Yesterday, the Colorado House passed legislation to regulate the process by which local libraries can ban books from their shelves, a response to dozens of challenges introduced by “concerned parents,” often affiliated with Moms For Liberty or other conservative political groups, submitted in recently years as the politicization of public school politics has continued apace. Senate Bill 24-216, Standards for Decisions Regarding Library Resources, requires nondiscriminatory policies for handling library book challenges, makes book ban challenges a public record under the state’s Open Records Act, and prevents retaliation against library workers who defend their library’s content in good faith.
Although the bill’s passage wasn’t in jeopardy, one of the state’s most dependably outrageous Republican backbenchers, Rep. Ken “Skin” DeGraaf of Colorado Springs, wanted to make a memorable impression in opposition. And until he forced House Speaker Julie McCluskie to recess the chamber in exasperation, that’s exactly what DeGraaf did–reading aloud into the record for pure juvenile shock value selected passages from This Book Is Gay, a book regularly singled out for hand-wringing by conservatives but also stoutly defended by LGBTQ+ rights advocates:
DEGRAAF: Thank you, Madam Speaker. I don’t like to come up and you only get the chance to speak on really bad legislation every 2 to three minutes around here. So I thought I’d do this again. All right.
MCCLUSKIE: Representative DeGraaf, I am going to invite you to be as respectful as you can. Focus on the policy and not the people as you proceed.
DEGRAAF: Thank you, Madam Speaker. All right. I’m confident of the good intentions of the sponsors towards prevention of censorship, but I’m, I am afraid that this bill has consequences which you might not be aware. Currently that our combined Colorado revised statute speaks of the protection of the morality of our children, specifically Colorado Revised Statute 18-7-502. In his book on brain plasticity, Doctor Deutsch notes that pornography seems at first to be purely instinctual matter. Sexual explicit pictures trigger instinctual responses which are in the product of millions of years of evolution. This is what pornographers would have us believe, for they claim that they are battling sexual repression, tattoo, taboo and fear. And their goal is to liberate the natural pent up sexual instincts.
MCCLUSKIE: Representative DeGraaf, to the bill, please.
DEGRAAF: Yes, ma’am. It is. And I will get there. Because brain plasticity is competitive. The brain maps new, exciting images increased at the expense of what they had previously attracted them. Okay, in the category where history is a warning from the future: In the 1920s, Doctor JD Unwin wrote of the effects of sexual constraints, increased sexual constraints. Either pre- or post-nuptual always lead to increased flourishing and cust- and culture…
MCCLUSKIE: Representative DeGraaf, one more time to the content of the bill, not to a lecture on uh materials.
DEGRAAF: Okay. Thank you. So what this bill does inadvertently is it violates 18-7-502. “It shall be unlawful for any person to knowingly exhibit, exposed or display any in public, at newsstands or any other business or commercial establishment frequently frequented by children or where children are may be invited as part of the general public. Any picture, photograph, drawing, sculpture, motion picture, film or similar visual representation or image of a person or portion of the human body which depicts sexually explicit nudity, sexual conduct, sadomasochistic abuse, and which is harmful to children. Any book, pamphlet, magazine per- printed matter, however,” and this is where it gets to the library, “however, reproduced sound recording, which contains matter enumerated in paragraph eight of this subsection, or explicit verbal descriptions or narrative accounts of sexual excitement, sexual conduct, sadomasochistic abuse which, taken as a whole, is harmful to children.” And the reason for that is because our schools are saying it’s impossible to tackle the embedded behaviors of sexual harassment in schools without talking about the harmful impact pornography is handling on them. So I’ll be going by this definition. The sponsor noted that there was about 136 books that were, that were noted and that were that were challenged. And one of the books that is challenged is This Book is Gay. And so this is a this is one of the books that is considered to be uplifting, positive and all that and suitable for children. So I’m just going to read from some of the passages of a book that is suitable for children, uplifting in all possible ways.
MCCLUSKIE: Representative DeGraaf, that is not part of the bill.
DEGRAAF: Ma’am, this is one of the books that is specific, was specifically noted by the sponsors as it would be protecting, and this bill makes it so that the bill inadvertently makes it so that parents are not allowed to challenge the content of these books. So a text, which is this, without context is pretext. And we have we have a we have a bill that is saying that is precluding censorship, but what it is protecting actually in, in along with some of the other books that may or may not be okay, it is protecting it is protecting a book, which I just thought I would read a few passages out of, because they are considered by the because they were found to be in school libraries and Pikes Peak Library District in audio and e-book, so it’s suitable for children. And I just wanted to give everybody a note and a taste of what, what, what this bill is actually protecting. So I don’t know how when the sponsor said this is about protecting a 136 books, this book is on that list. And this legislation is intended to keep this book in libraries and preclude it from being reviewed. So it is specifically to the book. How Sex Apps Work, a book that is in it included as referenced in here, and specifically set aside so that parents may not challenge it. “How Sex App Works: Upload a tiny picture of yourself to the app. The app works out your location. The app tells you who the nearest homosexuals are. You chat with them. Yet, because you are near, it is easy to meet up with them. If you are looking for ubiquitous fun, the words sex, shag, the F word ironically are banned from this sex app. Be upfront about it and then no one’s feelings get hurt. The sex app debate: They’re sold to us as social networking apps, but we all know what they’re really for. It’s a bit like selling a dildo under the pretext that it’s used as a draft excluder. If people want casual sex, then something like Grindr is a must. If you’re that horny, then what you do is go to a sex meet. Meet a trick. [Pols emphasis]
MCCLUSKIE: Representative DeGraaf. Please speak to the content of the bill concerning standards for public libraries.
DEGRAAF: Ma’am this is the standard-
MCCLUSKIE: I appreciate your cooperation. Thank you.
DEGRAAF: Ma’am. This is the standard that is the bill speaks to. The standard speaks to protecting this literature. And I don’t know why when the book, when the when the library is that this bill is specifically set aside to talk about whether, if you’re that horny, you want to go to a sex meet and do meet a trick in public.
MCCLUSKIE: Representative DeGraaf. We will stand in recess.
After a short recess, Rep. DeGraaf continued right where he left off, complaining that what the legislature should really be addressing is the “grooming of children” at which point Speaker McMcluskie asked DeGraaf to “leave the well.” It’s important to keep in mind, as McCluskie reminded DeGraaf repeatedly, that specific pieces of literature do not appear anywhere in the legislation being debated, the bill only prescribing nondiscriminatory standards by which book challenges will need to be evaluated. There was no reasonable purpose served by DeGraaf reading salacious passages from this or any other book in the context of this debate other than to, just like DeGraaf says about porn itself, “map the brain” with “new and exciting images.”
If that’s what Rep. DeGraaf wants to do in the privacy of his home, it’s a free country. The rest of us regardless of party affiliation don’t want DeGraaf’s oral flasher fetishes in the official record of the Colorado House.
May 08, 2024 01:42 PM UTC
4 Comments
deleted
In that picture, all I see is 3 dildos.
Awww, did Ken DeGraff tell his colleagues before hand that it was "Bring Your Favorite Sex Toy to Work Day" at the Capitol?
Bottoms could have brought that leather sling, Dr. Assless Chaps, and a can of Crisco.
“If people want casual sex, then something like Grindr is a must. If you’re that horny, then what you do is go to a sex meet. Meet a trick.”
Ken “The D” DeGraaf Techno Pimp
Turn a trick, ya dig?