Former President Barack Obama wrote an open letter on Monday against those who support removing ideologically driven and sexually explicit material from school libraries, saying that the efforts are “profoundly misguided.”
Parents over the past several years have raised the alarm with school board members and elected officials as they find pornographic materials in government school libraries. Obama framed the matter as the suppression of “the free exchange of ideas” as described by the First Amendment in a letter to library staff members across the country.
“Today, some of the books that shaped my life and the lives of so many others are being challenged by people who disagree with certain ideas or perspectives,” he wrote. “It’s no coincidence that these ‘banned books’ are often written by or feature people of color, Indigenous people, and members of the LGBTQ+ community, though there have also been unfortunate instances in which books by conservative authors or books containing ‘triggering’ scenes have been targets for removal.”
The books in question include sexually graphic material portraying homosexual activity, normalizing transgender lifestyles, and promoting critical race theory. Gender Queer, one of the books most frequently found by parents in school libraries, is a graphic novel which contains images and descriptions of oral sex and a teenage boy touching an older man’s genitalia. The book won an award from the American Library Association three years ago.
Obama made a passing comment about moves to ban classic books as well, but failed to mention that the concerns from parents were not over classic books. Earlier this year, on the other hand, efforts were taken by leftist publishers to hire “sensitivity readers” tasked with adding more “inclusive” language to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and other well-loved children’s classics, as well as politically correct edits to installments of the James Bond series.
The letter from Obama received mixed reactions, with leftists defending access to the explicit material and parents pushing back against the messaging.
Robby Starbuck, a conservative activist and former Republican candidate for Congress, challenged Obama to “sit down and read” Gender Queer and then allow him to create an advertisement featuring Obama defending the book, a move Obama would never take “because you know it would disgust normal people that your party wants kids to read it.”
Another user asked whether Gender Queer was one of the books that shaped his life and said that “removing inappropriate content from schools isn't banning books.” A third user added that Obama failed to invoke the First Amendment over the past three years “when the government unprecedentedly censored anyone” questioning the narrative about lockdown mandates.
Officials such as Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis have passed legislation to ban the explicit material, inducing an onslaught of opposition from leftist activists and advocacy groups. Florida has been characterized over the past several months as a primary culprit of the “book bans” mentioned in the letter from Obama.
DeSantis rebuked coverage of the issue from legacy media outlets as a “hoax” earlier this year, posting an infographic on social media which included references to existing statutes against showing pornographic content to children.
