Teachers union pres claims she was 'attacked' by Libs of TikTok over plans to keep porn in schools

The President of the second largest teachers’ union in the US wants pornographic books such as Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe to be available on school library shelves.

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) shared on her Twitter account a recent Washington Post op-ed that compares parental rights groups campaigning to have pornographic material removed from school library shelves to the Puritans of the 16th and 17th centuries.

Weingarten quoted from the article in her tweet, saying that the “vast majority of parents want their kids’ schools to be open and welcoming settings for education, not battlefields in culture wars designed primarily to goose conservative turnout at election time.” The photograph accompanying the piece shows a person reading Maia Kobabe’s controversial pornographic novel Gender Queer. 

Libs of TikTok shared photographs of the explicit sexual content to be found on the shelves of many high schools and even some middle schools in the U.S. and Canada. 

Weingarten later commented to say that this was an attack of “baseless claims not worth repeating” but also stated that “being attacked by the notorious homophobic operator is a badge of honor.” 

The Libs of TikTok account is supported by many members of the gay and lesbian community who are opposed to children being exposed to sexual content and gender identity ideology at school.

Weingarten chose the examples of the Diary of Anne Frank and the work of American civil rights activist Ruby Bridges to demonstrate her opposition to book banning in general but failed to comment on whether or not she supports books like Gender Queer being available to students.

Maia Kobabe is a non-binary queer author with e/em/eir pronouns, and the book Gender Queer contains graphic illustrations and descriptions of sexual acts. Many supporters of the book argue that adolescents have access to pornography on their cellphones, so why should schools not provide it as well? Opponents suggest that what young people need is less porn, not more and that the aim should be to restrict their access as much as possible.