freephone helplines.
“Sexual assault or domestic abuse can happen to anyone – any age, ethnicity, gender or social circumstance – and it may be a one-off event or happen repeatedly,” said Katie Davies, NHS director of sexual assault services commissioning.
“But sadly, thousands of people aren’t sure where to turn to get the help they need, and today the NHS is making it clear that you can turn to us.”
From a secluded spot in her high school library, a 17-year-old girl spoke softly into her cellphone, worried that someone might overhear her say the things she’d hidden from her parents for years. They don’t know she’s queer, the student told a reporter, and given their past comments about homosexuality’s being a sin, she’s long feared they would learn her secret if they saw what she reads in the library.
That space, with its endless rows of books about characters from all sorts of backgrounds, has been her “safe haven,” she said — one of the few places where she feels completely free to be herself.
But books, including one of her recent favorites, have been vanishing from the shelves of Katy Independent School District libraries the past few months.
For more on this story, watch NBC’s “Nightly News with Lester Holt” tonight at 6:30 p.m. ET/5:30 p.m. CT.
Gone: “Jack of Hearts (and Other Parts),” a book she’d read last year about a gay teenager who isn’t shy about discussing his adventurous sex life. Also banished: “The Handsome Girl and Her Beautiful Boy,” “All Boys Aren’t Blue” and “Lawn Boy” — all coming-of-age stories that prominently feature LGBTQ characters and passages about sex. Some titles were removed after parents formally complained, but others were quietly banned by the district without official reviews.
“As I’ve struggled with my own identity as a queer person, it’s been really, really important to me that I have access to these books,” said the girl, whom NBC News is not naming to avoid revealing her sexuality. “And I’m sure it’s really important to other queer kids. You should be able to see yourself reflected on the page.”
Her safe haven is now a battleground in an unprecedented effort by parents and conservative politicians in Texas to ban books dealing with race, sexuality and gender from schools, an NBC News investigation has found. Hundreds of titles have been pulled from libraries across the state for review, sometimes over the objections of school librarians, several of whom told NBC News they face increasingly hostile work environments and mounting pressure to pre-emptively pull books that might draw complaints.
Records requests to nearly 100 school districts in the Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and Austin regions — a small sampling of the state’s 1,250 public school systems — revealed 75 formal requests by parents or community members to ban books from libraries during the first four months of this school year. In comparison, only one library book challenge was filed at those districts during the same time period a year earlier, records show. A handful of the districts reported more challenges this year than in the past two decades combined.
All but a few of the challenges this school year targeted books dealing with racism or sexuality, the majority of them featuring LGBTQ characters and explicit descriptions of sex. Many of the books under fire are newer titles, purchased by school librarians in recent years as part of a nationwide movement to diversify the content available to public school children.https://iframe.nbcnews.com/qT9NUOR?_showcaption=true&app=1
“Why are we sexualizing our precious children?” a Katy parent said at a November school board meeting after she suggested that books about LGBTQ relationships are causing children to improperly question their gender identities and sexual orientations. “Why are our libraries filled with pornography?”
Another parent in Katy, a Houston suburb, asked the district to remove a children’s biography of Michelle Obama, arguing that it promotes “reverse racism” against white people, according to the records obtained by NBC News. A parent in the Dallas suburb of Prosper wanted the school district to ban a children’s picture book about the life of Black Olympian Wilma Rudolph, because it mentions racism that Rudolph faced growing up in Tennessee in the 1940s. In the affluent Eanes Independent School District in Austin, a parent proposed replacing four books about racism, including “How to Be an Antiracist,” by Ibram X. Kendi, with copies of the Bible.
Similar debates are roiling communities across the country, fueled by parents, activists and Republican politicians who have mobilized against school programs and classroom lessons focused on LGBTQ issues and the legacy of racism in America. Last fall, some national groups involved in that effort — including No Left Turn in Education and Moms for Liberty — began circulating lists of school library books that they said were “indoctrinating kids to a dangerous ideology.”
And during his successful bid for governor in Virginia, Republican Glenn Youngkin made parents’ opposition to explicit books a central theme in the final stretch of his campaign, leading some GOP strategists to flag the issue as a winning strategy heading into the 2022 midterm elections.
The fight is particularly heated in Texas, where Republican state officials, including Gov. Greg Abbott, have gone as far as calling for criminal charges against any school staff member who provides children with access to young adult novels that some conservatives have labeled as “pornography.” Separately, state Rep. Matt Krause, a Republican, made a list of 850 titles dealing with racism or sexuality that might “make students feel discomfort” and demanded that Texas school districts investigate whether the books were in their libraries.
A group of Texas school librarians has launched a social media campaign to push back.
“There have always been efforts to censor books, but what we’re seeing right now is frankly unprecedented,” said Carolyn Foote, a retired school librarian in Austin who’s helping lead the #FReadom campaign. “A library is a place of voluntary inquiry. That means when a student walks in, they’re not forced to check out a book that they or their parents find objectionable. But they also don’t have authority to say what books should or shouldn’t be available to other students.”
Carolyn Foote, a retired school librarian, is spearheading a grassroots effort to fight back against book challenges in Texas.NBC News
Ten current or recently retired Texas school librarians who spoke to a reporter described growing fears that they could be attacked by parents on social media or threatened with criminal charges. Some said they’ve quietly removed LGBTQ-affirming books from shelves or declined to purchase new ones to avoid public criticism — raising fears about what free-speech advocates call a wave of “soft censorship” in Texas and across the country.
Five of the librarians said they were thinking about leaving the profession, and one already has. Sarah Chase, a longtime librarian at Carroll Senior High School in Southlake, a Fort Worth suburb, said the acrimony over books contributed to her decision to retire in December, months earlier than she’d planned.
“I’m no saint,” said Chase, 55. “I got out because I was afraid to stand up to the attacks. I didn’t want to get caught in somebody’s snare. Who wants to be called a pornographer? Who wants to be accused of being a pedophile or reported to the police for putting a book in a kid’s hand?”
In interviews and recorded comments at school board meetings, parents who’ve pushed for book removals described doing everything in their power to shield their children from sexually explicit content on the internet, only to discover it’s readily available in school libraries.
“It’s not censoring to guard minors from exposure to adult-themed books,” Kristen Mangus, a parent, said at a meeting in November of the Keller Independent School District Board of Trustees, a suburban district outside Fort Worth that’s fielded dozens of requests to ban books in recent months. “If they choose to check out from the public library with a parent, then so be it. But there is no reason whatsoever to have these books in our schools.”
Some protesting parents have insisted that their opposition is about sexually explicit books, regardless of the races or sexual orientations of the characters. They point out that some of the books being challenged feature heterosexual sex scenes. But in many instances, parents and GOP politicians have flagged books about racism and LGBTQ issues that don’t include explicit language, including some picture books about Black historical figures and transgender children.
Free speech advocates and authors deny that any of the books in question meet the legal definition of pornography. Although some include sexually explicit passages or drawings, those scenes are presented in the context of broader narratives and not for the explicit purpose of sexual stimulation, they said.
“Some parents want to pretend that books are the source of darkness in kids’ lives,” said Ashley Hope Pérez, author of the young adult novel “Out of Darkness,” which has been repeatedly targeted by Texas parents for its depiction of a rape scene and other mature content. “The reality for most kids is that difficulties, challenges, harm, oppression — those are present in their own lives, and books that reflect that reality can help to make them feel less alone.”
Several queer students, meanwhile, said the arguments by some parents, specifically the idea that it’s inappropriate for teenagers to read about LGBTQ sexual relationships, are making them feel unwelcome in their communities.
“Reading books or consuming any kind of media that has LGBTQ representation, it doesn’t turn people gay or make people turn out a certain way,” said Amber Kaul, a 17-year-old bisexual student in Katy. “I think reading those books helps kids realize that the feelings that they’ve already had are valid and OK, and I think that’s what a lot of these parents are opposed to.”
A teacher at the Carroll Independent School District in Southlake hung caution tape over bookshelves in October to protest efforts to remove “controversial” books.Obtained by NBC News
‘Short-circuiting’ the process
This fall wasn’t the first time Texas parents packed school board meeting rooms to complain about the corrupting influence of books.
Every year for nearly two decades beginning in the late 1990s, the Texas chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union surveyed every public and charter school in Texas to document attempts to ban library books. The annual reports paint a picture of past censorship movements, and make clear that the volume of challenges now hitting schools is unlike anything previously recorded in the state.
In the early 2000s, a conservative backlash to the Harry Potter book series, which some Christian leaders condemned as a satanic depiction of witchcraft, fueled a surge of book banning attempts in Texas, according to the ACLU data. But even at the peak of that wave, the Texas ACLU never documented more than 151 school library book challenges in one year. About half that many were documented in just the first four months of the 2021 school year at only a small sampling of Texas school districts, according to the records obtained by NBC News.
During the 2018-19 school year, the last time the ACLU conducted the censorship survey, Texas schools reported only 17 library book challenges statewide. Twice as many have been filed so far this school year at Keller ISD alone.
“I’ve been doing this work for 20 years, and I’ve never seen the volume of challenges that we’re seeing right now,” said Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of the Office for Intellectual Freedom at the American Library Association, which tracks attempts to ban library books nationwide.
Caldwell-Stone said the number of Texas book challenges documented in the records obtained by NBC News likely represents a vast undercount, because it doesn’t account for books that are being removed from shelves based on verbal complaints at board meetings or parent emails, often in violation of school district policies.
In response to past censorship movements, the American Library Association developed guidelines for schools to prevent the sudden and arbitrary removal of books. Under the guidelines, which have been adopted by most large districts in Texas and nationally, parents are asked to fill out forms explaining why they believe a book should be banned. Then a committee of school employees and community volunteers reviews the book in its entirety and determines whether it meets district standards, keeping in mind that a parent’s ability to control what students can read “extends only to his or her own child,” according to language included in most district policies.
A challenged book is supposed to remain on shelves and available to students while the committee deliberates, and the final decision should be made public, Caldwell-Stone said.
“What we’re seeing these days is a short-circuiting of that process, despite the fact that school boards often do have these reconsideration policies on their own books,” she said. “They’re ignoring them to respond to the controversy and the moral panics that they’re getting targeted with at school board meetings, and books are being abruptly removed.”
A photo taken by a teacher shows a cart full of books as they were being removed from a North East ISD library in December.Obtained by NBC News
That scenario has been repeated at several Texas school districts in recent months, NBC News found. In December, the Denton Independent School District near Dallas made headlineswhen administrators pulled down a copy of “All Boys Aren’t Blue,” a memoir by queer Black author George M. Johnson, after learning that parents in neighboring towns had concerns about it. A district spokesperson, Julie Zwahr, said school officials are now reviewing a total of 11 library books to determine whether they are “pervasively vulgar,” even though the district has received only one formal book challenge this school year. The North East Independent School District in San Antonio hadn’t received any library book challenges from parents as of December, according to records provided to NBC News. But that month, administrators directed librarians to box up more than 400 titlesdealing with race, sexuality and gender.
At a subsequent school board meeting, North East leaders said that they had pulled the books for review after Krause, the Republican lawmaker, distributed his list of 850 titles that he said violate new state laws governing how sex and race are addressed in Texas classrooms. North East spokesperson Aubrey Chancellor did not respond to a reporter’s request for comment, but told the Texas Tribune in December that the district asked staff to review books on Krause’s list “to ensure they did not have any obscene or vulgar material in them.”
A photo taken by a student in Granbury, Texas, shows men hauling away boxes of library books labeled “Krause’s List,” in reference to the 850 titles that state Rep. Matt Krause wants removed from schools.Obtained by NBC News
“For us, this is not about politics or censorship, but rather about ensuring that parents choose what is appropriate for their minor children,” she said then.
In another instance, the Carroll Independent School District in Southlake, responding to an NBC News public records request, reported that it had received zero library book challenges in 2021. But emails reviewed by a reporter show that a parent had complained informally in August to a Carroll administrator and two school board members about the book, “Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out,” by Susan Kuklin.
“There is extreme sexual content in that book that isn’t even appropriate for me to put in an email,” the parent wrote.https://iframe.nbcnews.com/bExjHrx?_showcaption=true
Rather than requiring the mom to fill out a form to initiate the district’s formal library review process, Chase, the recently retired Carroll librarian, said an administrator shared the email with her and another librarian, and in order to avoid conflict, they agreed to remove the book from high school shelves.
“I hate that we did this, because we didn’t go through the formal review ourselves,” Chase said. “I think a lot of librarians are making decisions out of fear, and that puts us in a position of self-censorship.”
Book fight spreads from Virginia to Texas
Mary Ellen Cuzela, a mother of three in Katy, a sprawling and booming suburb outside Houston, had never thought much about what library books her kids might have access to at school. But in September, she heard then-candidate Youngkin mention a Virginia school district’s fight over “sexually explicit material in the library” during his campaign for governor against Democrat Terry McAuliffe.
Curious, Cuzela searched the Katy Independent School District’s catalog and was surprised to find that one of the books at the center of the Virginia fight, “Lawn Boy,” by Jonathan Evison, was available at her children’s high school.
Cuzela picked up a copy from the public library and “was absolutely amazed” by what she read, she said. The book, which traces the story of a Mexican American character’s journey to understanding his own sexuality and ethnic identity, was “filled with vulgarity,” Cuzela said, including dozens of four-letter words, explicit sexual references and a description of oral sex between fourth-grade boys during a church youth group meeting.
“I don’t care whether you’re straight, gay, transgender, gender fluid, any race,” she said. “That book had it all and was degrading for all kinds of people.”
She soon discovered that several other young adult books that had been targeted in Virginia and other Texas districts were available at Katy ISD. Cuzela shared her findings with some “like-minded parents,” and together they set out to get administrators to do something.
The school system, a diverse district of nearly 85,000 students, had already made national headlines that fall when administrators temporarily removed copies of “New Kid” and “Class Act” by Jerry Craft from school libraries after parents complained that the graphic novels, about Black seventh graders at a mostly white school, would indoctrinate students of color with a “victim mentality” and make some kids feel guilty for being white.
But Cuzela said she and her friends were having a hard time getting Katy administrators to take their concerns about sexually explicit books seriously. So they hatched a plan, and on Nov. 15, she and five other moms showed up at a Katy school board meeting with a stack of books.
One by one, they took turns at the lectern during public comments. Cuzela implored the board to audit all of the district’s library books and get rid of those that are too obscene to be read aloud in public.
“If you are filtering a student’s internet access,” she said, “why are we not filtering the library?”
Minutes later, Jennifer Adler, a mother of five, held up a copy of “Jack of Hearts (and Other Parts),” by L.C. Rosen, for the board to see. Adler explained that the book is about a character named Jack, who writes a teen sex advice column for an online site. Then she began reading.
“‘I wonder how he does it … how he gets all that D?’” Adler said, reading the first in a series of explicit excerpts referring to anal and oral sex.
After ending with a passage that included a detailed description of male genitalia and advice on how to give oral sex, she looked up at the board members, her voice shaking as she spoke.
“I cannot even imagine how I would feel if my child came home with this type of book,” said Adler, whose oldest child is in middle school. “We cannot unread this type of content, and I would like to protect my kids’ hearts and minds from this.”
The audience, packed with parents and community members who shared her concerns, erupted in applause.
‘Taking the matter seriously’
Rosen, the author of “Jack of Hearts,” wasn’t surprised when he heard about the demands to ban his book in Katy. Like other authors whose books have been targeted in recent months, Rosen said parents have been reading passages out of context.
At the time of the book’s release in 2015, the School Library Journal, a magazine that districts rely on to select library books, wrote that the dearth of “sex positive queer literature” made “Jack of Hearts” an “essential addition to library collections that serve teens.”
The sex advice columns written by the book’s protagonist are part of a bigger narrative that’s meant to empower queer teens and help them feel safe talking about their sexuality, Rosen said.
All of the questions answered in Jack’s advice column were submitted by real students, Rosen said. And the author consulted with sex education experts to write Jack’s responses, with the goal of providing LGBTQ teens with practical information that’s often omitted from sex ed classes.
“I think it’s troubling when they can’t distinguish between porn — which is not meant for education — and a book like mine that’s trying to educate teenagers and tell them, ‘It’s OK to have these desires; here’s how to act on them consensually and safely,’” Rosen said.
Cuzela and her allies, who denied that they were specifically targeting LGBTQ content, saw things differently. And so did Katy ISD leaders, according to internal messages obtained by NBC News.
Rather than asking the parents to file formal challenges or forming a committee to review the books they’d read aloud, Darlene Rankin, the district’s director of instructional technology, sent an email the day after the school board meeting directing school staff to immediately remove two titles from all libraries: “Jack of Hearts” and “Forever for a Year,” by B.T. Gottfred.
“If these books are currently checked out to students, you must contact the student in order to have the book returned,” wrote Rankin, who declined an interview request.
In the weeks that followed, Katy parents continued applying pressure, calling on the district not only to audit libraries for vulgar content, but to overhaul the selection process to de-emphasize recommendations from prominent book review journals, arguing that those groups are pushing a liberal agenda.
In early December, Superintendent Ken Gregorski responded to those demands, announcing in a letter to all parents that the district was launching a broad review of its library books to remove any that might be considered “pervasively vulgar.” Gregorski, who declined to be interviewed, invited parents to report other books they want removed and assured them that he would “ensure the district is taking the matter seriously and putting into action the plans that resolve the issues for which we are all concerned.”
In total this school year, according to internal messages, the district has launched reviews into at least 30 library books and so far has deemed nine to be inappropriate for students at any grade level, including five that prominently feature LGBTQ characters. Several other books, including “This Is Your Time,” by the civil rights era icon Ruby Bridges, were deemed inappropriate or too mature for young children and removed from either elementary or middle school libraries.
Most of these reviews were opened without a formal book challenge, records show, even though one is required under Katy ISD’s local policy.
In at least two instances, according to three district employees with knowledge of the review process, senior district administrators have ordered books to be removed from libraries even after review committees examined them and voted to keep them in schools. The district employees spoke to a reporter on the condition of anonymity, worried that they might be disciplined for sharing their concerns publicly.
In response to detailed written questions, Katy ISD spokesperson Maria DiPetta wrote that “the district will have to kindly pass on your request.”
Cuzela said she’s pleased that the district is now taking her concerns seriously and hopes administrators go further. Although she doesn’t believe most librarians are knowingly stocking shelves with “pornographic material,” she agrees with Abbott’s call for criminal charges against any who do, including in Katy.
“We have laws in Texas against providing sexually explicit material to children,” she said. “It’s a law on the books, and if they knowingly are providing this, they need to be advised and investigated.”
Foote, the retired school librarian who’s leading a statewide campaign against book bans, said Katy’s approach is flawed, not only because it lacks transparency and opens the door for additional censorship attempts, but because of the signal it sends.
“You can’t overstate the impact these decisions can have on LGBTQ students and even teachers,” Foote said. “Intentional or not, these bans are sending a message to them about their place in the community.”
On the phone at her high school library, the queer Katy student who worries her parents won’t accept her for who she is said she was outraged when she found out librarians had started removing books — especially “Jack of Hearts.”
“For me, a lot of these books offer hope,” the student said. “I’m going to be going to college soon, and I’m really looking forward to that and the freedom that it offers. Until then, my greatest adventure is going to be through reading.”
Like other library books she’d read that centered on LGBTQ characters, the student said “Jack of Hearts” gave her a sense of validation. The main character, a 17-year-old who isn’t shy about his love for partying, makeup and boys, was a sharp contrast to her own high school experience, constantly on guard against saying or doing anything that might lead to her being outed.
The book, she said, made her feel less alone.
Rosen, the author, has heard similar things from other teenagers. When he gets those messages, he said he usually replies to say that he hopes things will get better.
But then he adds: “I can’t promise that it will.”
From a secluded spot in her high school library, a 17-year-old girl spoke softly into her cellphone, worried that someone might overhear her say the things she’d hidden from her parents for years. They don’t know she’s queer, the student told a reporter, and given their past comments about homosexuality’s being a sin, she’s long feared they would learn her secret if they saw what she reads in the library.
That space, with its endless rows of books about characters from all sorts of backgrounds, has been her “safe haven,” she said — one of the few places where she feels completely free to be herself.
But books, including one of her recent favorites, have been vanishing from the shelves of Katy Independent School District libraries the past few months.
For more on this story, watch NBC’s “Nightly News with Lester Holt” tonight at 6:30 p.m. ET/5:30 p.m. CT.
Gone: “Jack of Hearts (and Other Parts),” a book she’d read last year about a gay teenager who isn’t shy about discussing his adventurous sex life. Also banished: “The Handsome Girl and Her Beautiful Boy,” “All Boys Aren’t Blue” and “Lawn Boy” — all coming-of-age stories that prominently feature LGBTQ characters and passages about sex. Some titles were removed after parents formally complained, but others were quietly banned by the district without official reviews.
“As I’ve struggled with my own identity as a queer person, it’s been really, really important to me that I have access to these books,” said the girl, whom NBC News is not naming to avoid revealing her sexuality. “And I’m sure it’s really important to other queer kids. You should be able to see yourself reflected on the page.”
Her safe haven is now a battleground in an unprecedented effort by parents and conservative politicians in Texas to ban books dealing with race, sexuality and gender from schools, an NBC News investigation has found. Hundreds of titles have been pulled from libraries across the state for review, sometimes over the objections of school librarians, several of whom told NBC News they face increasingly hostile work environments and mounting pressure to pre-emptively pull books that might draw complaints.
Records requests to nearly 100 school districts in the Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and Austin regions — a small sampling of the state’s 1,250 public school systems — revealed 75 formal requests by parents or community members to ban books from libraries during the first four months of this school year. In comparison, only one library book challenge was filed at those districts during the same time period a year earlier, records show. A handful of the districts reported more challenges this year than in the past two decades combined.
All but a few of the challenges this school year targeted books dealing with racism or sexuality, the majority of them featuring LGBTQ characters and explicit descriptions of sex. Many of the books under fire are newer titles, purchased by school librarians in recent years as part of a nationwide movement to diversify the content available to public school children.https://iframe.nbcnews.com/qT9NUOR?_showcaption=true&app=1
“Why are we sexualizing our precious children?” a Katy parent said at a November school board meeting after she suggested that books about LGBTQ relationships are causing children to improperly question their gender identities and sexual orientations. “Why are our libraries filled with pornography?”
Another parent in Katy, a Houston suburb, asked the district to remove a children’s biography of Michelle Obama, arguing that it promotes “reverse racism” against white people, according to the records obtained by NBC News. A parent in the Dallas suburb of Prosper wanted the school district to ban a children’s picture book about the life of Black Olympian Wilma Rudolph, because it mentions racism that Rudolph faced growing up in Tennessee in the 1940s. In the affluent Eanes Independent School District in Austin, a parent proposed replacing four books about racism, including “How to Be an Antiracist,” by Ibram X. Kendi, with copies of the Bible.
Similar debates are roiling communities across the country, fueled by parents, activists and Republican politicians who have mobilized against school programs and classroom lessons focused on LGBTQ issues and the legacy of racism in America. Last fall, some national groups involved in that effort — including No Left Turn in Education and Moms for Liberty — began circulating lists of school library books that they said were “indoctrinating kids to a dangerous ideology.”
And during his successful bid for governor in Virginia, Republican Glenn Youngkin made parents’ opposition to explicit books a central theme in the final stretch of his campaign, leading some GOP strategists to flag the issue as a winning strategy heading into the 2022 midterm elections.
The fight is particularly heated in Texas, where Republican state officials, including Gov. Greg Abbott, have gone as far as calling for criminal charges against any school staff member who provides children with access to young adult novels that some conservatives have labeled as “pornography.” Separately, state Rep. Matt Krause, a Republican, made a list of 850 titles dealing with racism or sexuality that might “make students feel discomfort” and demanded that Texas school districts investigate whether the books were in their libraries.
A group of Texas school librarians has launched a social media campaign to push back.
“There have always been efforts to censor books, but what we’re seeing right now is frankly unprecedented,” said Carolyn Foote, a retired school librarian in Austin who’s helping lead the #FReadom campaign. “A library is a place of voluntary inquiry. That means when a student walks in, they’re not forced to check out a book that they or their parents find objectionable. But they also don’t have authority to say what books should or shouldn’t be available to other students.”
Carolyn Foote, a retired school librarian, is spearheading a grassroots effort to fight back against book challenges in Texas.NBC News
Ten current or recently retired Texas school librarians who spoke to a reporter described growing fears that they could be attacked by parents on social media or threatened with criminal charges. Some said they’ve quietly removed LGBTQ-affirming books from shelves or declined to purchase new ones to avoid public criticism — raising fears about what free-speech advocates call a wave of “soft censorship” in Texas and across the country.
Five of the librarians said they were thinking about leaving the profession, and one already has. Sarah Chase, a longtime librarian at Carroll Senior High School in Southlake, a Fort Worth suburb, said the acrimony over books contributed to her decision to retire in December, months earlier than she’d planned.
“I’m no saint,” said Chase, 55. “I got out because I was afraid to stand up to the attacks. I didn’t want to get caught in somebody’s snare. Who wants to be called a pornographer? Who wants to be accused of being a pedophile or reported to the police for putting a book in a kid’s hand?”
In interviews and recorded comments at school board meetings, parents who’ve pushed for book removals described doing everything in their power to shield their children from sexually explicit content on the internet, only to discover it’s readily available in school libraries.
“It’s not censoring to guard minors from exposure to adult-themed books,” Kristen Mangus, a parent, said at a meeting in November of the Keller Independent School District Board of Trustees, a suburban district outside Fort Worth that’s fielded dozens of requests to ban books in recent months. “If they choose to check out from the public library with a parent, then so be it. But there is no reason whatsoever to have these books in our schools.”
Some protesting parents have insisted that their opposition is about sexually explicit books, regardless of the races or sexual orientations of the characters. They point out that some of the books being challenged feature heterosexual sex scenes. But in many instances, parents and GOP politicians have flagged books about racism and LGBTQ issues that don’t include explicit language, including some picture books about Black historical figures and transgender children.
Free speech advocates and authors deny that any of the books in question meet the legal definition of pornography. Although some include sexually explicit passages or drawings, those scenes are presented in the context of broader narratives and not for the explicit purpose of sexual stimulation, they said.
“Some parents want to pretend that books are the source of darkness in kids’ lives,” said Ashley Hope Pérez, author of the young adult novel “Out of Darkness,” which has been repeatedly targeted by Texas parents for its depiction of a rape scene and other mature content. “The reality for most kids is that difficulties, challenges, harm, oppression — those are present in their own lives, and books that reflect that reality can help to make them feel less alone.”
Several queer students, meanwhile, said the arguments by some parents, specifically the idea that it’s inappropriate for teenagers to read about LGBTQ sexual relationships, are making them feel unwelcome in their communities.
“Reading books or consuming any kind of media that has LGBTQ representation, it doesn’t turn people gay or make people turn out a certain way,” said Amber Kaul, a 17-year-old bisexual student in Katy. “I think reading those books helps kids realize that the feelings that they’ve already had are valid and OK, and I think that’s what a lot of these parents are opposed to.”
A teacher at the Carroll Independent School District in Southlake hung caution tape over bookshelves in October to protest efforts to remove “controversial” books.Obtained by NBC News
‘Short-circuiting’ the process
This fall wasn’t the first time Texas parents packed school board meeting rooms to complain about the corrupting influence of books.
Every year for nearly two decades beginning in the late 1990s, the Texas chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union surveyed every public and charter school in Texas to document attempts to ban library books. The annual reports paint a picture of past censorship movements, and make clear that the volume of challenges now hitting schools is unlike anything previously recorded in the state.
In the early 2000s, a conservative backlash to the Harry Potter book series, which some Christian leaders condemned as a satanic depiction of witchcraft, fueled a surge of book banning attempts in Texas, according to the ACLU data. But even at the peak of that wave, the Texas ACLU never documented more than 151 school library book challenges in one year. About half that many were documented in just the first four months of the 2021 school year at only a small sampling of Texas school districts, according to the records obtained by NBC News.
During the 2018-19 school year, the last time the ACLU conducted the censorship survey, Texas schools reported only 17 library book challenges statewide. Twice as many have been filed so far this school year at Keller ISD alone.
“I’ve been doing this work for 20 years, and I’ve never seen the volume of challenges that we’re seeing right now,” said Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of the Office for Intellectual Freedom at the American Library Association, which tracks attempts to ban library books nationwide.
Caldwell-Stone said the number of Texas book challenges documented in the records obtained by NBC News likely represents a vast undercount, because it doesn’t account for books that are being removed from shelves based on verbal complaints at board meetings or parent emails, often in violation of school district policies.
In response to past censorship movements, the American Library Association developed guidelines for schools to prevent the sudden and arbitrary removal of books. Under the guidelines, which have been adopted by most large districts in Texas and nationally, parents are asked to fill out forms explaining why they believe a book should be banned. Then a committee of school employees and community volunteers reviews the book in its entirety and determines whether it meets district standards, keeping in mind that a parent’s ability to control what students can read “extends only to his or her own child,” according to language included in most district policies.
A challenged book is supposed to remain on shelves and available to students while the committee deliberates, and the final decision should be made public, Caldwell-Stone said.
“What we’re seeing these days is a short-circuiting of that process, despite the fact that school boards often do have these reconsideration policies on their own books,” she said. “They’re ignoring them to respond to the controversy and the moral panics that they’re getting targeted with at school board meetings, and books are being abruptly removed.”
A photo taken by a teacher shows a cart full of books as they were being removed from a North East ISD library in December.Obtained by NBC News
That scenario has been repeated at several Texas school districts in recent months, NBC News found. In December, the Denton Independent School District near Dallas made headlineswhen administrators pulled down a copy of “All Boys Aren’t Blue,” a memoir by queer Black author George M. Johnson, after learning that parents in neighboring towns had concerns about it. A district spokesperson, Julie Zwahr, said school officials are now reviewing a total of 11 library books to determine whether they are “pervasively vulgar,” even though the district has received only one formal book challenge this school year. The North East Independent School District in San Antonio hadn’t received any library book challenges from parents as of December, according to records provided to NBC News. But that month, administrators directed librarians to box up more than 400 titlesdealing with race, sexuality and gender.
At a subsequent school board meeting, North East leaders said that they had pulled the books for review after Krause, the Republican lawmaker, distributed his list of 850 titles that he said violate new state laws governing how sex and race are addressed in Texas classrooms. North East spokesperson Aubrey Chancellor did not respond to a reporter’s request for comment, but told the Texas Tribune in December that the district asked staff to review books on Krause’s list “to ensure they did not have any obscene or vulgar material in them.”
A photo taken by a student in Granbury, Texas, shows men hauling away boxes of library books labeled “Krause’s List,” in reference to the 850 titles that state Rep. Matt Krause wants removed from schools.Obtained by NBC News
“For us, this is not about politics or censorship, but rather about ensuring that parents choose what is appropriate for their minor children,” she said then.
In another instance, the Carroll Independent School District in Southlake, responding to an NBC News public records request, reported that it had received zero library book challenges in 2021. But emails reviewed by a reporter show that a parent had complained informally in August to a Carroll administrator and two school board members about the book, “Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out,” by Susan Kuklin.
“There is extreme sexual content in that book that isn’t even appropriate for me to put in an email,” the parent wrote.https://iframe.nbcnews.com/bExjHrx?_showcaption=true
Rather than requiring the mom to fill out a form to initiate the district’s formal library review process, Chase, the recently retired Carroll librarian, said an administrator shared the email with her and another librarian, and in order to avoid conflict, they agreed to remove the book from high school shelves.
“I hate that we did this, because we didn’t go through the formal review ourselves,” Chase said. “I think a lot of librarians are making decisions out of fear, and that puts us in a position of self-censorship.”
Book fight spreads from Virginia to Texas
Mary Ellen Cuzela, a mother of three in Katy, a sprawling and booming suburb outside Houston, had never thought much about what library books her kids might have access to at school. But in September, she heard then-candidate Youngkin mention a Virginia school district’s fight over “sexually explicit material in the library” during his campaign for governor against Democrat Terry McAuliffe.
Curious, Cuzela searched the Katy Independent School District’s catalog and was surprised to find that one of the books at the center of the Virginia fight, “Lawn Boy,” by Jonathan Evison, was available at her children’s high school.
Cuzela picked up a copy from the public library and “was absolutely amazed” by what she read, she said. The book, which traces the story of a Mexican American character’s journey to understanding his own sexuality and ethnic identity, was “filled with vulgarity,” Cuzela said, including dozens of four-letter words, explicit sexual references and a description of oral sex between fourth-grade boys during a church youth group meeting.
“I don’t care whether you’re straight, gay, transgender, gender fluid, any race,” she said. “That book had it all and was degrading for all kinds of people.”
She soon discovered that several other young adult books that had been targeted in Virginia and other Texas districts were available at Katy ISD. Cuzela shared her findings with some “like-minded parents,” and together they set out to get administrators to do something.
The school system, a diverse district of nearly 85,000 students, had already made national headlines that fall when administrators temporarily removed copies of “New Kid” and “Class Act” by Jerry Craft from school libraries after parents complained that the graphic novels, about Black seventh graders at a mostly white school, would indoctrinate students of color with a “victim mentality” and make some kids feel guilty for being white.
But Cuzela said she and her friends were having a hard time getting Katy administrators to take their concerns about sexually explicit books seriously. So they hatched a plan, and on Nov. 15, she and five other moms showed up at a Katy school board meeting with a stack of books.
One by one, they took turns at the lectern during public comments. Cuzela implored the board to audit all of the district’s library books and get rid of those that are too obscene to be read aloud in public.
“If you are filtering a student’s internet access,” she said, “why are we not filtering the library?”
Minutes later, Jennifer Adler, a mother of five, held up a copy of “Jack of Hearts (and Other Parts),” by L.C. Rosen, for the board to see. Adler explained that the book is about a character named Jack, who writes a teen sex advice column for an online site. Then she began reading.
“‘I wonder how he does it … how he gets all that D?’” Adler said, reading the first in a series of explicit excerpts referring to anal and oral sex.
After ending with a passage that included a detailed description of male genitalia and advice on how to give oral sex, she looked up at the board members, her voice shaking as she spoke.
“I cannot even imagine how I would feel if my child came home with this type of book,” said Adler, whose oldest child is in middle school. “We cannot unread this type of content, and I would like to protect my kids’ hearts and minds from this.”
The audience, packed with parents and community members who shared her concerns, erupted in applause.
‘Taking the matter seriously’
Rosen, the author of “Jack of Hearts,” wasn’t surprised when he heard about the demands to ban his book in Katy. Like other authors whose books have been targeted in recent months, Rosen said parents have been reading passages out of context.
At the time of the book’s release in 2015, the School Library Journal, a magazine that districts rely on to select library books, wrote that the dearth of “sex positive queer literature” made “Jack of Hearts” an “essential addition to library collections that serve teens.”
The sex advice columns written by the book’s protagonist are part of a bigger narrative that’s meant to empower queer teens and help them feel safe talking about their sexuality, Rosen said.
All of the questions answered in Jack’s advice column were submitted by real students, Rosen said. And the author consulted with sex education experts to write Jack’s responses, with the goal of providing LGBTQ teens with practical information that’s often omitted from sex ed classes.
“I think it’s troubling when they can’t distinguish between porn — which is not meant for education — and a book like mine that’s trying to educate teenagers and tell them, ‘It’s OK to have these desires; here’s how to act on them consensually and safely,’” Rosen said.
Cuzela and her allies, who denied that they were specifically targeting LGBTQ content, saw things differently. And so did Katy ISD leaders, according to internal messages obtained by NBC News.
Rather than asking the parents to file formal challenges or forming a committee to review the books they’d read aloud, Darlene Rankin, the district’s director of instructional technology, sent an email the day after the school board meeting directing school staff to immediately remove two titles from all libraries: “Jack of Hearts” and “Forever for a Year,” by B.T. Gottfred.
“If these books are currently checked out to students, you must contact the student in order to have the book returned,” wrote Rankin, who declined an interview request.
In the weeks that followed, Katy parents continued applying pressure, calling on the district not only to audit libraries for vulgar content, but to overhaul the selection process to de-emphasize recommendations from prominent book review journals, arguing that those groups are pushing a liberal agenda.
In early December, Superintendent Ken Gregorski responded to those demands, announcing in a letter to all parents that the district was launching a broad review of its library books to remove any that might be considered “pervasively vulgar.” Gregorski, who declined to be interviewed, invited parents to report other books they want removed and assured them that he would “ensure the district is taking the matter seriously and putting into action the plans that resolve the issues for which we are all concerned.”
In total this school year, according to internal messages, the district has launched reviews into at least 30 library books and so far has deemed nine to be inappropriate for students at any grade level, including five that prominently feature LGBTQ characters. Several other books, including “This Is Your Time,” by the civil rights era icon Ruby Bridges, were deemed inappropriate or too mature for young children and removed from either elementary or middle school libraries.
Most of these reviews were opened without a formal book challenge, records show, even though one is required under Katy ISD’s local policy.
In at least two instances, according to three district employees with knowledge of the review process, senior district administrators have ordered books to be removed from libraries even after review committees examined them and voted to keep them in schools. The district employees spoke to a reporter on the condition of anonymity, worried that they might be disciplined for sharing their concerns publicly.
In response to detailed written questions, Katy ISD spokesperson Maria DiPetta wrote that “the district will have to kindly pass on your request.”
Cuzela said she’s pleased that the district is now taking her concerns seriously and hopes administrators go further. Although she doesn’t believe most librarians are knowingly stocking shelves with “pornographic material,” she agrees with Abbott’s call for criminal charges against any who do, including in Katy.
“We have laws in Texas against providing sexually explicit material to children,” she said. “It’s a law on the books, and if they knowingly are providing this, they need to be advised and investigated.”
Foote, the retired school librarian who’s leading a statewide campaign against book bans, said Katy’s approach is flawed, not only because it lacks transparency and opens the door for additional censorship attempts, but because of the signal it sends.
“You can’t overstate the impact these decisions can have on LGBTQ students and even teachers,” Foote said. “Intentional or not, these bans are sending a message to them about their place in the community.”
On the phone at her high school library, the queer Katy student who worries her parents won’t accept her for who she is said she was outraged when she found out librarians had started removing books — especially “Jack of Hearts.”
“For me, a lot of these books offer hope,” the student said. “I’m going to be going to college soon, and I’m really looking forward to that and the freedom that it offers. Until then, my greatest adventure is going to be through reading.”
Like other library books she’d read that centered on LGBTQ characters, the student said “Jack of Hearts” gave her a sense of validation. The main character, a 17-year-old who isn’t shy about his love for partying, makeup and boys, was a sharp contrast to her own high school experience, constantly on guard against saying or doing anything that might lead to her being outed.
The book, she said, made her feel less alone.
Rosen, the author, has heard similar things from other teenagers. When he gets those messages, he said he usually replies to say that he hopes things will get better.
San Francisco Pride is reimagining what Pride itself means to our communities. While nothing could ever — ever! — cancel Pride in the queerest, most inclusive city in America, we know it has been a long time since we all gathered along Market Street and at Civic Center. As we prepare for our return to a “traditional” San Francisco Pride, we are examining every element of Pride Weekend to ensure that 2022’s experience is our best yet. From community stage programming to partnerships, we’re working hard to make you feel represented, valued, and seen.
SF Pride 2022 and Public Health We know that our communities are concerned about the spread of the omicron variant. We also know that people are mourning the passing of LGBTQ+ icons like Betty White and Andre Leon Talley, losses that hit us harder than usual after two years of nonstop loss, false starts, and disappointments. The safety and wellbeing of our communities — LGBTQ+ people of the Bay Area residents, visitors to San Francisco, allies, everyone — have guided our actions since Day One. We are focused on making #SFPride2022 the safest and most welcoming event in our history.
Help Us Make Pride 2022 the Best It Can Be Now that New Year’s is behind is, we’re actively looking for sponsors to support the work of SF Pride. These corporate partnerships allow us to build the extensive infrastructure of our large event, and help us share funds with nonprofits that directly serve our communities, via our Community Affiliates Program. To get your organization involved in Pride 2022 — or simply to see our criteria for who we choose to work with and why — go to sfpride.org/partners.
Thank You to Everyone Who Submitted Nominations for Community Grand Marshals! We have to play coy on the names just yet (sorry not sorry) but we’re aiming to release the public ballot in early February — and then members of the general public will have your chance to select who we bestow this honor to. Later, in March, SF Pride members in good standing will conduct a separate vote to make their choice, and then our Board of Directors will make one final selection of its own. The full slate of 2022 Community Grand Marshals will be announced at our membership meeting on Wednesday, April 13, at 7 p.m.
A new California law requires public colleges to update diplomas and records for transgender students who have changed their names.
The new law, which took effect on Jan. 1, requires the state’s public colleges to update records for students who have legally changed their names. It also allows graduates to request an updated copy of their diploma at no cost to them.
Then, starting with the 2023-24 class, it will require institutions to allow students to self-identify their names on diplomas, even without legal documentation of a name change. (The legislation does not specifically require colleges to let students self-identify their names on educational records besides diplomas without legally changing their name. It also does not affect how people are identified on legal documents used for tax, immigration status and other purposes.)
California is the first state to enact such a law. A previous version failed in the Legislature in 2020.
The right to self-identify one’s name on a college diploma helps protect transgender and gender non-conforming students, advocates say. Research shows that transgender people are at higher risk of discrimination and violence.
More than one in four trans people has experienced a “bias-driven assault”, with rates even higher for trans women and trans people of color, according to the National Center for Transgender Equality.
Academic records listing a student’s name and gender as assigned at birth could potentially “out” that student’s identity, which can put them at a significant disadvantage when seeking housing and employment, said David Chiu, who authored the bill while representing San Francisco in the state Assembly. Chiu, now the San Francisco city attorney, said he was asked by Equality California and other transgender activist groups to draft the bill.
A “shocking and offensive” report from the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) has shown that Metropolitan Police officers engaged horrific bullying and harassment, including calling each other “f**king gay” and threatening to “hate f**k” each other.
In 2018, the IOPC investigation initially “focused on teams formed to tackle crime and disorder in the Westminster area”, but was expanded when further officers came forward. It eventually expanded to nine investigations, linked to become Operation Hotton.
Investigators “reviewed thousands of messages exchanged by officers, including many which were highly sexualised, discriminatory or referred to violence”, and which were “generally described as banter by officers”.
An Operation Hotton learning report, published Tuesday (1 February), has revealed the extent of the discrimination, misogyny, homophobia and racism that officers took part in.
IOPC regional director Sal Naseem said: “The learning report we are publishing today is shocking and contains language which is offensive – and some may find it upsetting.
“However, we felt it was important to provide the context for the public, the Met and other forces, for why such hard hitting recommendations are necessary.”
Metropolitan Police officers dismissed homophobic, racist, misogynist and violent comments as ‘banter’
The investigation found “pervasive evidence” of bullying and harassment within the Metropolitan Police Force (MPS), “involving officers predominantly working in teams based at Charing Cross Police Station”.
The report found evidence of “demeaning and intimidating actions” towards new officers still on probation “such as beckoning them with a bell, and threats to cut their hair and belongings”, as well as other “officers being shouted at by supervisors, and women being sexually harassed or treated as a ‘weary female’ when speaking out about the behaviours of male colleagues”.
“Malicious comments were a frequent part of the bullying,” the report found, but discriminatory, sexualised or violent comments were often dismissed as “laddish banter”.
Examples of “banter” highlighted in the report included officers sending homophobic comments to each other such as “you f**king gay” and “f**k you bender”, as well as a male officer threatening to “rape”, “chloroform” and “hate f**k” a female officer.
In a WhatsApp group involving 17 police officers, messages were sent “about police officers attending a festival dressed as known sex offenders and a molested child”, as well as further comments about “rape” and “raping” each other.
Other messages included referring to Somalian people as “rats”, Black people as “robbers” and disabled people as “spastics” and “retards”.
One message from a Metropolitan Police officer read: “My dad kidnapped some African children and used them to make dog food.”
Multiple messages were discovered that bragged about domestic violence, with one officer writing: “You ever slapped your missus? It makes them love you more.
“Seriously since I did that she won’t leave me alone. Now I know why these daft c**ts are getting murdered by their spastic boyfriends.
“Knock a bird about and she will love you. Human nature. They are biologically programmed to like that s**t.”
According to the IOPC, during the investigation two officers were dismissed for gross misconduct and barred from future employment with the police, four officers attended misconduct meetings and a fifth would have done the same had they not resigned first, two officers received management action and another officer received practice requiring improvement.
The incidents described in the report are ‘not isolated or historic’, said the IOPC
IOPC Regional Director Sal Naseem said: “The behaviour we uncovered was disgraceful and fell well below the standards expected of the officers involved.
“While these officers predominantly worked in teams in Westminster, which have since been disbanded, we know from other recent cases that these issues are not isolated or historic.
While Naseem said he “welcomed” steps taken by the Met to address the issues of discrimination within the force, for example its its Rebuilding Trust plan that focussed on standards, culture and women’s safety, he insisted that “more is required”.
The report sent out 15 recommendations to “tackle underlying cultural issues by preventing environments from developing in which unprofessional and inappropriate behaviour can thrive and go unchallenged”.
The recommendations include for the Metropolitan Police Service to “publicly commit to being an anti-racist organisation with a zero-tolerance policy towards sexism, misogyny, bullying and harassment”.
Naseem added: “Our recommendations focus on the identified cultural issues and aim to ensure that those who work for the force feel safe with their colleagues, and that communities feel safe with those whose job is to protect them.
“The MPS has to enjoy the trust and confidence of its own officers from diverse communities before it can hope to bridge the gap in trust and confidence with the communities it serves.”
Social Security Opens to Survivors of Same-Sex Couples Who Could Not Marry The Social Security Administration now allows lesbians and gay men to receive survivor’s benefits if we can show that we were in a committed relationship and would have married had that been possible. This could be a huge benefit to many LGBTQ seniors! Starting at age 60 — or 50 for those who are disabled — a survivor can either apply for a deceased spouse’s Social Security benefits (if these are higher than the survivor’s, or if the survivor does not have the work history to qualify) or apply for them temporarily and delay claiming their own (allowing their benefit to increase until they reach full retirement age or beyond). More information here.
Coronavirus Updates You can order your free at-home covid tests from the USPS by filling in the form here. Additionally, the Spahr Center has acquired more coronavirus rapid home test kits and they are available for free in the office – 150 Nellen Avenue, Suite 100, Corte Madera 94925; 415/457-2487. The office is open 10 am – 3 pm weekdays. Only vaccinated people may come to the office and masks must be worn inside the building. Any staff person can direct you to the kits. In order to keep track of new infections, the County asks that we report self-test resultshere. To see Marin County’s latest pandemic information, click here. The mask recommendations of the Mask Nerd– an aerosol scientist who studies mask effectiveness – are featured in this article and highly informative video. May we all be safe and well!
UPCOMING EVENTS(more info below) February 8 Birthday Celebration* February 10Who & What Do You Love? February 15 Valentine Social/Game/Conversation* February 17 Death Cafe
Living Room Mondays7 to 8 pm *Social Committee event, registration requiredby emailing them at socialcommittee@comcast.net
To join the Spahr Senior Groupon ZoomMondays, 7 to 8 pm, &Thursdays, 12:30 to 2 pm,click the purple button below the Butterfly Heart or here:
New participants are warmly welcomed!If you’re zoom-challenged, let me know and I’ll work with you!
Topical Thursdays12:30 to 2 pm February 3 The People’s ChoiceWe’ll decide in the moment what’s in our hearts & minds. February 10Who & What Do You Love?Let’s break out of the Valentine’s Day expectation of there being that special someone who answers all our hopes & needs and talk about the many ways love exists in our lives. February 17 Death CafeJoin Patricia Stamm in discussing a topic we may well all have in the back of our minds yet seldom talk about. See flyer and link to more information below.
Living Room Mondays7 to 8 pm We share with each other about how we’re doing and have unstructured conversations focused on listening from our hearts and deepening community.
Community Notices Marin Center for Independent Living recently partnered with a regional home modifications company to provide grab bars for the bathroom, small home repairs and more. This program will help to address the critical health issue of falls prevention among older adults and adults with disabilities. This program is free if your household income is less than $119,680. For more information about this Dignity at Home program or for any other questions, call Tonique McNair at 415/754-3923 or click here.
Are you an LGBTQ senior living in San Anselmo? The Marin County Commission on Aging is seeking a representative from San Anselmo and would welcome a member of our community. The Commission acts as an advocacy group for the interests and needs of the County’s older population and serves as an advisory council to the County Board of Supervisors. The 21 member Commission is comprised of representatives from Marin’s cities, towns, and unincorporated areas. The Commission meets on the second Thursday of the month from 10:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. To apply, please click here.
The Spahr Center’s Food Pantryis open to seniors who need support in meeting their nutrition needs. We want to help! Items such as fresh meats, eggs and dairy, prepared meals, pasta, sauces, and canned goods are delivered weekly to people who sign up. Contact The Spahr Center for more information: info@thespahrcenter.org or 415/457-2487
The Social Committee has been consistently offering fun events to offset the boredom of the pandemic. They want to help celebrate your birthday if you’ll let them know when it is. Everyone born in any month will be celebrated on the second Tuesday of that month – including your birthday if you’ll let them know when it rolls around! February’s events are back on zoom. The Birthday Celebration takes place at 4 pm on February 8 and the Valentine’s Day Social/Game/Conversation is at 4 pm on February 15. They will resume in-person events as soon as the pandemic allows. To sign up for their emails or register for events, clickhere.
Vivalon Resources for Seniors Whistlestop, now renamed Vivalon, offers many resources for us seniors, now listed in this easy-to-print one-page guide. Access to rides, food, classes, activities, resources, referrals, and more. Membership not required for most classes and services during the pandemic. Some in-person events are being planned. To get Vivalon’s listings, click here. They also provide access to resources including rides for older adults. Please note: there is a 3-week registration process for the ride program so register now if you think you may need rides in the future. Click here for their website.
Building Community in the Midst of Sheltering-in-PlaceSee old friends and make new ones! Join us!The Spahr Center’s LGBT Senior Discussion Groupscontinue everyMonday, 7 to 8 pm& Thursday, 12:30 to 2 pm on zoom
To Join Group by Video using Computer, Smart Phone or TabletJust click this button at the start time, 6:55 pm Mondays / 12:25 pm Thursdays:Join GroupAlways the same link! Try it, it’s easy!
To Join Group by Phone CallIf you don’t have internet connections or prefer joining by phone,call the following number at the start time,6:55 pm Mondays / 12:25 pm Thursdays:1-669-900-6833The Meeting id is 820 7368 6606#(no participant id required)The password, if requested, is 135296# If you want to be called into the group by phone, notify Bill Blackburn at 415/450-5339
California Department of Aging ResourcesThe CDA has a website that is packed with information and resources relevant to the lives of seniors in our state. From Covid-19 updates to more general care for age-related health issues, access to legal assistance to getting home-delivered meals to help with housing, you may well find answers to your questions by clicking: here.
Adult and Aging Service’s Information and Assistance Line, providing information and referrals to the full range of services available to older adults, adults with disabilities and their family caregivers, has a new phone number and email address: 415/473-INFO (4636) 8:30 am to 4:30 pm weekdays473INFO@marincounty.org
Questions? Assistance? We have resources and volunteers for:grocery deliveryfood assistancehelp with technology issues such as using zoomproviding weekly comfort calls to check in on youplus more!
The percentage of Americans who say they are satisfied with the acceptance of gay and lesbian people in the country has reached a new peak at 62%, according to a poll released Wednesday. Gallup’s annual Mood of the Nation poll asks people about their satisfaction with aspects of U.S. life and policy areas, ranging from the overall quality of life to the nation’s military strength and environmental issues.
In 2022, 62% of survey respondents said they are very or somewhat satisfied with the acceptance of gays and lesbians in the nation, up from 55% in 2021 and 56% in 2020. Jeff Jones, a senior editor at Gallup, told USA TODAY that the question shows whether gay and lesbian people are “being considered not an outsider group but a normal, mainstream group of people in the U.S.”
Read the full article. Perhaps notably, Gallup’s wording of the question specifies “gays and lesbians” – and not the more inclusive LGBTQs.
Stephen Balch, a former professor who also has opposed the 2015 Supreme Court ruling overturning state bans on same-sex marriage, is a content adviser for the revision of the standards that will guide social studies courses from kindergarten through 12th grade.
The Texas Freedom Network, a liberal group promoting religious freedom and education, is calling on the State Board of Education to withdraw Balch’s appointment, citing his writings calling the 2020 election a “literal coup,” among other things.
The group also pointed to Balch’s support of a letter urging officials to disregard the 2015 U.S. Supreme Court ruling against bans on same-sex marriage as an example of another “attack on our constitutional system of government”.
