John,

Gov. Greg Abbott is once again on a censorship rampage. This time, he’s turning his attacks on books.

On Monday, the governor sent a letter to education agencies calling for the review of various books, including two with LGBTQ+ themes. This is no doubt part of the governor’s strategy to win in an increasingly radicalized Republican primary during next year’s elections.

School districts have processes in place to review content based on several factors that keeps inappropriate content away from minors that’s separate from political theatrics. We can not let Abbott’s latest letter distract us from a larger trend we’re seeing: far-right Republicans using cheap political tricks to mischaracterize content in books to scare voters.

This country has a long, dark history of politicians trying to ban books with claims that they are too sexual, obscene or political, including classics from The Great Gatsby and The Catcher in the Rye to The Grapes of Wrath and The Color Purple. Abbott is just the latest among the many cynical politicians who see book-banning campaigns as a tool for scaring parents and winning votes in the next election. But this time it’s even worse.

The governor is deliberately targeting books that help LGBTQ+ youth feel less alone at a time when he’s signing laws that seek to further stigmatize their very existence in our schools. He wants to intentionally remove books that allow Black and Brown children to see themselves and their lives represented in truthful ways. We must not allow him to use these moments to distract from his larger agenda of erasing Black, Indigenous, people of color and queer folks.

Taking a few words or images from a book to mischaracterize its message and its importance is a cheap trick easily mastered by even amateur politicians. We should expect better from someone running for reelection as governor.

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In the fight,

Val Benavidez
TFN President