Members of minorities in the United States get this in our bones. Many of us are terrified right now. I am, as a gay man, but I almost hesitate to say that because many people think my fear is ignorant or exaggerated.
The State of Florida is on the cusp of passing a "don't say gay law" that will prohibit discussion of LGBTQ topics in schools. Outright prohibit, on the grounds that parents have the right to decide how to raise their children. As if lots of parents don't have LGBTQ children or aren't LGBTQ themselves.
A United Methodist Church adoption agency in Tennessee just turned away a Jewish couple, on the grounds that they will not work with Jews. United Methodist Church isn't a bunch of raving fascists. They are considered progressive.
I've tried to get the UMC to give me a comment in my capacity as a journalist with the LA Blade, but they won't respond to me, just as they have refused to respond to any journalists on this matter. The implications are beyond frightening when a mainline denomination like this embraces blatant anti-semitism. This is where we are right now, and this is one of the reasons why I'm scared.
A school district in Tennessee just banned Maus, the prize-winning graphic novel about the Holocaust. Decided due to the fact that Maus contains six profanities. May I please just say, Jesus Fucking Christ but that's fucking stupid? Just another reason why I'm feeling very scared right now.
Books about true Black history and books about LGBTQ people are disappearing from library shelves around the nation right now, as we speak. In a few cases, this is making the news. But in most cases, it's happening under the radar and nobody knows about it.
Books that even dare mentioned transgender people in anything but a condemnatory way are especially targeted.
I’ve written about the book Lawn Boy, which is wholesome, and sweet, and morally uplifting, and has an incidental gay theme that has gotten it yanked from school libraries all over the United States.
This is where we’re at right now, and I think see things getting worse not better. I’m terrified.
