After Élise Gravel, a book on the seahorse banned in the United States
In the wake of the books to be banned from school libraries, an American conservative group s now attacking… seahorses.
The group in question, called Moms for Liberty, has been known since 2021 for their lists of books to be removed from libraries books — usually books that talk about racism and sexuality. In Florida, their local chapter boasted at the start of the year of having had 200 books withdrawn. It is in this context that the book by Quebec author Élise Gravel, Le rose, le bleu et toi!, which talks about sexual orientation, has been “banned” by some school boards. Some of these “citizen” groups are funded by wealthy donors associated with the American conservative right.
However, in Tennessee, one of the targeted books, intended for elementary school children, dealt with this small marine creature also called the “sea horse”. What is disturbing is the “gender fluidity” observed in the hippocampus: the male is the one who gives birth to babies. The complaint filed by Moms for Libertypoints out that the book, and the accompanying video, contain an illustration of two seahorses mating, and a text explaining (which is true) that it is the males who carry the eggs.
Two pages from the book Sea Horse: The Shyest Fish in the Sea (source: Snopes)
The group of opponents sees it as 'social conditioning' and an 'attempt to normalize that males can be pregnant'. A similar complaint had been filed in 2022 and had not been followed up, accused Moms for Liberty, which returned to the charge this year. The school board, at its February hearing, chose to dismiss the complaint.
Link to the original article
https://www.sciencepresse.qc.ca/actualite/2023/02/27/hippocampe-modele -bad-virtue
