Censoring

MORE THAN ONE THOUSANDS BOOKS have been censored in the U.S. since last summer a seemingly and trully incredible total for a nation supposedly dedicated to free speech, an alarming indication of cultural drift twoards far right fascism, political and religious. The censors are Christian conservative parents and school board members. The victims are school children. Most of the banned books are children's fiction, written by seemingly progressive writers attempting to convey a message of acceptance of LGBTQ folks, and even more controversial messages, messages about LGBTQ folks being good people, worthy of basic human equality. This good Christian message of love is of course detested by the christian right, which considers "alternative" sexual orientations sick and sinful or both, something which must be corrected by eliminating them, by legislation if necessary. The religious devotion of far religious right seems to deepen and harden their political conservatism, which of course contradicts the basic Christian message, and becomes increasingly dangerous and harmful to society. To the conservative christian coalition, teaching children that LGBTQ people are fine just the way they are is heresy...blasphemy...they seem to prefer that everyone despise the LGBTQ community, as they do. Why else woul dany sane, sensible person want to pass laws making it a serious crime for doctors to asknowledge that transgender patients are transgender, except hatred? Ultimately, our Christian conservative communtiy must accept the reality that LGBTQ people exist in rather large numbers, that they are here to stay, and that they insist, with the full support of a large majority of society, upon nothing more or less than complete acceptance and equality. Capiche? Savvy? The sooner right wing America accepts reality, and stops trying to twist and turn by law our public education system to support their false, twisted reality...the better. Again, most Americans want acceptance and equality, not discrimination, marginalization, and persecution...for everyone. Gender affirming health care is a basic human right. Gay and transgender people exist, despite the best wishes of America's religious far right. Why not treat them like humans? The "Maral Majority" remains, as always, neither moral nor a majority, but its "Trumpification" in recent years is nonetheless, harmful and dangerous. The trumpification of America's religious right has been and continues to be a spectacle almost too horrible to contemplate, much less observe in the real world. But, as they say, it is what it is. Censorship of any sort is harmful and dangerous, aside from the fact that it never, ever works, especially in these United States of Anti-Authority. I am still grateful to the school board in the town where I went to high school for inspiring me, albeit unintentionally, to read the great American novel "The Catcher In the Rye",merely by baning it, and thus "piquing" my interest.