Join me in being angry
I have been telling y’all about H.R. 7661 for a while now, and today I need to ask you for a favor.
If you’re new to the newsletter or have been skimming emails lately (no judgement, we’re all struggling rn) here’s the very brief download: H.R. 7661, the nationwide book banning bill, is going to the House. If enacted, it would cut off funding from public schools libraries that didn’t comply with its directive to remove all “sexually oriented” materials, including books that discuss health, the human body, and sexy dancing (not a joke), but NOT “classical literature” that old white guys love. The ban also covers any materials that mention “transgenderism” or gender dysphoria. You can read the text of the bill here. Currently it has 22 co-sponsors, all Republican, all of them up for reelection soon. If one of these losers is your rep, you can post these handy AABB graphics warning voters about their loser tendencies.
Back to the bill. If the House votes to approve it, the bill will go to the Senate, and if that happens, things will get very bad very quickly for school libraries, students, and authors, especially anyone in that environment who is trans. A lot of queer children’s and YA authors have already started to feel a downswing in interest from traditional publishing in the last few years because book bans = fewer sales to libraries = less chance to get a publisher to invest in you. I don’t need to tell you that trans authors are even more vulnerable to this sort of chilling effect.
The House vote may happen in the next few weeks.
Before they vote, can you please contact your representative and tell them this bill stinks? If you’re not a USian, consider forwarding this newsletter to any friends who are. VERY few people outside of the publishing industry know about this bill. Book bans have been escalating for so long that they no longer seem to grab headlines, and trans people know the media in general and certain outlets specifically have been turning trans people and their rights into questions of debate for the last ten years. Let me be clear: bills like this are trying to shut down trans voices and label anything relating to gender nonconformity as a sex crime. Fuck that. Fuck them. I want to see this bill stopped in its tracks so hard, and its co-sponsors so embarrassingly defeated, that no one tries this shit ever again.
Subscribe nowI’ve collected several ways for you to get in touch with your rep to make an impact. Even just 10 people in a district making noise about a single issue makes a rep take notice, so please consider doing as many of these things as possible in the next few weeks.
Call: probably the most impact happens on the phone lines. You can use this tool from EveryLibrary or this one from 5Calls.org to find your rep and call them with the provided script. If you’re leaving a message, make sure to include your address and zip code so your call is counted.
Mail: courtesy of Authors Against Book Bans national leader Colleen AF Venable, you can download and print a postcard to send to your representative. Remember a postcard stamp is cheaper than a regular one! And dealing with mail means physical evidence in your rep’s office that someone cares. If you don’t have the means to print your own postcard or use a Staples-esque printing service, this website will print and mail a postcard opposing the bill on your behalf for a fee.
Email: the easiest thing to do! Perhaps something you could do in addition to the above? Resist Bot makes it very easy. You can also copy/paste any of the included scripts from there or the call tools and put that directly into your rep’s Contact Me form. They should have one at their official website. Find yours here.
Talk: post about this. Tell friends about this. There aren’t a lot of things in this life that are straight-up black-and-white evil, but this bill is one of them. They’ve got some real nerve calling it the “Stop the Sexualization of Children Act” with the leadership they’ve got. I want everyone in the world to be even half as angry about this as I am. If you encounter people who whine about how this isn’t a “real” ban, and that these books can still be found elsewhere, you have my permission to call that person an unserious clown who cannot use their brain to figure out things like meaning and motive or cause and effect. “Do you get scared during games of peekaboo, too?” you might ask this person, and with real concern.
If you can commit to doing at least ONE of these things, I will send you a fanart card from A Gentleman’s Gentleman (pictured here) using my own damn stamps and envelopes. If you want a treat, just let me know.
Thank you for reading if you’ve gotten this far. I know this issue is a huge bummer, and I hate it too, but I want people to keep writing and reading trans books. I want kids to have a chance to grow up knowing trans people exist. I want revenge, but I’ll settle for your help in being an annoyance.
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