BILLINGS — A months-long battle will come to an end Monday night when the Billings school board decides whether to keep two books allegedly depicting gay sex on the library shelves.
The issue first arose in Fairfax County, Virginia, surrounding two coming of age stories: “Lawn Boy” a novel by Jonathan Evison and “Gender Queer: a memoir”, which is a collection of narrative drawings, also known as a graphic novel, by Maia Kobabe. Without relevant context, a section of “Lawn Boy” allegedly describes sexual acts between two underage boys. And again without context, “Gender Queer” allegedly shows drawings of two intimate adults.
The father of a Billings West High School student, Nathan Mathews, first brought his complaint in October last year. A board chair-appointed committee met on Jan. 18 to give a recommendation to the full board on whether to pull the books from library shelves at West High and Career Center.
Mathews told the committee last week, “If I stood outside of that school and handed out pornographic materials, I would go to jail. And it seems odd to me that these books would be in our school libraries for everybody to access.”
Matthews said his child wasn't assigned to read either book as part of class work, nor had his child checked out the book themselves, but he learned of the literature by way of a news story that originated from across the country.
“I saw a story about these books, I believe out of Texas, that they found them in a middle school. And just for the heck of it, I thought there’s no way I’m going to find these here.”
The school board committee recommended “Lawn Boy” to stay with a 4-1 vote and “Gender Queer” to be pulled from the shelves in a 3-2 vote, but the full school board will have the final say on Monday night.
“I wouldn’t support the appropriateness of the book in our school libraries if it was a 10 year old boy and it was a 10 year old girl. It would be the same for me. It’s not simply because it is two ten year old boys. I just don’t feel that the material is appropriate in picture form in our library," said Trustee Brian Yates
The book "Gender Queer" was added to the library in 2020 and has so far been checked out two times at the Career Center and six times at West High. The Fairfax County schools in Virginia opted to keep the books on the shelves after review.
“As far as creating a real issue in the community, it has not,” said Trustee Mike Leo.
People who spoke in support of keeping the books during public comment said if they were pulled, it would send a negative message to the LGQTQ+ community. They said the books can provide a positive role model and shared experience or solidarity for a student who might be questioning their identity or sexuality.
To learn more about the Billings schools book review process, and read more background information, view Monday's board meeting agenda by clicking here.
