The Nebraska Republican Party has come under fire after its official Twitter account shared sexually explicit comic book-style depictions of young people performing sex acts for than 10 hours on Friday.
The tweeted images came from the graphic novel “Gender Queer,” which had been condemned by a small number of parents in Iowa and Texas after is was found in high school libraries.
State Republican Chairman Eric Underwood, who at this summer’s party convention helped lead the ouster of the party’s longtime leadership team and its replacement by extremely conservative members.
Underwood texted a TV reporter about 3:00 defending one of the tweets, but shortly after they were taken down about 5 hours later he told the Nebraska Examiner neither he nor party leadership had authorized the posts on the party’s Twitter account and that they were removed as soon as he found out about it.
Underwood also told the Examiner that “The person responsible for the tweet, the outgoing communication director, has been removed from the account and is no longer responsible for any Nebraska GOP communication.”
Attorneys contacted by the Nebraska Examiner differed on whether the Republican Party Tweets violated state laws prohibiting publishing, creating or providing images showing minors having sex, since the images were only drawings.
OK, I have to respond to this article, the headline is very misleading. First of all it makes the NEGOP look like trash! We just returned from Hasting NE attending a SCC meeting. It was revealed to us that the Communications director had posted on Twitter some material that is in your local schools siting a book called Gender Queer, This man was promptly fired as the Chair of our NEGOP or any one else knew he was loading this material. Our SCC members took care of the important business of the NEGOP. It was a wholesome well attended meeting. The left are pushing this matter hard, they know how to do these things. In a way it is good because it brings to the fore front the materials that the State School Board has been promoting in our schools.
Can someone help me understand why conservatives are *still* trying to ban books? I thought conservatives were generally opposed to censorship. Removing a book from a library was an effective form of censorship 100 years ago. Here’s why it’s not very effective in 2022:
1. Banning a book draws more attention to the book. Maia Kobabe’s “Gender Queer” is one of the most challenged books in the US. If you google “banned books” you will find “Gender Queer”. People are naturally curious about banned books. More people will read the book.
2. Raising a stink about a book draws yet more attention to the book. The NEGOP wasn’t the first to raise the alarms over “Gender Queer”. A bit of googling will turn up *countless* headlines regarding attempts to ban this book. Headlines spread through social media. More people will learn about the book. More people will read the book.
3. Even if you somehow manage to remove a book from a library, people will still find a way to read that book. “Gender Queer” only costs $12.99 on Amazon. If you’re clever, you can probably find a digital copy online for free. Banning a book just doesn’t have the same impact today as it did in the past.
So why even attempt to ban a book in the first place? My guess is that the conservative types care more about the headlines and social media buzz than they care about the book (or the kids for that matter). Virtue signalling wins votes.
I would love to get into the silliness of banning young adult fiction for sexually explicit content, or the harmful idea that we should prevent our kids from growing up as anything but cisgendered heterosexuals, but that is a story for another day.
Perverse imagery of any kind, queer or straight, should not be made available to individuals below 18 years of age. It’s common sense.