(LifeSiteNews) – The Conservative Alberta government under Premier Danielle Smith is going ahead with plans to eventually ban books with sexually explicit as well as pornographic material, many of which contain LGBT and even pedophilic content, from all school libraries.
“As a parent, it is extremely concerning to me to find out that books explicitly depicting sexual acts are available to students in some school libraries,” Alberta Minister of Education Demetrios Nicolaides said Monday in a statement.
“We are going to do something about this serious issue by consulting Albertans and creating standards to ensure students do not have access to age-inappropriate materials in school libraries.”
Nicolaides said in his announcement that the United Conservative Party (UCP) government, which holds a majority, is now holding consultations with all school boards in the province regarding sexually explicit books in schools.
The goal of the consultations will be to “collect feedback on the creation of consistent standards to ensure the age-appropriateness of materials available to students in school libraries,” he said.
Nicolaides’ and the UCP’s crackdown on sexually charged content in school libraries comes after several severely sexually explicit graphic novels were found in school libraries in Calgary and Edmonton. The UCP shared a list of the books, unfiltered, some of which can be found in libraries that kindergarten students can access.
Smith posted news of the coming crackdown and consultation with school boards on her X account, noting that “Albertans deserve to know what’s really being shown to children in some of our K-9 schools.”
“This isn’t about banning books. It’s about protecting kids from graphic, sexually explicit content that has no place in a classroom. Parents are right to be upset, as many of our kids are being exposed to age-inappropriate material that strips away their innocence at far too young an age,” she wrote.
Smith also shared some of the books and novels that were discovered in school libraries, adding that her government is “drawing a line” regarding them.
“Review the content for yourself — but please know that it is graphic and not suitable for minors.”
The books in question, found at multiple school locations, are Gender Queer, a graphic novel by Maia Kobabe; Flamer, a graphic novel by Mike Curato; Blankets, a graphic novel by Craig Thompson; and Fun Home, a graphic novel by Alison Bechdel.
The books show images of multiple sexual acts, including homosexual and transsexual, as well as pedophilic and incestuous content. It is not yet known if these books have been removed from school shelves.
Once the new standards have been implemented, they will be mandatory for all school boards in the province to follow and will come into force for the 2025-2026 school year.
Public libraries will not be included in the new rules.
The UCP government has allowed for public feedback on the books that can be done via an online survey.
Smith’s UCP government has in recent months and years been fighting back against extreme forms of gender ideology.
She was against forced COVID jabs, and her United Conservative government has in recent months banned men from competing in women’s sports and passed a bill banning so-called “top and bottom” surgeries for minors as well as other extreme forms of transgender ideology.
While Smith has done well on some points, she has still been relatively soft on social issues of importance to conservatives such as abortion, and has publicly expressed pro-LGBT views, telling Jordan Peterson last year that conservatives must embrace homosexual “couples” as “nuclear families.”
