Senator, 71, gets NSFW with sexually graphic reading during hearing on book bans
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
A relatively routine Senate Judiciary Committee hearing turned R-rated Tuesday — when Sen. John Kennedy read from a sexually graphic children’s book to drive home growing calls from parents to have age-appropriate literature in schools and libraries.
The 71-year-old Republican from Louisiana recited sections from LGBTQ young adult books, including “All Boys Aren’t Blue” and “Gender Queer,” and grilled witnesses who have pushed state legislation and initiatives to block parents from having a say in what their child can access.
“I put some lube on and got him on his knees. And I began to slide into him from behind,” Kennedy read from “All Boys Aren’t Blue,” a coming-of-age book for young adults with a queer black protagonist.
“He asked me to turn over while he slipped a condom on himself.”
The NSFW reading came during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing titled “Book Bans: Examining How Censorship Limits Liberty and Literature,” which discussed efforts to define what books should be publicly available.
“I want to try to understand what you’re asking us to do. Let’s take two books that have been much discussed,” Kennedy told Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias, who earlier this year backed a bill to withhold state funding from libraries that don’t follow American Library of Association guidelines.
The guidelines make no mention of sexually explicit content and say books “should not be proscribed or removed because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval.” The Illinois bill, which was signed into law by Gov. J.B. Pritzker in June, also does not address potentially lewd material.
With all due respect, Senator, the words you spoke are disturbing, especially coming out of your mouth, it’s very disturbing,” Giannoulias responded. “But I would also tell you that we’re not advocating for kids to read porn.
“We are advocating for parents, random parents, not to have the ability under the guise of keeping kids safe to try and challenge the worldview of every single manner on these issues,” Giannoulias said.
“When individual parents are allowed to make a decision of where that line is and ‘To Kill a Mockingbird,’ which involves a rape scene, should that book be pulled from our libraries? I think it becomes a slippery slope.”
Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) countered that witnesses were not “advocating for sexually explicit content to be available in an elementary school library or in [the] children’s section of the library.”
“That’s a distraction from the real challenge,” he said. “I understand and respect that parents may choose to limit what their children read, especially at younger ages. My wife and I did. Others do, too. But no parent should have the right to tell another parent’s child what they can and cannot read in school or at home. Every student deserves access to books that reflect their experiences and help them better understand who they are.”
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"With all due respect, Senator, the words you spoke are disturbing, especially coming out of your mouth, it’s very disturbing,” Giannoulias responded."
But Kids should have access to it, or you are worse than NAZIS!
It's really funny to the juxtaposition between people screaming about censorship or book banning because libraries aren't providing sexually explicit literature to kids, then attack or censor those who read the material they want kids to have. DeSantis did this during the manufactured book banning crisis, and the new orgs covering his press conference had to censor him or cut away form him reading from the "banned books". But for kids, it's fine!
yikes, he should know better than to read gay porn to southern conservative xtians...
Why, in your experience what happens next?....
I don't know who taught you geography, but Illinois is not "southern" and it's Secretary of State is not a conservative.
I can't speak to whether he's a Christian or not because I'm not obsessed by the topic.
...followed by an obtuse comment. so which is it?
Giannoulias if from Illinois!
an affinity for wearing a cowboy hat with a thin pony hub while listening to country western music.
Interesting... rather detailed. Is that opinion or personal experience?
I have family in texas.
Naw! Kolonel Kornpone Kennedy CAN'T READ!
No book should be banned or removed because one or two parents filed a complaint about it.
where does that happen?
Then you better also bitch about your own side. Who was it that got Huckleberry Fin banned? I'll give you a hint, it wasn't the people on the right.
And do you approve of minors having access to porn in a school library?
“…minors having access to porn in a school library?”
…any examples, just one, anywhere…
here's one, easy Google search
As you know, high schools are mostly populated by minors. From what I find in a Google search, there are only around 29 school districts in the country that have banned the book. As there are 13,187 school districts in the US, it's only been banned in .219 percent of all school districts.
So you are good with putting To Kill a Mockingbird and Huckleberry Fin back in it's original text.
No Democrat should be allowed to decide what anyone else's child learns or reads.
For most books, I might agree. For the one's listed in the article, there shouldn't even be a debate. Whoever approved them for the school should at the very least lose their job and possibly be prosecuted. Even if it were describing heterosexual sex, it is beyond unacceptable.