FIRST DAILY SIGNAL — Public schools in a Northern Virginia County have quietly removed a pro-LGBTQ book after parents criticized it for sexually explicit images, The Daily Signal has learned.

Fairfax County Public Schools in suburban Washington, DC, confirmed in emails to parent Stacy Langton that county school libraries have removed the book “Queer: A Graphic History,” by Meg-John Barker.

“I’m surprised they did this quietly, without notifying me, the public, or the LGBTQ community,” Langton, 55, a mother of two from Fairfax High School, said The Daily Signal in a statement on Wednesday. “I guess because it became such a politically charged issue, they didn’t want to give me what looks like a victory — especially just days before the presidential election!”

She suggested the news could have an impact on the election, where former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, is trailing Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris by 5.8 points. RealClearPolitics Media.

Virginia has become ground zero for the debate over parental rights in education during the 2021 gubernatorial election in the Old Dominion. Republican Glenn Youngkin prevailed over Democratic candidate former Gov. Terry McAuliffe after McAuliffe said“I’m not going to let parents go into schools and take out books and make their own decisions,” adding: “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what to teach.”

“Virginia is on the line for President Trump,” Langton told The Daily Signal. “We parents have endured three years of indoctrinating our children in schools. The only person who will stop queer theory and gender ideology is Donald Trump, and the anger of Virginia parents will help him win here on November 5, just like Glenn Youngkin won in 2021.”

The LGBTQ book was removed

Langton has repeatedly condemned “Queer: A Graphic History” as sexually explicit in remarks at School Board meetings. She criticized the book for including a graphic illustration of the sexual practice known as “pegging”, which reverses traditional male and female sex roles.

She also faulted Maia Kobabe’s “Gender Queer: A Memoir” for including similar sexual illustrations (including a fantasy of intercourse between an older man and a teenager).

Langton had filmed a video testimony for an Oct. 24 School Board meeting mentioning “Queer: A Graphic History,” but the school district refused to include her video in the meeting. (Langton ended up testifying in person anyway, but the school district’s refusal revealed the removal of the book.)

Christina Setlow, Clerk of Fairfax County School Boardemailed Langton that afternoon, citing “indecent and profane content” in her remarks. She clarified that the content refers to “Queer: A Graphic History” and added that the book “is not part of the (Fairfax County Public Schools) curriculum at any grade level and is not maintained in any FCPS library.”

Langton found the book’s absence from the libraries curious. She shared with The Daily Signal photos she took at Fairfax High School in late April 2023, where “Queer: A Graphic History” appeared in a display encouraging students to “try an LGBT book!”

Langton suggested that FCPS avoided the usual process by which parents and others can challenge books in public school libraries. Noël Klimenko, assistant superintendent of the school district’s Department of Instructional Services, confirmed that the libraries followed a separate process, removing “Queer: A Graphic History” either at the end of the 2022-2023 school year or at the end of the 2023-2024 school year .

Klimenko added a longer explanation in a follow-up email. She claimed the book had never faced a challenge, but said: “The librarians made the decision to remove ‘Queer: A Graphic History’ from their collections due to outdated terminology that is no longer used in the LGBTQ+ community.”

“They determined that there were other books in their collections that provided accurate and up-to-date information on LGBTQ+ history that were superior sources of information on the subject,” she added.

“The illustrations in this book are no different from those illustrations in “Gender Queer,” Langton told The Daily Signal. “They explicitly show X-rated and deviant sex acts. All books with this type of pornographic material MUST be removed from our schools. They violate federal obscenity laws.”

Fairfax County Public Schools gender ideology approved lessons in June, supporting a PBS video that tells kids that “there are trans people or people who don’t have gender.”

The “Gender Queer” Controversy.

Fairfax County Public Schools previously removed “Gender Queer” and “Lawn Boy,” a novel by Jonathan Evison, after facing an official challenge. “Lawn Boy” includes long sections of a boy reminiscing about sexual experiences he had at age 10.

In November 2021, the school district announced that he restored the books to the libraries after two committees had revised them. A committee found that “Lawn Boy” includes themes that “are affirming for students” with marginalized identities. “There is no pedophilia in the book,” the committee added. The other committee found that “Gender Queer” describes “difficulties that nonbinary and asexual people may experience.” The committee concluded that “the book neither describes nor depicts pedophilia”.

An FCPS spokesperson said Fox News in 2022, the committee ruled that “the books did not depict pedophilia, nor did they contain pornography.”

Langton told The Daily Signal that he plans to file a new challenge for “Gender Queer” once the deadline for the previous challenge expires.

The school district did not respond to The Daily Signal’s request for comment in response to Langton’s claims.