This article contains graphic descriptions that may not be suitable for all readers. Parental discretion is advised.
RALEIGH, N.C. — Like public libraries across the country, branches in North Carolina’s capital city turn rainbow-hued each June in celebration of Pride Month. Festive book displays featuring “queer-themed” titles written for all ages — from toddlers to teens and adults — are set out for the public as innocently as if the subject in question were cooking, gardening, or personal finance.
The colorful Pride books set out by Wake County civil servants are not just a benign celebration of gay dignity, hugging couples, and gay families. RealClearInvestigations’ visits to eight of Wake County’s 23 libraries reveal that Pride Month has matured into a national political event that celebrates cross dressing, drag queens, kink, BDSM (bondage, domination, etc.), poppers (recreational drugs used at sex clubs), maschalagnia (armpit fetish), polyamory (consensual non-monogamy) and solo polyamory (don’t even ask), among other delectations of the flesh.
While librarians and their supporters consistently decry critiques of their LGBTQ advocacy as censorship, less attention has been paid to the actual content of the books the librarians promote. RCI’s review of dozens of titles on display, lots of them heavy on pictures and graphics, found some gender identity books aimed at children as young as 2 years old, and others that put LGBTQ in the vanguard of a political revolution against the capitalist patriarchy.
Among the queer histories, biographies, and teen fiction, some books are written for queer-affirming families to support youngsters whose sexual interests span nonbinary pronouns, transgenderism, and pansexuality. A recurring trope in these books is the glamorization of medicalized “sex changes” as brave and heroic, with several books featuring children proudly discussing their chest binders and displaying chest scars from top surgery.
For elementary schoolers, there’s Gender Identity for Kids: A Book About Finding Yourself, Understanding Others, and Respecting Everybody! This 98-page primer recommended for children ages 7-10 introduces young readers to such concepts as sex assigned at birth, intersex, transgender, agender, bigender, pangender, polygender, misgender, genderfluid, genderqueer, genderflux, neutrois, androgyne transphobia, as well as overtly left-wing political concepts including patriarchy, colonization, intersectionality, safe spaces, and allyship.
“Their gender is fluid,” the book says of a child named Finn, “which means it can change direction over time, just like the wind or the clouds in the sky!”
Teens can find fantasy novels such as Whiskey When We’re Dry, which is set in 1885 and tells the story of a female homesteader who cuts her hair and binds her chest, and Rainbow Rainbow, which features a nonbinary writer “on the eve of top surgery,” a sperm donor, and a “sex-addicted librarian.”
A surprising number of books expressly criticize heterosexuality, the nuclear family, and the gender binary as obstacles to liberating humanity from capitalism, racism, colonialism, and other forms of oppression purportedly produced by white, male, Christian, Eurocentric cultural norms. A nonfiction work on display, The Tragedy of Heterosexuality, describes straight culture as oppressive, repellent, repulsive, and pitiable — in short: “a sick and boring life.”
The books consistently define queerness as anything and everything that’s not heterosexual and “cisgender,” an expansive understanding of the gay pride movement also affirmed by several of the libraries that display identity flags or bookmarks celebrating an omnium-gatherum of sexual identities that constitute the movement’s pantheon: demisexual, bisexual, intersex, asexual, agender, nonbinary, genderfluid, pangender, polyamory, polysexual, and two-spirit.
Although wokeness is in retreat in some quarters — corporations are scaling back DEI programs and 24 states have moved to block medicalized “sex changes” for minors — librarians have emerged as the unlikely shock troops of the queer resistance. Their version of what the movement stands for and what should be celebrated during Pride Month offers a more militant crusade against conventional society than many Americans may realize.
Queer books and activism are heavily promoted by the national trade group, the American Library Association, which says that LGBTQ+-themed books are among the most challenged in libraries, typically by conservatives. The ever-present threat of right-wing book “banning” is a key theme at this year’s ALA conference, scheduled in late June, where queering childhood is now an organizational priority.
The panel discussions at ALA’s week-long conference suggest that the librarians’ priorities may conflict with public expectations of the profession, known more for its bookishness than political activism. The panels describe the group’s objectives as resisting the “patriarchal vanguard,” counteracting school board “infiltrations,” “engaging with advocacy groups,” and supplying librarians with “sample scripts” about gender and sexual programming for “youth ages 4-10.”
“The books being removed from schools and libraries are arguably the books young children need most,” says a description of an ALA panel discussion. “We know young children need diverse books to see themselves represented, feel empowered, develop a sense of belonging, and grow their understanding of our diverse world.”
For those who desire more than one month to celebrate Pride, the ALA conference includes a panel dubbed “Pride is 365: Providing Year-round LGBTQIA+ Programming and Services.” No age is too young to start thinking about sex outside straightness and beyond the binary, another ALA panel indicates: “Sex is a Funny Word: Incorporating Gender and Sexuality Literature and Activities into Youth Programming.”
Pride Month in Wake County — an urban area of more than 1 million residents that consistently supports Democrats in a state controlled by Republicans — does include activities for all ages, including K-5, such as Rainbow Slime for Pride! and Fabulous Nail Art for Pride!
Wake County’s library system appears to include more than a hundred queer-themed books, yet it offers patrons few titles that question or critique this political movement or its ideology. On any number of public controversies — guns, abortion, climate, affirmative action, immigration, reparations, drugs, Israel — it would be a glaring omission for a nonpartisan public library to stack the deck in favor of one side. But Pride is seen by its supporters as a matter of kindness, acceptance, respect, and self-esteem, and questioning any aspect of the movement, such as the exposure of young children to sexually charged material, is considered hate.
In terms of ideological balance, Wake County’s online card catalog includes only a handful of options for readers. They would find journalist Abigail Shrier’s Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters, a lightning rod for attempted bans by trans advocates on account of Shrier’s characterization of the dramatic rise in so-called gender transitions as a social contagion. But the county does not carry a number of other titles that offer alternative perspectives on gender politics and trans medicine: former Economist journalist Helen Joyce’s Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality, MIT philosopher Alex Byrne’s Trouble With Gender: Sex Facts, Gender Fictions, feminist philosopher Kathleen Stock’s Material Girls: Why Reality Matters for Feminism, evolutionary biologist Carole Hooven’s T: The Story of Testosterone, the Hormone That Dominates and Divides Us, or BBC journalist Hannah Barnes’ Time to Think: The Inside Story of the Collapse of the Tavistock’s Gender Service for Children. In the face of attacks from trans activists and their allies, Stock and Hooven were both forced out of their academic careers — Stock from the University of Sussex in England and Hooven from Harvard University — for criticizing certain positions of the trans movement.
Wake County libraries also observe Hispanic Heritage Month, National Women’s History Month, World Autism Month, Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, Juneteenth, and Military Family Appreciation Month, but these cultural awareness celebrations are not raging culture wars or live political controversies debated in legislatures and the courts.
Wake County policy requires all libraries to have some sort of Pride Month book display, and libraries typically feature a display table at or near the entrance. Several libraries have set out a queer banquet on three separate tables bedecked with queer-themed books, while a few libraries unobtrusively display just a handful of books off to the side.
Such Pride books don’t simply promise personal freedom from the straitjacket of straightness, but also profess aspirations to liberate humanity from the “cistem.”
“Imagine an alternate society where everyone was encouraged to explore their gender identity from a young age,” posits Am I Trans Enough? How to Overcome Your Doubts and Find Your Authentic Self, authored by a “trans man” and licensed marriage and family therapist who has received training in LGBTQ affirmative psychotherapy.
“There would be far more binary trans people,” the therapist writes, “and there would be a whole lot of nonbinary people, far more than there are now.”
Perhaps that’s why the normies feel threatened by these books, the therapist opines, because “trans people show up to f[***] up your nice little pyramid of power.”
The book Ace Voices: What It Means To Be Asexual, Aromantic, Demi or Grey-Ace, explains that “the very fact of our existence questions the legitimacy of established structures, from capitalism, monogamy and the nuclear family to white supremacy and heteropatriarchy.”
The author is described as “asexual non-binary,” and the book is aimed at “aces sex-repulsed and sex-favourable,” as well as those who are “ace, aro and multi-partnered.”
Note to junior readers: “Use it as a springboard for your own ace growth.”
Ditto for The Big Reveal: An Illustrated Manifesto of Drag, which proclaims that LGBTQ is endemic to humanity, but “queer and trans expression was eradicated under the changing worldview spread by imperialism and early capitalism, which elevated Eurocentric cultural norms above all others.”
In response to questions about the Pride Month book displays, a Wake County library spokeswoman said by email that the county’s policy promotes “the freedom to read and access diverse viewpoints.”
“These displays are designed to highlight materials in our collection, support our annual program calendar and promote awareness of library resources, not to advocate for a particular viewpoint,” the spokeswoman wrote.
The Pride book displays offer a graduated introduction to queerness starting at a very young and impressionable age. “It’s never too early to begin the conversation,” according to Being You: A First Conversation about Gender, a board book recommended for children aged 2-5.
“Some babies grow into a different gender than the one that grown-ups call them,” the text teaches. “Some people are girls. Some people are boys. Some people are neither. Some people are both.”
The storyline encourages children to question their own sex and gender. “And it’s okay if your answer changes.”
At the end of the 38-page book, the radical political agenda is blatant.
“Dismantling the patriarchy in order to achieve gender justice requires a vigilant commitment to dismantling racism, capitalism, the gender binary, and all other forms of oppression,” the baby book advises parents. “Patriarchy, cissexism, transphobia, homophobia, and the gender binary are baked into the culture of the United States and have manifestations around the world.”
Books aimed at middle schoolers include Trans & Nonbinary Comics: The OUT Side, featuring characters who declare war on their own bodies.
One cartoon character announces, “I am cis. I hate my body.”
“The first time I started fighting my own body was at age 15,” declares another, standing before a mirror and binding her chest. “Take that boobs! Take that patriarchy!”
“I love my jagged and uneven scars,” declares a youth who has undergone “top surgery,” or a double mastectomy. “I love my body.”
At the high school reading level, the material can get explicit. The graphic novel, Gender Queer: A Memoir, was written by an author who was using the “pronouns” e, em, and eir. It was dubbed the most banned book in America several years ago because of its explicit sex scenes and sultry dialogues: “I got my new strap-on today. I can’t wait to put it on you. It will fit my favorite dildo perfectly.” And: “I can’t wait to have your cock in my mouth — I’m going to give you the blowjob of your life.” On the facing page, these very words are faithfully reenacted as graphic images.
For progressives, Gender Queer became the book of choice for transgressing boundaries and flouting social norms, whereas for conservatives the book became a case study in corrupting the youth and grooming, but it is hardly an isolated example.
The Queens’ English: The LGBTQIA+ Dictionary of Lingo and Colloquial Phrases is a bold proclamation that queer culture has emerged from the underground and is ready to come out of the closet and declare itself worthy of public acceptance. This book is a 336-page, pictorial-style dictionary of queer slang, with entries such as aftercare (time and compassionate attention given to a partner after sex, scenario role-play, or BDSM activities), bussy (a sexual nickname for the rectum), cockblock, cock ring, daddy dom, how to bind (one’s breasts), how to tuck (one’s penis), kai kai (sex between two drag queens), pig play (extreme fetishes or kink), theybie (a nonbinary child) — with pictures illustrating the argot of the BDSM demimonde and a rogue’s gallery of character types.
One book with an especially aggressive agenda is Gender Explained: A New Understanding of Identity in a Gender Creative World, co-authored by transgender advocate Diane Ehrensaft, a professor of pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco, and a member of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health.
“No two people’s genders are exactly the same, similar to fingerprints,” the book instructs parents and caretakers. “Every child spins a gender web as their personal creation.”
The book states as a self-evident fact that children start spinning these “gender webs” as early as toddlerhood and preschool, and insists that adults must “allow gender not be set in stone but an ongoing process with the child at the center as the administrator or CEO of the gender journey and we as their traveling companions.”
In passages that sound like a religious tract proclaiming the coming of the Age of Aquarius, the authors giddily prophesy that creating a world of unique gender identities will “have the potential to bring peace on earth rather than dystopian disaster.”
This article was originally published by RealClearInvestigations.