JACK OF HEARTS (AND OTHER PARTS) Under Fire by Christian Right Group in Irving, Texas

“The library and city are promoting gender dysphoria and transgenderism. This is extremely irresponsible. Transgenderism is very controversial. Currently, some youngsters, after much internet indulgence, are convinced that their anxiety about puberty and social problems are due to the fact that they are the opposite sex.”

Included are statistics about the rates of HIV in men, about sexual abuse, and about hormones that come with no citation and the note that “90% of children who express gender dysphoria will grow to accept and be happy with their biological sex if their development is not chemically altered. There is high rate of sex change regret.”

Among the books included in this email complaint are Rosen’s, books by author Michele Tea, Check Please, My Brother’s Husband, Midnighter vol 1 and 2, and Teen Vogue magazine (as a whole because it is “promoting anal sex to 11-17 year old girls, prostitution and dangerous sexual behavior.”).

Irving Public Library Director Cary Siegfried responded to the email the following day, addressing these concerns and explaining that Norman knew the procedure for library reconsideration of materials.

“I understand from your many emails that materials regarding LGBTQ sexual behavior and gender roles departing from strict male and female roles or from heterosexual behavior are not ones that you would like to see in our collection; however, there are members of the Irving community who DO want to have these materials in the collection and have specifically requested them. […] We certainly respect and support a parent’s right to set limits for their child. We always encourage parents to be interested and engaged with what their children are reading; however, those limits should not impede other families from accessing the information and reading material that they wish to use.’

Though given the information for how to file a Reconsideration of Materials form, Norman never filed.

Norman’s latest email, dated June 30, comes on the heels of her attending the Irving City Council meeting and offering a public comment about the library having books that feature “destruction of healthy bodies through transgenderism” and having “child predators are really happy with Irving, because you’re just playing into their hands.” She goes on to complain about the library’s book events which she claims promote sexual promiscuity, but that the library can’t share materials about front-line workers — like her — during a pandemic (view the commentary under Citizens Forum at minute 7:10).

For all of Norman and fellow citizens’s concerns — the same small group of people who have been targeting the library’s LGBTQ materials since 2019 — her own social media is filled with right-wing material, as well as information about sexual behaviors that are from faith-based beliefs, not science, including natural family planning. Many of the citizens involved with this campaign are part of a group called irvingcatholics, or ICON Online, whose faith — not science — is at the forefront of their argument.

The reconsideration form for Jack of Hearts (and Other Parts) was submitted on June 28. Norman notes that the book has “no value,” and has “hatred of monogamy, women, self, heterosexuality.” She recommends that the book be “thrown in the trash” and the library replace it with “materials on STDs, HIV, sexual abstinence, waiting to date, saying ‘NO,’ dangers of Transgender Industry, faithful, life long marriage, healthy relationships, that children are a result of sexual relationships.”

A quick search of the Irving Public Library catalog shows 18 pages worth of materials on STDs, a wide range of books about abstinence and purity, significant resources on marriage and healthy relationships, and indeed, books that are anti-transgender, as seen by the social media pushback when the library shared a Pride display prominently featuring the book When Harry Became Sally.

The library has two copies of Jack of Hearts which, at the time of this writing, had circulated six times. The book earned a starred review from Booklist, as well as high praise from School Library Journal, Horn Book, Kirkus, and Publisher’s Weekly, which called the book “genuinely helpful and important.”

Richard Price, who documents censorship on their blog Adventures in Censorship, does a phenomenal job explaining how challenges like this one are about Christian Right moral ethics.

“[A]ny deviation from their world view is promoting dangerous information and must be purged. At one point, the challenger suggests organizing volunteers to remove these dangerous books from the library,” Price writes, “I certainly hope [Irving Public Library] sticks to the ethical standards of libraries by refusing to allowing this one challenger to control the collection for the community.”

Despite claims that the book has been put to challenge for over a year, Norman’s request for reconsideration didn’t manifest until the end of June. Jack of Hearts (and Other Parts) is now undergoing the process by which materials are considered. The process involves those who take part in library collection development examining whether material fits within their collection policy and from there, making a decision on the material’s fate. This is a standard public library policy, following standard procedures.

Rosen’s book is the only title being reconsidered.

Siegfried was unable to comment about the challenge at Irving Public Library, given her role in the reconsideration process. According to the process, “If the customer is unsatisfied with the Senior Library Services Manager’s decision, the customer may appeal the Request for Reconsideration of Materials by asking in writing that it be referred to the Library Director within thirty (30) days from the date of the response to the customer.”

It’s clear that after over two years, this battle is far from over.

What’s unclear, though, is how much more pushing of this agenda will continue in Irving. It’s hard not to see a common problem, with a common group of “concerned citizens” comprised of conservative Christians pushing their own agenda across a community, tax-funded entity.

It’s also unclear where — or how — this particular challenge relates to a 2019 challenge of queer materials in the Irving School District.

*all quotes are reproduced as written