GLBT Titles Scrubbed from DC Public Schools’ Summer Reading List
By Rocco Staino -- School Library Journal,06/21/2009
You won’t see books like And Tango Makes Three (S & S, 2005), The Geography Club (HarperCollins, 2003) or any other gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLTB)-themed title on the summer reading lists for the District of Columbia Public Schools.But is there any chance that could change?
That's the answer the capitol’s gay and lesbian community—and many librarians—are awaiting, pending a finalization of the district’s summer reading list on Friday, June 26th.
Officials are taking a second look at the list after a post appeared on the American Library Association’s GLBT listserve that said, “The DC (District of Columbia) Public Schools decided to scrub their summer reading list of all GLTB related books. This seems outrageous. We're thinking that if a parent writes a strong letter, it'll be the most effective. I'm thinking it should go to the mainstream press, and perhaps someone in the school system too.”
The post was originally made by Jeanne Lauber, a librarian at the DC Public Library on the Yahoo! discussion group “Lezbrian”. She goes on the say, “Apparently the public library system told the schools which books were GLTB (not knowing why they were being asked) and the schools removed them.”
Upon seeing the post, School Library Journal contacted both the DC Public Schools and the DC Public Library, and spokespeople at both said they had no knowledge of the situation. Since then, both institutions have ignored calls and emails from SLJ.
Summer break started June 15 for D.C. public schools, but the district’s summer reading Web site says the list is tentative with a final list being released on June 26th.
Nevertheless, pdf versions for each grade level are marked as final. The lists were created jointly by D.C Public media specialists, the Department of English Language Arts, and the District of Columbia Public Library. An introduction to the lists reads, “There are a variety of books from pre-kindergarten to grade twelve to satisfy every reading interest.”
Sources say that a meeting between the school district and public library took place late last week in the hope that GLBT titles will be included on the lists before printed copies are released to students.
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| Submitted by: | KATHLEEN HORNING (horning@education.wisc.edu) 6/22/2009 2:18:01 PM PT |
| Location: | Madison, WI |
"Scrubbed" is a particularly harsh word in this case, seeing as how there are, indeed, other LGBTQ titles on the lists you linked to. Do you have any evidence that either "Tango" or "Geography Club" were deleted from the lists? From your article, it isn't clear. It looks like you're just using them as [insert gay book art here].
When are SLJ and the NYT going to learn to stop taking story leads from informal conversations overheard on library listservs? It's utterly irresponsible to report this as the truth, without any corroborating evidence. I'm a member of the LEZBRIAN listserv, and I questioned the veracity of this story when it was first posted, asking for more information. I did so because I looked at the actual summer reading lists for the DC public schools, and noticed that there were GLBTQ titles included, as well as many other provocative books that suggested the selection committee did not shy away from controversy. The woman who made the original post on LEZBRIAN replied that she didn't really know it for sure, she had just heard that the GLBTQ books were removed from the list.
We have real problems in this nation with people wanting to remove and -- and even publicly burn -- GLBTQ books that are in school and public libraries. You don't need to invent controversy.
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