Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds gave a master class yesterday on the so-called book bans.

Senate File 496 was a highly debated bill when it passed through the Iowa Legislature last session; and it left school districts wanting more guidance from the state.

The law says if literature has any “sex act”, as defined in Iowa law, then it will be taken out of school libraries and curriculum.

Of course, many people around the country are whining about these books being removed or moved to more age-appropriate sections of the school libraries. What they refuse to acknowledge is that the books aren’t banned. If they were TRULY banned, the books would disappear altogether from schools, libraries, and bookstores, on-line or brick-and-mortar!

That doesn’t matter to those who are demanding that the books, many of which are extremely sexually explicit, remain available whether they are age-appropriate or not. Parents are on record across the country trying to point out how sexually explicit many of these books are. And school boards are shutting them down because the content is too graphic for ADULTS to hear. 

But not children?? The dangerous double standard at play here because narrative and reasons is insidious. 

But Kim Reynolds is having none of it. Last year in an interview, she read a very graphic paragraph from the book: “All Boys Aren’t Blue.” Except the news station, KCCI, had to helpfully provide “context.” 

KCCI wanted to air the entire passage read by the governor so parents could hear what was in the book. But, to give it context, we also want to describe what comes before and after the passage, and what the book is about.

“All Boys Aren’t Blue” is a series of essays written by Johnson about growing up as a queer Black person, and what they experienced.

Before the excerpt the governor read, Johnson talks about how confused he was by the experience.

“I knew what was happening wasn’t supposed to happen,” he writes. “Cousins weren’t supposed to do these things with cousins.”

After the passage, Johnson goes on to write, “I didn’t have a handbook to learn sexuality as a queer boy. My crash course was happening right in front of me.”

He added that he felt guilty, but euphoric about the situation.

From the author’s response, it looks quite likely that he was sexually abused as a child. That said, parents all over the country have woken up to what their kids are and aren’t being taught in schools. LGBTQXYZ++ agendas are totally fine. Pronouns are fabulous. Also, pushing (and hiding from parents) gender transition of their kids is now the standard across some districts.

.@sdschools invites students to change their name and/or gender and instructs kids that they can hide it from their parents.

.@sdschools allows children to identify as trans or nonbinary in school and actively helps them keep it a secret from their parents.

🚨🚨🚨 pic.twitter.com/5lXxV1uXkG

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) August 30, 2023

Reading, Writing, History, Math, Science? Not so much. 

High schoolers in Oregon won’t need to demonstrate basic competency in reading, writing or math in order to graduate for at least five more years because, according to education officials, such requirements are unnecessary and disproportionately harm students of color.

“At some point … our diploma is going to end up looking a lot more like a participation prize than an actual certificate that shows that someone actually is prepared to go pursue their best future,” former Oregon gubernatorial candidate Christine Drazan told Fox News.

But whatever you do, do NOT ban sexually graphic books! Except, the books aren’t banned as I explained above. Nor are they banned in Iowa, just not allowed by law in school libraries. 

This quote of hers says it all. 

“Our kids and our teachers deserve better. They deserve the tools to help these kids succeed,” said Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds. “Not a damn distraction on a nasty pornographic book that should never, ever be in a classroom.”

Kids and parents have all sorts of tools at their disposal in order to get their hands on these banned books if they want. Parents also have every right to object to what is or isn’t in the school libraries or what is and isn’t being taught to their kids. 

As Deanna wrote here, Department of Education Secretary Miguel Cardona is against book bans. But does he read any of them out loud in front of the cameras like Kim Reynolds did? Nope. He won’t, because he knows that the content of those books is too graphic for even adults to read or hear. But again, it’s ok for kids?

Not in Iowa it isn’t. 

Feature Photo Credit: Banned Books for sale in Florida via iStock, cropped and modified