A school district in northeast Florida must put back in libraries three dozen books as part of a settlement reached Thursday with students and parents who sued over what they said was an unlawful decision to limit access to dozens of titles containing LGBTQ+ content.

Under the agreement the School Board of Nassau County must restore access to three dozen titles including “And Tango Makes Three,” a children’s picture book based on a true story about two male penguins that raised a chick together at New York’s Central Park Zoo. Authors Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson were plaintiffs in the lawsuit against the district, which is about 35 miles (about 60 kilometers) northeast of Jacksonville along the Georgia border.

The suit was one of several challenges to book bans since state lawmakers last year passed, and Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law, legislation making it easier to challenge educational materials that opponents consider pornographic and obscene. Last month six major publishers and several well-known authors filed a federal lawsuit in Orlando arguing that some provisions of the law violate the First Amendment rights of publishers, authors and students.

    • lazynooblet@lazysoci.al
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      2 months ago

      And also, how has the US got itself into a position where LGBTQ+ needs to be suppressed? Gay or not, why should these homophobic politicians get to decide what the children can be exposed to without involving the parents in the decision.

        • JusticeForPorygon@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          Seriously tho I had a teacher in high school who straight up said he’d date men if it wasn’t against his religion. Guess who he voted for

      • octopus_ink@lemmy.ml
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        2 months ago

        And also, how has the US got itself into a position where LGBTQ+ needs to be suppressed?

        By folks voting for and supporting Republicans. This is the simple, undeniable answer.

      • irotsoma@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Because we have such a large number of people convinced that love is “obscene” and that love and sex are for procreation only and shouldn’t be talked about except to congratulate people who are making babies. But mostly because the people pushing those ideas are people have never truly loved anyone other than themselves and/or want to rape without consequence.

        • Jojo, Lady of the West@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          2 months ago

          “Love” is fine, but it can’t be gay without sex being involved, so two dads == obscene. Clearly there’s no sex involved in heterosexual relationships in children’s books, but there must be in those LGBTQ+ books. Why else would they be banned?

          -Florida lawmakers, probably