The Alachua County school district has removed the same LGBTQ book it had previously put back into circulation — this time for good.
The district first removed the book, “Gender Queer: A Memoir” by Maia Kobabe, Nov. 16 because of graphic references to sex and masturbation. On Friday, the district put the title back into circulation after it determined the woman who challenged “Gender Queer” had not been an Alachua County resident for the past year, a legal requirement to object to school library books.
Now, the district removed that same book again after it received two new challenges on the title.
District media specialist Patty Duval said Tim Marden, the GOP county chairman, challenged it Friday.
“Since we had already gone through the challenge process and knew that the book met the criteria for sexual conduct,” Duval said, “we relied on the results of the previous review and went ahead and removed the book.”
The decision to remove “Gender Queer” marks the third book the district has taken off shelves. A committee voted to remove “Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out” Sept. 27 because of sexually explicit material. More recently, Buchholz High principal Kevin Purvis removed “The DUFF” earlier this month without a committee vote because of its sexually explicit material.
CORRECTION: Due to incorrect information from the school district's media specialist, a previous version of this article incorrectly said that a parent had also filed a challenge to the book, in addition to one submitted by the county GOP chairman.
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