As the battle between LGBT activist school staff and school boards and parents escalate, celebrities are joining forces to condemn moms and dads who object to pornographic books and LGBT indoctrination.
As artists, creators, entertainers, and activists, we recognize and are horrified by the threat of censorship in the form of book bans.
This restrictive behavior is not just antithetical to free speech and expression but has a chilling effect on the broader creative field. The government cannot and should not create any interference or dictate what people can produce, write, generate, read, listen to, or consume.
We cannot stress enough how these censorious efforts will not end with book bans. It’s only a matter of time before regressive, suppressive ideologues will shift their focus toward other forms of art and entertainment, to further their attacks and efforts to scapegoat marginalized communities, particularly BIPOC and LGBTQ+ folks.
We refuse to remain silent as one creative field is subjected to oppressive bans. As artists, we must band together, because a threat to one form of art is a threat to us all.
We are calling on everyone to join us in pushing back against these book bans, support free and open creative industries – regardless of personal or ideological disagreements – and use their voice at the local level to stop these bans in their school districts. There is power in artistic freedom, and we refuse to allow draconian politicians to take that from us.
It was signed by stars and celebrities such as Ariana Grande, Abigail Disney, Judd Apatow, Judy Blume, Eve 6, Mark Ruffalo, LaVar Burton, Zooey Deschanel, Sophia Bush, Sharon Stone, and dozens of others – but that’s not what makes the letter remarkable. What makes it remarkable is that it manages to convey not just a lie, but the precise opposite of the truth.
Let’s start with the phrase “book bans.” What these elites are referring to is not the banning of books. Books, films, and music of virtually any kind are freely available to anyone who wants them, as is hardcore pornography of the vilest sort, for that matter. What these celebrities are referring to is schools curating what does and does not go in their libraries and which books they deem appropriate for their schools. School libraries and reading lists are curated – they always have been. This is not a “ban.” If the kids – or their parents – want to get their hands on these books, it would be an incredibly easy thing to do.
The assertion that school boards deciding what does and does not get provided to the students within the school as an attack on “artistic expression” is also bizarre. Do authors, artists, and singers have a right to have their work purchased by a government school and made a mandatory part of curriculum? Does “artistic expression” mean that your work must be in every school library in the country? Does “artistic expression” mean that people who don’t care for your work are “draconian” and somehow attacking “freedom”? This is a lazy and stupid assertion, and transparently so. School boards deciding that books about transgender crayons or how-to sex manuals don’t belong in their library isn’t a “threat” to any “form of art.”
Additionally, this letter asserts that these “book bans” are “censorious” and perpetrated by “regressive, suppressive idealogues.” What the signers intentionally ignore is that the books being opposed by parents contain graphic sexual content and, indeed, are often out-and-out pornography. One of the books that has been the focal point of much controversy, for example, is the graphic novel Gender Queer: A Memoir. It contains graphic illustrations of men coupling, detailed drawings of oral sex being performed, and much more. To mischaracterize parents as bigoted censors for not wanting their children to be provided pornographic material at school is dishonest and disgusting.
Finally – and this is where the “opposite of the truth” thing comes in – these celebrities are actually big fans of censorship. When they talk about their fictitious “book bans,” for example, they are not talking about campaigns to have books critical of gender ideology by intellectuals such as Ryan T. Anderson and Abigial Shrier removed from libraries and from Amazon. They are not talking about the book-burning of heterodox literature in Quebec, or the massive purges of books that do not serve diversity, inclusion, and equity in the Peel Region public school that removed all books published before 2008. And not a single one of them would have a problem having books that contradicted LGBT ideology removed – or even banned, for that matter.
This is about their ideology not being presented to other people’s children as a matter of policy. There are no “book bans.” There is no attack on “artistic expression.” And I suspect that even these delusional celebrities understand that.
