U.S. Dept. of Education rolling out deceitful plan to shut down removal of obscene books from schools

Federal bureaucrats claim they must “protect LGBTQI+ students.”

But conservatives can stop this if they have the will.

By Amy Contrada
MassResistance Research Director
July 3, 2023

NOTE: An earlier version of this article appeared in American Thinker.

Texas MassResistance leader Tracy Shannon confronts her local school committee over a particularly obscene LGBT sex book in the school library. The book was completely removed soon afterwards.

The high-level LGBT activists in the Biden administration have devised a deceitful scheme to shut down citizen efforts to remove pornographic or obscene books in the public schools. Many (if not most) of such books contain homosexual and transgender themes.

The Department of Education’s (DOE) Office of Civil Rights (OCR) is now monitoring book challenges across the country for “discriminatory” actions, specifically related to books with any so-called “LGBTQI+” content. In the name of “anti-discrimination,” they have begun to threaten school districts with legal action and loss of federal funds. As described below, the DOE will then demand that the districts include such pornography in their schools.

It’s every (normal) parent’s nightmare. But it’s all built on fraud. School districts and parents can and must fight back.

Unraveling the federal government’s threats

Here’s the problem with their plan: There is no federal law banning discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, transgender identity, queer identity, intersex identity, plus identity, etc. So, there is no solid basis for the DOE’s intervention in what should, in any case, be a local issue.

Recall that the Democrats were never able to pass their federal “Equality Act” which would have protected “sexual orientation,” “gender identity,” and “LGBTQ” identities (all left undefined) from discrimination. So, illegitimate decrees via executive order, bureaucratic memos, and agency regulations are used to stand in for law under the Democrat regime. Will they get away with this legal sleight-of-hand?

Existing discrimination law clearly does not “protect LGBTQI+ rights.” So the Democrats somehow needed to reinterpret these laws, which employ the word “sex”:

• Civil Rights Act of 1964 which includes
  (a) Title VI regarding federal funding, and
  (b) Title VII regarding employment

• Title IX (1972) regarding sex discrimination in education

Controversial Supreme Court rulings helped move “rights” thinking leftward: Lawrence v. Texas (2003) okayed sodomy. Obergefell (2015) blessed “same-sex marriage.” Bostock (2020) inserted undefined terms “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” into employment law (Title VII). That was a big step. The final radical push was the “Respect for Marriage Act” (December 2022) which enshrined same-sex “marriage” in federal law.

But those were still not enough to justify intervention in schools. Something more was needed.

At the time of the Bostock ruling, commentators predicted that its new expanded definition of “sex” in employment law would be fraudulently applied in any case dealing with discrimination on the basis of “sex” (not just related to employment). And that’s what happened.

Creating Executive Orders and bureaucratic regulations to confront Americans

The Biden Administration has attempted to bypass Congress with a series of executive maneuvers which would likely fail serious legal court challenges.

In January 2021, just hours after being sworn in, Biden issued a far-reaching Executive Order. Anywhere existing statutes or regulations prohibit “sex discrimination,” the E.O. instructed all federal agencies to revise those to include “gender identity and sexual orientation.”

Implementing this order in March 2021 the Dept. of Justice (DOJ) Civil Rights Division posted a memo declaring that Bostock’s redefinition of “sex” applies not just to Title VII (employment), but also to Title IX (education). So by fiat, the clear meaning of “sex” in Title IX (re: education equity) was changed to include prohibiting discrimination based on “gender identity and sexual orientation.”

A few months later in June 2021, the DOE Office of Civil Rights instructed schools to follow this new “interpretation” of “sex”: “Title IX prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.” This bureaucratic regulation is what opened the door to protecting males in girls’ sports and restrooms. (The only good news on this is that Attorneys General in 20 states have challenged this interpretation in a pending case.) It would also become the tool for regulating school book challenges.

Going after schools in Texas and Georgia – and the districts shamefully cave in

In 2022, the DOE began trial runs on shutting down book challenges in schools using their more inclusive definition of “sex.” In December, it began an investigation of the Gransbury, Texas school district which had removed sexually explicit or vulgar books from its schools. Of eight removed, only two had “LGBTQ themes.” But that was enough to call in the feds!

The DOE was also then investigating “allegations of discrimination” in the Carroll district in Texas. Staff members there were forced to retrain “in how to handle bullying complaints, to ensure students from all backgrounds feel safe at school.” (The call for “safety” at school for “gay and lesbian students” was the brilliant ploy that got the original LGBT indoctrination group GLSEN into schools nationwide.)

In April 2023, the DOE issued a detailed roadmap for compliance for the Forsyth County, Georgia school district after sexually explicit books were removed. A May 19, 2023 memo from the DOE Office of Civil Rights explains their authority to act is found in Title VI and Title IX because of their new interpretation of “sex” that includes (still undefined) “LGBTQI+.”

Even though the DOE determined no “laws” (actually, bureaucratic regulations using the new interpretation of “sex”) were broken by the Forsyth County school district, the district completely caved in and signed an absurd agreement admitting that a “sexually hostile environment had been created.” To “fix” this, the agreement requires the district to jump through multiple hoops devised by DOE bureaucrats. If the district doesn’t fully comply, they will lose Title VI federal funding and legal fees if DOJ initiates “judicial proceedings to enforce the specific terms.”

Expanding their phony harassment nationwide

This is pure harassment by bureaucrats. Expect more, because the DOE now has a newly appointed coordinator to monitor book challenges nationwide.

This is the same fear tactic that the ACLU uses across the country. They make a scary-sounding legal threat that’s not really backed by anything solid and may very well lose in court. In this case, schools will comply because they fear losing federal funding and don’t want to fight a DOJ lawsuit.

It is not surprising that Biden would use “Pride” month to announce this coordinated assault on us “cruel” citizens. The White House’s June 8 memo and summary tweet label reasonable challenges “attacks on rights and safety”:

Since many challenged books with an LGBT focus also have explicit sexual content, it appears the DOE is intentionally creating a loophole for protecting obscenity in school libraries and classrooms. Furthermore, no school district can now remove books indoctrinating young children in “gender” ideology, or normalizing homosexuality and “gay marriage,” without triggering a DOE investigation.

There should be many ways for our side to win these cases. But in fact, school boards are predominately either run by cowards or by liberals who are looking for any excuse to push these books on children.

Final thoughts

School districts that remove such books are not “breaking the law” because there is no federal law granting any special LGBT “rights” or protection from “discrimination.” There are only pronouncements of new “interpretations” of the word “sex.”

How did we get to this point? By allowing “LGBT rights” claims and reinterpretation of the word “sex” in anti-discrimination laws by courts and bureaucrats.

We can stop this train by being proactive:

• Expose the fraudulent “legal” basis for this harassment.
• If you live in a reasonable state, encourage your Attorney General to join lawsuits vs. the DOE (as in this lawsuit).
• Encourage school districts to challenge the DOE, even if it means they forgo federal funding.

This situation is just one example demonstrating that so-called “LGBT anti-discrimination” legislation is always meant to force that agenda unwillingly on citizens. Thus, people should also:

• Fight attempts to enact new LGBT anti-discrimination laws (or local ordinances) in locales that don’t yet have them.
• Begin efforts to overturn existing LGBT anti-discrimination laws and local ordinances.

This is a winnable battle. Good people must not be afraid to engage!

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Amy Contrada has been with MassResistance.org since its founding in 2004. She is the author of CORRUPT BARGAINS: How Gay Marriage Began in Massachusetts (2023); The Health Hazards of Homosexuality (2017); and Passing the Trash (2020). She is currently testing Elon’s commitment to free speech @AmyContrada.