People Who Ban Books are Cowards

Don't ban books.

If you don't want to read it, that is your choice. You should not be able to keep others from reading what they want. 

It's that simple.

Banning books is never about protecting kids or morality. It's about control. The current wave of book banning is inherently tied to the culture wars of politics. When one party feels like it's losing, they resort to power moves of control. Banning books is one of their weapons of choice.

People who ban books are cowards. They are afraid. 

They are afraid of one of the most delightful board books I have ever read. Everywhere Babies celebrates all the amazing things infants do in their first year of life.

Infants.

Some folks in Florida are afraid of infants. (WaPo - may be paywalled)

Cowards.

I have read this book with my child more times than I can count. You know what the cowards are afraid of? The possibility that there may be some gay couples in this books. It shows two men walking together, another set talking together, and two exhausted women near a baby in a cradle. The cowards are making inferences into the illustrations. The people illustrated could just as likely be friends or family. At no point is there any explicit mention of parents who may be gay or queer or asexual or transgender in this book.

And even if there was, it shouldn't be banned!

Books are one of the safest and most comprehensive ways to understand topics that are hard or make us uncomfortable. Fiction makes us more empathetic. (Discover) Non-fiction provides research into history, science, society, and every other subject you can think of. (Library of Congress) Books are at the heart of education. When you ban them, you make learning incomplete. 

Instead of learning from or growing from discomfort, the cowards have chosen to try to deny that things they don't like exist.

It won't work. 

Because cowards run away and heroes stay.

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