When I was a kid I was encouraged to investigate the library as thoroughly as I wanted. No books were off limits. And I can't imagine my parents trying to prevent me from reading anything I found and checked out with my very cherished library card. If I had shown up at home with the Anarchist Cookbook or some such book it might have made for interesting/uncomfortable dinner conversation but I don't think my parents would've ever tried to say "no, you can't/shouldn't read that..." They would have likely read it themselves in order to arm themselves with arguments about why certain suggestions/ideas made in the book were not a good idea for me to implement/act on.
Thinking about florida's 'don't say gay' bill and efforts to prevent teens from having easy access to LGBTQ books all I can say is that I didn't turn out to be a gay man because I read books about being a gay person. I read books about gay people because I had figured out that I was a gay person and was looking for validation that people like I knew myself to be existed. Denying kids that opportunity is about as cruel as cruel can be.




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