'Gender Queer' Book To Stay After Unanimous District 99 Vote: Report

DOWNERS GROVE, IL — The book "Gender Queer: A Memoir," which some District 99 parents denounced as "pornographic" last November, will stay in school libraries after a unanimous vote by the school board, Shaw Media reports.

A group of parents spoke out against the Maia Kobabe book at a school board meeting in November, with one parent calling it "a child pornographic sketchbook" and demanding that board members "resign in disgrace."

After the outcry from parents, District 99 officials formed an ad hoc committee that worked with Superintended Dr. Hank Thiele to evaluate the book. The committee ultimately recommended the board's approval of the memoir.

"Gender Queer" follows Kobabe's "journey of self-identity, which includes 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," per publishers Simon & Schuster.

Illinois isn't the only state to see resistance to "Gender Queer: A Memoir." In January,"Gender Queer" was taken out of schools in Loudoun County, Virginia. In Kansas, Republican Senator Rick Kloos demanded that "Gender Queer" be taken off the shelves at Shawnee Heights High School.

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