Iowa school board candidate proposes outing kids who check out books on LGBTQ topics (the manic season of midterm elections is already upon us)

Vin Thaker wants to out kids who check out books on LGBTQ topics.

A proposal by an Iowa school board candidate signals just out of hand the upcoming 2022 midterms may become. 

According to LGBTQNation:

A conservative Republican running for the school board in Waukee, Iowa has a radical plan for fighting diversity and education. Vin Thaker, part of a conservative slate trying to take over the board, wants to out children who check out books on LGBTQ topics. He also wants the person who ordered the book to stand trial in front of the board. Thaker posted his proposition on Facebook in response to another user about books on LGBTQ topics available in the district’s school libraries.

 The online publication Jezebel adds more details: 

 The latest frontier of the conservative culture wars is the local school board, where low turnout elections are meeting deranged conservative beliefs. In Iowa, the Waukee school district removed three queer books for teens from its library system last month. The books — “All Boys Aren’t Blue,” “Lawn Boy” and “Gender Queer” — were taken out of the Northwest High School Library after a community member (not parent) read some spicy (you could say explicit) scenes from the books at an Oct. 25 meeting of the Waukee Community School District School. 

 But where the book banning really caught fire was when school board candidate Vin Thaker posted about the pro-LGBTQ book borrowers on Facebook last week. Thaker wants to know the name of every kid who checked out one of the pro-LGBTQ books. Shocking! And scary! I was reading all kinds of shit I didn’t want my parents to know about when I was in high school. (Thaker’s comment was highlighted by an Iowa Democratic group trying to elect Democrats to the school board.) This move incensed Thaker because the screenshot only disclosed that he wants do whatever the school board equivalent is to a subpoena to children’s library records. What Thaker actually wants to do is get all the students’ names, notify their parents, and then make “the person who ordered these titles” defend their choices. 

Such off-the-wall cruelty would usually get LGBTQ people and our allies shaking our heads in disgust and humor. But during this season, I think we should dispense with the humor and turn on the anger and concern.

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