Republicans are going after books just in time for the 2024 presidential election, because of course they are. Conservatives are trying to see what issue gets their constituents the most riled up and have (unfortunately) seen some considerable movement with their anti-trans and anti-queer bills across the country. As Daily Kos continues to cover, we’re seeing anti-trans sports bills and health care bills be signed into law (or come dangerously close) and some families are already trying to relocate so their trans and nonbinary youth can have the best possible quality of life and resources. But not everyone can afford or access that kind of change, and frankly, no one should have to.
Book ban efforts are absolutely hand in hand with other anti-queer legislations, even if they appear a little different on the surface. Conservatives have been decrying books by and about LGBTQ+ folks and people of color with a fresh gusto, including via groups like Moms for Liberty and local school councils and elections. Some governors, like Republican Ron DeSantis of Florida, have made it extremely clear they’re happy to get these allegedly “inappropriate” and “obscene” books out of public school classrooms and libraries, but the reality is there’s nothing inappropriate or innately sexual about simply being queer.
Speaking of Florida, we have a fresh insight into how book bans are going in what DeSantis is trying to turn into a state of hate. As reported by LGBTQ Nation, Vickie Bagget—a high school English teacher who has taught for several decades—has submitted 148 out of 150 book challenges being reviewed by the school district this year alone. And former students are alleging Bagget has made racist and anti-queer statements in the past, even prior to book ban discourse taking hold of the nation.
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Bagget, who teaches at Northview High School in Escambia County, has recently succeeded in getting three books banned from the school system, including All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson, When Aidan Became a Brother by Kyle Lukoff, and Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell, which is literally a children’s picture book about same-sex penguins who adopt a chick. According to LGBTQ Nation, many of the books she’s pushed forward to pull from schools are by and about LGBTQ+ folks and Black authors, specifically.
As reported by local outlet North Escambia, Baggett emailed what amounted to a 14-page list of books she wants pulled from the public school libraries to school district officials last September. She claims these books violate Florida’s obscenity laws.
Baggett spoke to Judd Legum, who runs the independent newsletter Poplar Information, in an interview where she discussed, among other things, her stance that the books she’s challenging are in violation of the “Stop Woke Act” or the Don’t Say Gay law, both of which are brainchildren of DeSantis.
Baggett told Legum her concerns about the same-sex penguin adoption book include putting the idea into a child’s mind that “these are two people of the same sex that love each other.”
Now, in terms of the student allegations against her… It’s definitely concerning, to say the least. Former students spoke to Legum about their alleged experiences in her classroom. Peggy Sunday alleged that Baggett told their 10th-grade English class that the Bible says it’s a “sin for races together” and that “whites are meant to be with whites” and “Blacks are meant to be with Blacks.”
Stone Pressley, another student, said she recalls Baggett saying she is against “race mixing” because she doesn’t want “everyone to turn the same color.”
A student also alleged Baggett told them their sister was “faking being a lesbian for attention.” A student who remained anonymous alleged that Baggett told her she was gay because she hadn’t found the “right man.”
According to Legum, an email from 2019 shows a concerned parent trying to reach school principal Michael Sherrill in reference to an allegedly “toxic and hostile learning environment.” The parent said Baggett relayed her “distaste for homosexuals” to her students.
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