The funds for purchasing books and other material for Kennebunk High School (KHS) are limited by the budget. In addition, one can assume that materials presented to students are focused on reinforcing the RSU 21 mission statement of building knowledge and character. Therefore, KHS has to make decisions about which books to include or purchase and which books not to purchase that conform to these two guiding factors.
Purchasing books and other materials requires good judgment and discernment. When books or materials are promoted at KHS that do not meet the high standard of discernment and good judgment for its inclusion in the public school it is appropriate for parents and community members to speak up.
“Genderqueer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe,” a book that KHS makes available to students reflects very poor judgment by KHS and does not live up to the RSU 21 mission statement. Its inclusion as a resource at KHS represents the school’s affirmation of unhealthy messages and misinformation embodied in transgender ideology. “Genderqueer” is written in a comic book format. It describes the author’s tortured developmental journey from childhood, through adolescence to young adulthood as she comes to terms with her gender identity as neither a boy or girl and her sexuality as asexual. The book includes comic book illustrations of two adolescents engaging in oral sex, a naked man and boy, both sexually aroused, which she writes accompanies her masturbation fantasy, and illustrations of bloody thighs, underwear, pants and toilet that accompany her discussing unwelcome menstruation, and graphic sexting text. The author also supports puberty blockers for children which is not recommended by numerous medical associations.
Most of the help and support the author seeks for understanding her confusion is from peers. She writes that she found articles on “transgender magic in my mom’s pagan magazines.” Despite obvious indications of psychological and social stressors and parental neglect impacting her life that call for therapeutic intervention, no one, including the author, recommends professional counseling as a resource.
Instead, the author gets information in a book recommended by a “long distance friend” that states identity confusion is based on biology and as a result she concludes that she was born as genderqueer. In an afterword to the book written in 2021, the author (30 years old) states that she is living with her parents, planning to have her breasts removed and seemingly preoccupied with gender queerness because she writes “Let’s keep talking about gender and queerness for the rest of our lives.”
Maia Kobabe’s memoir may be her personal experience, but this book does not provide healthy guidance for adolescents dealing with an identity crisis. It oversimplifies and ignores causes for adolescent sexual confusion. It promotes the canceling of immutable aspects of a person’s biological identity. It normalizes the idea that a girl or young woman rejecting her female body is a healthy adaptation to her feelings of not being normal. It highlights inappropriate depictions of sex that serve no proper educational purpose.
Unfortunately, “Genderqueer” reflects the transgender and gender expansive policies of RSU 21 that affirm and support the transgender and gender expansive ideology to the detriment of all students. You are encouraged to contact KHS and the RSU 21 superintendent to express your concerns over the book and the transgender policy. Further information about transgender identity can be found at biologicalintegrity.org.
Tom Moyer is a Kennebunk resident. He can be reached at trmoyerphd@roadrunner.com.
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