Opinions
Censorship of books, ideas alive and well
Combat ignorance, celebrate Banned Books Week
āIf you canāt read what you want ā even if itās horrible ā youāre not free,ā my Dad, who was Jewish and no fan of Hitler, would say to me when I was young. āIād defend to my death the right of anyone to read āMein Kampf!āā
I think of my fatherās words each fall as the school year begins. Itās a safe bet that along with football, pumpkin lattes and falling leaves, books from āThe Kite Runnerā by Khaled Hosseini to āThe Loraxā by Dr. Seuss will be banned in schools and libraries worldwide from Istanbul to London to Washington, D.C., to Texas to California. Though we can legally marry who we love, picture books, young adult novels, fiction, poetry and non-fiction with LGBT characters and by queer authors will likely still be among the most challenged literary works.
Sept. 25 to Oct. 1 is Banned Books Week. The event celebrates the freedom to read and brings attention to the harm caused by censorship.Ā The Week, ābrings together…librarians, booksellers, publishers, journalists, teachers, and readers of all types,ā the American Library Association says on its website, āin shared support of the freedom to seek and to express ideas, even those some consider unorthodox or unpopular.ā
Sometimes, I find it hard to believe some of the books that have been banned or the reasons why theyāve been challenged. China banned one of my childhood faves, āGreen Eggs and Hamā from 1965 to 1991 (when Theodor Geisl, a.k.a. Dr. Seuss, died) because of its āportrayal of early Marxism.ā In 1963, some Columbus, Ohio parents asked that the āCatcher in the Ryeā be banned for being āanti-white.ā Last year, the Bible, according to the ALA, was one of the 10 most challenged books. Why? Because of its āreligious viewpoint.ā Thereās so much buzz around censored books, that I almost wish my poetry would be banned. Everyone would want to read it, if it was forbidden, I joke to myself.
But banning books is no joke. For many queer kids, middle-schoolers and teens, reading poetry, fiction or non-fiction written by LGBT authors or featuring characters like themselves is vitally important. LGBT students report being five times more likely to skip school because they donāt feel safe after being bullied, according to bullyingstatistics.org. Reading compelling books like āFun Home,ā by Alison Bechdel, āI am Jazz,ā by Jessica Herthel and Jazz Jennings, āBeyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Outā by Susan Kuklin and āTwo Boys Kissingā by David Levithan can be, literally, life-saving for these young people. They let kids who are questioning their sexuality or coming out to know that theyāre not alone. If only these works had been out when I was growing up. Yet, these books, too, were among the most challenged books of 2015.
āBanning books is just another form of bullying. Itās all about fear and an assumption of power,ā gay childrenās book writer James Howe has astutely said. āThe key is to address the fear and deny the power.ā
In 1835, the poetry of Heinrich Heine was banned in Germany because it was considered to be too left-wing. āWhen they burn books, they will also burn people,ā Heine said. His dictum came to pass when students under Nazi leadership burned books in Germany.
Our country isnāt like Nazi Germany. But censorship of ideas that differ from our own is alive and well. The D.C. Public Library Foundation is celebrating Banned Books Week with an āUNCENSORED banned booksā scavenger hunt. The Foundation is hiding banned books throughout D.C. Check out #UncensoredDC for clues. The black and white, untitled covers of the books will be marked by words like āFILTHYā or āPROFANE.āĀ āYou want to pick up a book that has āSMUTā on the cover,ā Kramerbooks events manager Sara Baline told NPR.
Itās easy to take the freedom to read what we choose for granted. Letās celebrate Banned Books Week.
Kathi Wolfe, a writer and a poet, is a regular contributor to the Blade.
Opinions
Racism and misogyny are alive in America
Trumpās confounding victory will hurt many people who voted for him
A smart, compassionate, African-American/Asian woman, in a mixed marriage, runs for president and loses to a felon, found liable of sexual assault, twice impeached, and leader of a failed coup. What could be the reason?
I understand people are unhappy with the economy, immigrants coming into our country illegally, and many with their lives in general. But none of this can account for the huge numbers of white, African American, and Latino men, who voted for Trump. In a major shift, Trump won Latino men 54%-44% over Harris, and 50%-39% of white men according to NBC exit polls, and 20% of male Black voters nationally. We need to call that what it is and begin to have a real conversation in this country about it. They are all ending up voting for a man whose policies will hurt them. Whether it be a tax on all the goods they buy, or being anti-union, applauding Elon Musk for firing strikers, or giving tax breaks not to them, but to millionaires and billionaires. African-American men should know he refused to rent them apartments in New York. Latino men should understand he will be knocking on their doors looking for possible family members to deport. All of this overridden by their macho fear of being in a country led by a woman. We have seen this before in Hillary Clintonās race in 2016. Unless we have an open conversation about this, it will continue to happen.
Donald Trump is a threat to all decent people around the world. He admires dictators and he will emulate them. He will override our judicial system, using the Justice Department to get back at his enemies. We know this.
On the abortion issue it appears women voted overwhelmingly to pass every ballot initiative, except the one in South Dakota, to keep abortion legal. It went down in Florida because though 57% voted for it the legislature managed to say it would only pass if it got 60% of the vote. Yet clearly, even many of the white women who voted for these initiatives, didnāt see the danger in then voting for Trump. It is very hard to rationalize. I hear all sorts of explanations on the various news/talk fests on cable TV. People pontificating on all sorts of things. Trying to determine who in the Democratic Party is to blame. In 2016 they blamed the candidate, Hillary. She didnāt do enough, went to the wrong states at the end, didnāt connect with voters. This year they are trying not to blame Harris who was thrown into a campaign only three months before the election. So, many are blaming President Biden for not announcing two years ago he wasnāt going to run again and allowing Democrats to hold a real primary. Who knows, maybe they are right. Harris could never escape the animus toward the Biden administration. She tried valiantly, and I think ran an amazing campaign. As I wrote online, we may have lost an election, but many like me ended up falling in love with Kamala Harris.
There are a few high points from Tuesdayās election, like the victories of two Democratic, African-American women senators, Lisa Blunt Rochester from Delaware, and Angela Alsobrooks from Maryland. Then Delaware had a double victory, electing Sarah McBride to Congress, where she will become the first elected transgender woman to serve in the House of Representatives. When I write this it looks as if Democrats may actually lose only three senators: Sherrod Brown in Ohio, Jon Tester in Montana, and Republicans won the open seat in West Virginia. Tammy Baldwin will keep her seat from Wisconsin, and in races still too close to call we could see Bob Casey in Pennsylvania, and Jacky Rosen in Nevada, keep their seats. Then Ruben Gallego in Arizona, and Elissa Slotkin in Michigan, have a shot at winning their races in what were open seats. All these results potentially showing the schizophrenia in the electorate in states that Trump won. They all out-performed Harris in their states. After all, a woman senator they know may be OK, but not a strong, African-American/Asian woman, as president.Ā
We will be dissecting this election for years to come, historians will be looking at how Trump could have won. But the reality for those of us living in the United States now, those who Trump has insulted and degraded, including women, African Americans, immigrants, the LGBTQ community, the disabled, nearly everyone one can think of, we will have to live with him and fight back where we can. Hopefully joining hands to do it, as there is strength in numbers. We shall overcome!
Peter Rosenstein is a longtime LGBTQ rights and Democratic Party activist.
Opinions
Whatās next for the LGBTQ movement?
Trumpās win requires us to organize, focus on protecting trans community
These are frightening times for those of us on the target list of Project 2025, the blueprint for Donald Trumpās second term that he secured in landslide fashion on Tuesday.
Many of us are wondering how this could happen again. Kamala Harris is one of the most qualified presidential candidates to run in our lifetime. She ran against a 34-times convicted felon who staged an insurrection against the government and who faces a sentencing hearing in just three weeks for his crimes. A man who was twice impeached, who courts Vladimir Putinās attention and approval, and who was found liable for sexual assault. Despite that last fact ā and Trumpās bragging about overturning Roe v. Wade ā 44 percent of women voters supported him, far more than the polls and pundits predicted.
Those polls turned out to be pretty accurate and Harris was brought down by lingering concerns over the economy and the toll inflation has taken on lower and middle class Americans. Sure, sexism, and racism played a role in this, but too many of us live in a bubble, insulated from the everyday concerns of disaffected blue collar Americans. While many of us crowed about last weekās Wall Street Journal lead story on the booming U.S. economy being the envy of the world, voters in the former āBlue Wallā states were struggling to put food on the table. When you canāt feed your family, youāre not going to vote for the incumbent vice president.Ā
So whatās next? Weāve seen this movie before. Trump will appoint a series of sycophants to run the government; he will undermine the federal workforce and try to fire as many longtime civil servants as he can. He will have a compliant GOP-majority Senate to rubberstamp his Cabinet and judicial appointees. He will probably ban transgender service members from the military on day one. The list goes on.
āThe next conservative President must make the institutions of American civil society hard targets for woke culture warriors,ā Project 2025 begins. āThis starts with deleting the terms sexual orientation and gender identity, diversity, equity and inclusion, gender, gender equality, gender awareness, gender-sensitive ā¦ out of every federal rule, agency regulation, contracts, grant regulation, and piece of legislation that exists.ā
Indeed, Project 2025 seeks to send us all back to the closet. But, as Harris rightly intoned throughout her short campaign: We are not going back.
The good news ā and there is some ā is that voters for the first time elected two Black women to the U.S. Senate to serve at the same time, Angela Alsobrooks in Maryland and Lisa Blunt Rochester in Delaware. Sarah McBride becomes our nationās first out transgender member of Congress. Sheās a formidable figure and will be an important voice for trans equality in the face of Trumpās inevitable attacks. At this writing, control of the House hasnāt been decided. If the Democrats can manage to flip it, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, a capable strategist, becomes the face of our resistance.
We need our LGBTQ allies and advocacy groups more than ever. If you have the resources, donate to Lambda Legal and other legal groups gearing up for the many battles ahead, including over marriage equality. (Some more good news on that front, as California voters overwhelmingly approved Prop 3, which will enshrine marriage rights in the constitution of our largest state.) Volunteer your time with your local equality group, especially if you live in a state like Florida with draconian anti-LGBTQ laws on the books.
No one said being part of a social justice movement would be easy. Sometimes pioneers in these fights donāt live to see the end of the road. Nowās the time to double down on hard work, determination, and compassion, especially for the trans community, which sadly will take the brunt of the incoming attacks. Those of us who are a bit older need to reassure younger voters and activists that their efforts this time are not in vain. Harrisās meteoric ascent to the top of the Democratic ticket and the incredible campaign she ran will make it easier for the next woman to run. That final, ultimate glass ceiling will fall in our lifetime.
So for now, take a breath. Hug the dog. Take a walk in the woods, whatever you need to refocus. Four years is a blip and will fly by. The Democratic bench is deep. And the march toward full equality for our community is unstoppable. Setbacks are inevitable but we learned a long time ago that love wins. So fight on.
Opinions
Independent parliamentary candidate campaign fulfilled my right as a queer Motswana
Botswanaās 13th general election took place Oct. 30
I had the privilege to run as an independent candidate for parliament during Botswana’s recent and most historic election. While I was not elected, my privilege to exercise my right to stand as a citizen was fulfilled, most notably, as an out and proudly queer feminist nonbinary individual in my youth.
There are many reasons that lead to my decision to run, one of them being the anti-LGBTI developments that were occurring in my country, along with several others across Africa. Most notably, when our speaker of parliament attended a regional meeting on African sovereignty and values veiled against anything human rights related: Including reproductive and queer rights.
I could not understand how a member of parliament could question the fundamental basis of having three arms of government because of a court of appeal ruling that affirmed our rights as queer people. I could not understand how the church could protest against a constitutional review bill but not the corruption, gender based violence or poverty across the country. I could not understand how elected leaders could not publicly defend the rights of indigenous peoples that were consistently trampled on by the executive. I could not, sit with all I know and advocate for, allow for public discourse to perpetuate harmful gender norms and a lack of accountability from government. What I could do was stand for my rights in contrast to what I have done before in my activism ā as a parliamentary candidate.
This is a mark of progress, from a country that previously denied LGBT registration to decriminalizing same-sex intimacy. It has been a frustrating journey of gaslighting erasure on a personal and professional level. I’ve had several undesirable encounters with law enforcement ranging from threats to be shot to having my phone confiscated. I have seen government absolve itself from accountability to its people while presenting itself as a beacon at the United Nations in Geneva and New York. These are not in isolation and neither am I special, as many queer Batswana continue to be questioned because their national identity cards present differently from who they are or how they dress in person. More importantly, how countrywide poverty, inequity disenfranchised my people are. Including those living with HIV, with disabilities, sex workers, indigenous people, ethnic minorities, and migrants among many others.Ā
We continuously have to fight for our dignity as stigma and discrimination strip away at our personhood and humanity. Whether in convenience stores, banking halls, or government service point ā identity serves as a barrier to āSethoā in Setswana or āUbuntuā in Zulu. All these challenges aside, I have often questioned how many more sanitary pads to donate, petitions to make, and radio interviews to do to achieve meaningful change. The many theories of change and M&E frameworks I have contributed to have not done enough. The projects I have designed, campaigned through, and deemed a āsuccessā have yet to meaningfully shift realities across the country.
It is this conundrum I have to fight with. Where my conscience has to answer whether it’s enough to raise awareness or translate human rights documents into local languages. Whether it’s enough that I have written too many reports to count or assisted too many survivors as a form of my own healing. While these questions linger at the back of my mind, I am privileged to draw from the likes of Hajiya Gambo Sawaba (Nigeria), Nomzamo Winifred Zanyiwe Madikizela-Mandela (South Africa), Dr. Stella Nyanzi (Uganda), and many other feminists who have stood against injustice and taken up general elections candidacy in their quest for justice. I find glee in the fact that this gives opportunity to another somewhere within our challenging continent, to take up the battle for queer liberation in an era that continuously wants to deny us belonging and becoming.
Dumi Gatsha is a consultant and founder of Success Capital Organization, a grassroots NGO working in the nexus of human rights and sustainable development at grassroots, regional, and global levels.
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