Parents Fight Graphic, Obscene Books in Schools

Warning: This article contains graphic sexual images and language.

When asked recently about the growing controversy surrounding her 2019 graphic novel Gender Queer: A Memoir, cartoonist Maia Kobabe told NBC News: “It’s very hard to hear people say ‘This book is not appropriate to young people’ . . . There are people for whom this is vital and for whom this could maybe even be lifesaving.” Kobabe — a biological woman who identifies as “nonbinary and asexual” and uses the gender-neutral “Spivak” pronouns “e/eim/eir” — frames Gender Queer as an autobiographical account of self-discovery: “Started as a way to explain to eir family what it means to be nonbinary and asexual, Gender Queer is more than a personal story,” the book’s official description writes. “It is a useful and touching guide on gender identity — what it means and how to think about it — for advocates, friends, and humans everywhere.”

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Nate Hochman

Nate Hochman was a staff writer at National Review.

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Warning: This article contains graphic sexual images and language.

When asked recently about the growing controversy surrounding her 2019 graphic novel Gender Queer: A Memoir, cartoonist Maia Kobabe told NBC News: “It’s very hard to hear people say ‘This book is not appropriate to young people’ . . . There are people for whom this is vital and for whom this could maybe even be lifesaving.” Kobabe — a biological woman who identifies as “nonbinary and asexual” and uses the gender-neutral “Spivak” pronouns “e/eim/eir” — frames Gender Queer as an autobiographical account of self-discovery: “Started as a way to explain to eir family what it means to be nonbinary and asexual, Gender Queer is more than a personal story,” the book’s official description writes. “It is a useful and touching guide on gender identity — what it means and how to think about it — for advocates, friends, and humans everywhere.”