Back in November, nearly two dozen people a day were dying from COVID-19 in South Carolina. But public health wasn’t at the top of Republican Gov. Henry McMaster’s to-do list at that time, when he sicced the state’s Department of Education on a queer-themed book, calling it “obscene” and “pornographic.”
“I call on the Department of Education or the State Board of Education, as appropriate, to promulgate statewide standards and directives to prevent pornography and other obscene content from entering our State’s public schools and libraries,” the governor said in a letter to the superintendent of education, specifically targeting Maia Kobabe’s (pictured). The autobiographical book from the nonbinary writer and illustrator had been challenged at one of South Carolina’s nearly 500 high schools. It was recommended for those in 10th grade or higher.
