School boards in Texas have been making the news over the past year for all the wrong reasons. Now, the Katy Independent School District is taking center stage for halting all access to books before the school year begins. This means all new books must be reviewed and reassessed before children can read them. According to the Houston Chronicle, incoming book orders will be placed into storage until the board ensures they contain no explicit sexual content. The complete waste of time and taxpayer money reportedly began when “newly elected trustee Morgan Calhoun said she’s seen books in elementary schools that ‘support sexually alternative lifestyles.'”
Calhoun was one of three new board members elected with backing from the conservative PAC called “Texans for Educational Freedom.” The stay-at-home mom turned board member said another parent recently approached her with concerns about a book at the school libraries. So what dangerous and bawdy book would be so bad as to deprive children of already purchased reading material? Itty-Bitty Kitty-Corn by Shannon Hale, an adorable tale about a fluffy pink kitten that wants to be a unicorn.
Leave Kitty-Corn out of your puritanical purge
Some parents (like me) are baffled as to why this book would raise any eyebrows. It’s a pretty basic book for young school-age kids. A little pink kitty wants to be a unicorn, because let’s face it, unicorns are amazing. She practices being a unicorn even though other animals tell her she’s never going to achieve her dream. The kitty meets an actual unicorn, who admires the kitty for going after what she wants. The two become friends and embrace being kitty-corns (unicorn horns and soft pink kitty ears). When I read it to my child (who loves the book), I thought it was all about marching to your own drum and just loving who you are.
According to Calhoun, there was a secret, sinister message that I missed when I was distracted by the cute illustrations. Apparently, Calhoun thinks it’s all an attempt to turn kids transgender. Responding to a parent on social media asking for her reasoning, Calhoun said, “[T]he main character does want to transform into something they are obviously not.” Okay, if you go with that logic, almost every story should be banned. Sorry, Pinocchio! You must stay a wooden puppet instead of becoming a real boy.
She continued with “[T]he book also use[sic] pronoun terminology in reference to ‘they’ instead of ‘he or she’, while talking about a single character.”
In a glorious takedown thread on Twitter, Katy ISD mom Anne Russey came with receipts. The thread contains screenshots of Calhoun’s argument and spells out exactly why Calhoun is way out of line. Not only is her transgender reading the stuff of a hardcore conspiracy theorist, but Calhoun’s reference to using “they” for a single character was incorrect. If you actually read the book, the “they” referred to are two characters (hence the plural) who had been naysaying the kitty.
On the surface, this entire thing may appear silly. Seriously, folks? A children’s book won’t “turn” anyone gay, transgender, or anything else the right-wing fears. It’s 2023; we know this is a fact, and yes, Calhoun sexualizing this particular book is laughable. However, the entire debacle is upsetting.
It’s like the Red Scare of the 1940s and 1950s all over again. Any perceived slight by conservatives will be cause for removal. If they can make up a reason to ban it, it’s gone. Maybe the people doing this won’t feel the negative effects of it, but their kids eventually will. Kitty-Corn’s only message is to love yourself for who are—a message we should want our kids to learn.
(featured image: demaerre/Getty Images)
