Supervisor Lawson-Remer: “Right-wing, conservative extremists and politicians are trying to suppress certain viewpoints and limit access to information, but we’re not going to let that happen in San Diego County.”

Last week, the County Board of Supervisors voted to have all 33 county libraries carry nationally recognized “challenged and banned” books, and to have them on display at those libraries during Banned Book Week, which begins September 22. Today, Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer, who proposed the policy, gave the media a sneak peak at the five books chosen for most prominent display, and also issued the following statement, explaining the selections.

“Recently, we saw Florida libraries try to ban Maia Kobabe’s graphic novel memoir Gender Queer, because of its depictions of explicit sexuality. But that book’s brief mention of strap-ons is kids’ stuff. We’ve chosen to feature Guido Crepax’s lovingly illustrated version of Justine by the Marquis de Sade. It’s the account of how a sweet young girl — the book puts her at 12 — is raped and tortured for years on end by all manner of people who encounter her. The book was so banned that Napoleon ordered its author imprisoned, and the French government sought to destroy all copies of it. Yet the English novelist Angela Carter called Sade a proto-feminist author. He was, after all, a champion of sexual freedom, and of severing the connection between female sexuality and child-bearing. Clearly, here is a banned book worth reading — and seeing!

“Next, we have The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, supposedly the most influential anti-Semitic book ever published. It’s generally accepted that its blueprint for Jewish world domination is a forgery, propaganda published by Imperialist Russia to stir up anti-Jewish sentiment and to justify various atrocities. But consider: it first appeared after a Russian Zionist congress held in 1902. If there’s anything that the recent pro-Palestinian uprising has taught us, it’s that Zionists are not to be trusted. Every day, we hear pro-Palestinians accuse them of telling the most outlandish lies about themselves. It got to the point where Zionists could not be allowed to move freely about the campuses of major American universities, for fear of the harm they might do. With all the accusations and distortions flying back and forth, shouldn’t students be allowed to read this book and decide for themselves?

“Ryan Anderson’s When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment was so controversial that Amazon de-listed it soon after its publication in 2018, stating that it would not “sell books that frame LGBTQ+ identity as a mental illness.” That was a totally reasonable decision. Here in California, we don’t even tell parents if their kids change their pronouns at school! And yet, how can we defeat our enemies if we don’t know their thinking and strategy? Anti-trans forces are hard at work in this country, seeking to destroy what they hate and cannot understand. This book could be a valuable tool in the coming fight.

“A similar argument might be made for our next book, The Turner Diaries. Believe it or not, there is a chance that Donald Trump, the notorious white supremacist who said that there were ‘fine people on both sides’ of the Charlottesville March that left a right-thinking American dead, might be elected president this November. And who can forget the horrifying attempt to overthrow the United States government on January 6 of 2021? Well guess what? This 1978 novel about the ‘dream of a white world order’ all but predicted it! Odds are, if you hear about some right-wing militia doing something terrible, at least one member has read this book. And worst of all, the Organization it depicts is based right here in Southern California! The dangers are real, and there is no point in telling our kids otherwise. They need to read this book and recoil in horror at its pale vision.

“Finally, we have former Old Dominion professor Allyn Walker’s A Long, Dark Shadow: Minor-Attracted People and Their Pursuit of Dignity. How’s this for banning? After Walker published their book, the school forced them to resign. Just because they wanted so-called ‘pedophiles’ to be re-termed ‘minor-attracted people.’ Kids need to understand the hurtful ways that outliers can be stigmatized; this book can help with that. In my view, banning books threatens our fundamental freedoms and undermines the core principle of intellectual freedom. Displaying these titles is striking a blow for American democracy.”