Lt. Gov. Robinson says schools promote explicit books. What we know, and what we don’t.
Wake County school officials said Wednesday that teachers in Wake classrooms are not using three books singled out by Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson to teach children about being gay or transgender.
Robinson, a Republican, released a video over the weekend saying that books like “Gender Queer: A Memoir” by Maia Kobabe, “Lawn Boy” by Jonathan Evison and “George” by Alex Gino are available in North Carolina’s public schools. In a follow-up email to The News & Observer, his office named Wake as one of the counties using the books.
“These books in question are not taught in our schools,” said Lori Roach, a spokesperson for Wake County Public School System. “They are not included in any curriculum. In some schools, they are available in the school library for students to check out.”
Robinson showed reporters Tuesday sexually explicit images from “Gender Queer: A Memoir.”
Two Wake high schools have one copy each of “Gender Queer,” Roach said.
The book is available at other North Carolina schools, including Cedar Ridge High School in Orange County and East Mecklenburg High School, according to library catalogs.
Kobabe’s book, according to Amazon, takes readers through the “mortification and confusion of adolescent crushes, grappling with how to come out to family and society, bonding with friends over erotic gay fanfiction, and facing the trauma and fundamental violation of pap smears.”
Illustrations in the book show people in various sexual acts.
Robinson told reporters that regardless of where the book is in the school, it is “unacceptable.”
“I challenge anyone out here to look at this and say that you want your child to look at it, or be forced to look at it in the classroom,” Robinson told reporters Tuesday. “I‘m not the bad guy, folks. I’m the guy who’s trying to get pornography out of our schools.”
Craig White, supportive schools director at the Campaign for Southern Equality, said research shows that including LGBTQ people in social studies, English and health curriculum is important to a school’s environment.
“What you see is that the school as a whole becomes safer for all students,” White said. “You see LGBTQ students feeling much more at home in the school and feel like, ‘I have a place here, I belong.’”
Robinson’s spotlight on the books, on the other hand, “really creates an element of fear, not just among LGBTQ students but also LGBTQ faculty members,” White said.
‘Filth’ comments and reaction
Robinson’s comments Tuesday and video posted to Facebook Saturday came in response to calls for his resignation after a video surfaced from a speech he made in June at Asbury Baptist Church in Seagrove.
In June, Robinson had just finished telling the congregation that North Carolina schools are teaching students to hate America and that they’re racist. He added that they also teach about LGBTQ people.
“Those issues have no place in a school,” Robinson said.
He said then that “there’s no reason why anybody, anywhere in America” should teach children about being gay or transgender, adding “any of that filth.” He said he didn’t care who didn’t like his use of the word “filth.”
As lieutenant governor, Robinson serves on the state school board.
When asked Tuesday what he is doing to get the books out of the schools, he laughed and said he only can speak about them.
Immediate criticism
His statements in recent days have led to rebukes from legislative staffers to lawmakers to the White House.
In a news conference Tuesday morning, LGBTQ state lawmakers spoke out against Robinson’s comments while also addressing his claims about books in schools.
Rep. Marcia Morey, a Durham Democrat, called Robinson’s talk about the books “a bait and switch.”
“I think we all want good, solid literature for kids to read,” she said. “But don’t conflate this with the words of hate and filth that sparked this entire debate.”
Morey also said no one is arguing that young children should be reading sexually explicit material.
“And it goes both ways. You know, we don’t want any sexually explicit books about heterosexuals being read by first-, second- and third-graders,” she said. “I mean, it’s just common sense.”
Republican lawmakers had not addressed Robinson’s statements until after his news conference Tuesday afternoon.
Afterward, N.C. House Speaker Tim Moore said he agrees with Robinson that the sexually explicit images should not be in reading materials provided by the school system.
“The Lt. Governor has clarified his statements and has said plainly that he was describing this reading material, not any person or community, in his remarks,” Moore said in a written statement to The N&O. “Furthermore, the outpouring of racist, disturbing voicemails and messages directed at Lt. Governor Robinson and his family are shameful and abhorrent.”
Robinson played one of the voicemails during his news conference on Tuesday of a man repeatedly calling him a racial epithet and threatening violence.
“I have disagreed with people politically,” Robinson said. “I have disagreed with people’s spirits, but never have I ever disrespected somebody like that. “
Former U.S. Rep. Mark Walker, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, has also supported Robinson.
“Lt. Governor @markrobinsonNC is 100% accurate in describing the sexualization of our children in public schools,” Walker tweeted. “The content is filth, and the agenda is no less filthy.”
What books concern Robinson?
“George” is a book about a child who wanted to play the role of Charlotte in “Charlotte’s Web.”
Assigned male at birth, she always knew she was a girl, but it wasn’t until her teacher said that a boy couldn’t play Charlotte that she decided she needed to tell the world who she really is.
In Evison’s “Lawn Boy” — which has been incorrectly identified as the children’s book “Lawn Boy” by Gary Paulsen — a young man who has just been fired from his lawn mowing job tries to live out the American dream, “while finding himself along the way,” according to Amazon.
Amazon’s comment section has concerns from parents that the book is vulgar, sexually explicit and normalizes child sex and bestiality.
Evison’s “Lawn Boy” is listed in six Wake County schools’ libraries while 72 copies of “George” are available across the district.
Robinson said the books are also available in Durham, Buncombe, Alamance, Avery, Ashe, Cabarrus, Guilford, Surry and Orange counties.
“As there are over 2,500 schools in NC, we have not been able to check each one for all of these books,” Robinson spokesperson John Wesley Waugh said. “They could potentially be in hundreds of schools across the state.”
Wake County concerns
“Lawn Boy” drew concerns from a parent last week at a Wake County school board meeting. The man said he saw this book in his child’s school. He asked that the school board launch a thorough review of the books available to students and the process by which books are chosen.
In response to The N&O’s inquiry about the books, Roach said the district has a process for parents to review and object to any material or books.
The N.C. House included a provision in its version of the pending state budget that would allow parents to review and object to questionable materials in the school system.
Rep. Allison Dahle, when asked about parents being uncomfortable with the books, said they shouldn’t check out the books.
”I’m sorry, but there have been book bans for as long as I can remember,” Dahle said. “And in history there have been book bans, and people who burn books, and that didn’t stop those publications. If you don’t like it, don’t turn on the TV, don’t read the book.”
Rep. Vernetta Alston, a Durham Democrat, said schools have knowledgeable people who should be discussing what books make it into a school library, and that’s not in the purview of the lieutenant governor.
White said books are ordered by media center coordinators for their schools, and teachers often use their own money to buy other books for their classrooms.
Lawmakers target LGBTQ students
North Carolina has a long history of making national headlines for creating bills and laws targeting the LGBTQ community, including students.
Notably, North Carolina is known for House Bill 2, a 2016 piece of legislation that became law that required transgender people in schools and other government buildings to use only the bathroom for the gender they were assigned at birth. Immediately, businesses, celebrities and athletic conferences both threatened to and followed through with threats to stop business with North Carolina.
But that hasn’t stopped lawmakers targeting North Carolina’s LGBTQ communities with at least eight bills filed this session.
The two most notable bills would have required doctors to stop providing transgender health care to those under 21, required school officials to out students to their parents and forced transgender children to play on the sports teams of the gender they were assigned at birth.
The bills stalled in the House and Senate before going to the governor.
For more North Carolina government and politics news, listen to the Under the Dome politics podcast from The News & Observer and the NC Insider. You can find it at link.chtbl.com/underthedomenc or wherever you get your podcasts.
This story was originally published October 13, 2021 at 5:50 AM with the headline "Lt. Gov. Robinson says schools promote explicit books. What we know, and what we don’t.."
CORRECTION: An early version of this article misattributed quotes that were said by Rep. Allison Dahle.