RON: IT’S CHAPTER & WORSE
School library ‘porn’
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis began a press conference on Wednesday by playing a shocking video showing sexually explicit content from books found in the Sunshine State’s public schools — forcing at least one local news channel to cut away due to the graphic material.
The books featured in the fiveminute-long video included depictions of minors en- gaging in interactions so graphic that Twitter briefly slapped a “sensitive content” label on clips making the rounds on the platform.
Tampa NBC affiliate WFLA-TV also dropped its live feed of the press conference, with reporter Mahsa Saeidi ex- plaining on Twitter: “I don’t show sexually explicit content.”
DeSantis held the news conference — which he dubbed “Exposing the Book Ban Hoax” — to highlight tomes that the Republican governor says violate Florida’s curriculum standards, as well as to counter claims that his restrictions were unjustified.
“Why would we have that in a media center with 10-year-old students?” he asked. “It’s just wrong.”
One of the books in the video was “Gender Queer,” a memoir by Maia Kobabe that contains illustrations of masturbation and encourages gender-affirming surgeries such as double mastectomies.
Also featured was “Let’s Talk About It,” by Erika Moen, a book with drawings and descriptions of masturbation, instructions for anal sex and a guide on how to send sexually explicit text messages and images to others — with tips that include hiding birthmarks, piercings and other identifiable features.
In “Flamer,” by Mike Curato, underage boys are depicted performing sex acts with each other at a summer camp.
Several books by author Rupi Kaur were also shown, including one that was singled out for having poetry referencing sex acts.
“This is porn,” text accompanying the video stated. “These books violate Florida standards and curriculum.
“The hoax from the left is that these books were never in Florida schools.”
According to DeSantis, 23 Florida school districts have been found to have books that violated state standards, mostly involving “pornographic material.”
“I just think parents, when they’re sending their kids to school, they should not have to worry about this garbage being in the school,” the governor said. “They should just know that you’re going to get a good education.”