Waukesha Times

The Waukesha Public Library carries a book that features pornographic cartoon illustrations depicting gay oral sex, according to a review of Wisconsin library catalog records by the Waukesha County Times.

Aimed at teenagers, Gender Queer: A Memoir, by Maia Kobabe, features comic-book style images of two male teenagers performing oral sex upon one another, using sex toys and masturbating, drawn by Kobabe.

According to the Bridges Library System online catalog, the Waukesha Public Library has a copy of Gender Queer, as do the Irwin L. Young library in Whitewater, Muskego Public Library, New Berlin Public Library and Oconomowoc Public Library.

Libraries in North Carolina, Florida and Texas have removed Gender Queer from their catalogues on account of its pornography.

St. Louis-based Lion Forge published Gender Queer as part of a series of "graphic" cartoon books aimed at teenagers and pre-teenagers, encouraging them to ignore their biological sex. The publisher says its mission is to create characters that appeal to children who might want to cross-dress, or have sex change surgery.

Kobabe, a biological woman who claims to now be neither a woman nor a man, says she uses so called "gender neutral pronouns," to refer to herself.

In a Dec. 2021 profile on Kobabe in her hometown newspaper, the Santa Rosa (Calif.) Press Democrat, author Matt Villano referred to her by these "gender neutral pronouns."

"When e got eir first period at age 11, however, everything changed. E felt betrayed by eir own body. E became unhappy and confused by societal expectations and norms. E withdrew and turned to reading and sketching to cope with feelings of depression and dysmorphia," Villano wrote, comparing Kobabe to "Harper Lee, J.D. Salinger and Mark Twain" as authors who have "penned banned books."

Left-wing activists have sought to ban Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, Salinger's A Catcher in the Rye and Twain's Huckleberry Finn for using language they say is "offensive" to blacks and women. None of the three books includes any pornographic cartoon illustrations depicting gay sex.

The Bridges Library System covers Waukesha and Jefferson Counties. Trustees include Jim Heinrich (City of Brookfield/Waukesha County), Richard Nawrocki (Town of Merton), Larry Nelson (City of Waukesha/Waukesha County), Howard Pringle (Town of Genesee), Amy Reichert (Town of Delafield), Nancy Wilhelm (Town of Eagle), Jean Yeomans (City of Delafield), Linda Ager (Town of Hebron), Art Biermeier (City of Waterloo) and Joan Fitzgerald (City of Fort Atkinson/Jefferson County).