Parents- Fighting A Battle That Might've Made Sense In 1985

Ideas aren't the enemy, nor are sex and sexuality. Ignorance is.

So there you are, trying to lead a godly life, bringing people to Jesus and convincing them of the One True Faith, when you learn that people are coming up with strange new ideas. And they’re getting these strange new ideas from “books.”

All this time, you’ve been told that they only source of knowledge and wisdom you need is the Bible, the source of ALL truth. Now people, some even as young as teenagers, are going to “bookstores” and buying these “books.” So what’s a dedicated Christian to do to keep his or her mind pure?

Well, if you’re Tim Anderson and Tommy Altman, you go to court to protect the minds and morality of young, impressionable children (apparently they’ve never heard of the Internet).

Tim Anderson, an attorney and state delegate in Virginia and his client Tommy Altman made a frightening discovery. There are entire stores dedicated almost solely to "books," and that are willing to give these "books" to your children ... for a price. Probably about $17.99. There are even things called libraries that will lend them books for free, in hopes of getting them hooked on reading and also sin.

Outraged, the men took their case to the Virginia Beach Circuit Court, where a judge agreed with them that books are bad and not meant for children — and declared two of them, Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe and A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas, to be "obscene for unrestricted viewing for minors," which means they can now be restricted.

It seems that they are largely upset about Gender Queer because they're afraid it's going to turn their children gender queer, or perhaps just turn them into people who are not raging assholes about other people existing, and that A Court of Mist and Fury was kind of just thrown in there for plausible deniability reasons. Because if they're upset about a heterosexual sex scene in a fantasy book, that means they're not bigots for going after Gender Queer.

So emboldened was Tim Anderson by his victory that he wrote on Facebook:

I am pleased to announce a major legal victory. Today, the Virginia Beach Circuit Court has found probable cause that the books Gender Queer and a Court of Mist and Fury are obscene to unrestricted viewing by minors. My client, Tommy Altman, has now directed my office to seek a restraining order against Barnes and Noble and Virginia Beach Schools to enjoin them from selling or loaning these books to minors without parent consent. We are in a major fight. Suits like this can be filed all over Virginia. There are dozens of books. Hundreds of schools.

Yes, before you know it, children will only think what we WANT them to think. No more uncomfortable questions, no more awkward discussions. Children will be limited to approved topics determined by their parents.

Again, it makes me wonder if these folks have spent any time on the Internet, the source of all wealth and knowledge. Any teenager worthy of the name can access a porn site within ten seconds- 15 tops- and you’re worried about him READING about sex or LGBTQ issues?

Wow…the 80s called; they want their cluelessness back.

So how do people know when something is obscene? Well, funny you should ask, eh?

In order to be considered "obscene" to the point of not being protected by the First Amendment, a work must meet the following criteria, known as the Miller Test:

(1) Whether ‘the average person, applying contemporary community standards’ would find that the work, ‘taken as a whole,’ appeals to ‘prurient interest’
(2) whether the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by the applicable state law, and
(3) whether the work, ‘taken as a whole,’ lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.

It is very clear that neither of these books meet this standard, which means that they are protected by the First Amendment, whether Serena Joy over here approves of that or not.

Of course, the Miller Test isn’t exactly the most exacting of standards. After all, one “average person” is another’s “off-the-wall freak show.” And one person’s “prurient interest” is another’s excuse to roll over and go back to sleep.

Hey, if you want to talk about “prurient interest,” just want until some good, God-fearing, Christian Virginia parents find out that their kid are reading perverted stuff like this:

When she carried on her whoring so openly and flaunted her nakedness, I turned in disgust from her, as I had turned in disgust from her sister. Yet she increased her whoring, remembering the days of her youth, when she played the whore in the land of Egypt and lusted after her lovers there, whose members were like those of donkeys, and whose issue was like that of horses. Thus you longed for the lewdness of your youth, when the Egyptians handled your bosom and pressed your young breasts.

Those of you who spent any time at all in Sunday School might recognize that as a passage from the Bible- specifically, Ezekiel 23:18-21. And there’s a lot of other weird, perverted stuff in the Bible, which never seems to bother parents because…well, because it’s in the Bible, don’tchaknow? It’s the sacrosanct and unadulterated word of God. Or something like that.

For whatever reason, a lot of “Christian” parents are quite uptight when it comes to sex and sexuality. The truth, though, is that issues surrounding sex and sexuality are only dirty and perverted if you choose to treat them that way.

Uptight parents were taught to be uptight as children, but there’s nothing dirty, perverted, or unnatural about sex or sexuality. Each is part of the human condition, and if we treat them as such, they’re far less intimidating and fearsome. A penis is merely a part of the human body. The same is true for a vagina.

Just try telling that to Stacy Langton, a mother of six from Fairfax County, Virginia. You’ll find yourself up against the mother whose one-woman “war on porn” helped the GOP take over Virginia. And she’s not about to take kindly to the idea that sex and sexuality should be treated as normal and natural.

On several occasions she has taken it upon herself to read excerpts from "Gender Queer" in school board meetings.

She tells 7News she will follow Anderson's lead.

"This shows there's a higher authority," said Langton. "There's another pathway here. And if a judge adjudicates it and rules the book to be obscene then, from my understanding, it would have to be removed (here) as it will be down in Virginia Beach schools."

This is all pretty frightening. We already live in a world in which children too often learn what they know about sex from porn sites. Now people like Stacy Langton want to deny them access to books that might actually provide useful information about sex and sexuality just when they most need it.

So the idea is that children should reach adulthood ignorant about sex and sexuality (except for what they’ve learned from porn sites)? How does that prepare a child for adulthood and adult relationships (Hint: It doesn’t)?

And why the need to police what your children read? Children aren’t property; they need to know they have the space and freedom to spread their wings intellectually. If a parent has a concern about the directions of a child’s curiosity, they should talk to that child. If they fly off the handle like Stacy Langton, the message being sent to a child is that their judgment isn’t trusted and that they can’t explore new ideas without permission.

What a horrible way to go through childhood.

Going after schools and school libraries is disturbing enough, but actually going and telling booksellers and regular libraries what they are allowed to sell or lend is just beyond anything we've seen in decades. It is incredibly important that young people have access to books that help them understand themselves and safely explore the things and ideas they have questions about, including their own gender identity and sexuality. This is especially the case when these kids have parents like Stacy Langton or our friend the Christ Follower/Life Coach/Collagen Rep who are probably going to mess them up pretty badly.

Let kids read all the books! All of them! The "dozens" of them that exist! Books are the safest way to explore anything when you are a kid — whether it's something scary, something embarrassing or something else. They're also a great way to learn empathy for other humans. Perhaps if these people had read more books growing up or even now, they wouldn't be the strident, closed-minded assholes they are today.

Agreed. Ideas aren’t the enemy. I read In Cold Blood when I was in 4th grade and I didn’t grow up to be a serial killer. A child might read about homosexuality or a heterosexual act, but that doesn’t mean they’re going to become a “groomer,” a “pedo,” or a sex offender when they’re an adult.

What will mess kids up are the adults who think they know best and end up transmitting their prejudices and poor attitudes to their children. Kids deserve the chance to chart their own course. So what if they read In Cold Blood in 4th grade. Or Gender Queer. Or A Court of Mist and Fury. Let them explore ideas. Let them learn about things they might not otherwise be exposed to.

A good parent will allow their childrent to explore ideas and then help them understand what they might not immediately grasp.

Ideas aren’t the enemy. Ignorance is. And correct me if I’m wrong, but parents shouldn’t be on the side of ignorance.

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