Last week, a guest column decried so-called “book bans” and targeted MassResistance, the international pro-family group, due to our activists’ efforts to remove pornography, perversion, and predatory materials from public schools and libraries. The vocabulary and talking points employed by the student author came straight from leftist organizations intent on facilitating access to obscene books in schools and libraries.

It’s unfortunate that MassResistance has to respond to these immature, false arguments. However, because such arguments have served to intimidate many parents and fool elected officials, we feel compelled to respond.

First, regarding MassResistance’s efforts to remove obscene materials: Every liberal interest defending books like “This Book is Gay” and “It’s Perfectly Normal” has refused to depict or describe the offensive contents of these books, and understandably so. These books’ images and passages include explicit acts of sexual depravity including naked bodies.

For example, this obscene passage (one of many) appears in the frequently challenged (and graphic) “Gender Queer:”

[EDITOR’S NOTE: Schaper’s original work at this point quotes excerpts from and gives descriptions of passages in both “Gender Queer” and “Flamer,” which have been removed.]

Other books direct minors to seek sex with adults and normalize dangerous, destructive behaviors. Anyone with common sense would want these books removed immediately. Notably, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis exposed these obscene materials at a televised press conference. When he broadcast specific pages, all the major networks had to blur out the images or avert their cameras – thus proving his point that the books violated community standards. If network television and corporate media cannot disseminate these images, why are they permitted in public schools and libraries? And yet this newspaper defends these books!

Second, the repeated talking point that “parents alone must supervise their children’s reading habits” does not take into account a number of issues:

1. Parents cannot oversee their children’s choices in the classroom or the library.

2. Blaming parents for pornography in local schools and libraries deflects the blame. Why are professionals in these institutions allowing such offensive materials around children in the first place?

Third, MassResistance is not seeking “book bans.” Adults are free to purchase these materials at bookstores or online. Our point of contention is that public facilities, using public monies, should not be disseminating obscenity to minors. Every state has statutes forbidding these actions in general. They should equally apply to schools and libraries.

Fourth, dissemination of explicit images and pornography causes long-term damage to children. Sixteen states have declared that pornography is a public health crisis. It has harmed the mental and physical well-being of every individual caught in its clutches, and the younger the individual gets hooked, the more long-lasting its damaging effects. Widespread pornography consumption is linked to sex trafficking, human trafficking, prostitution, and numerous health dysfunctions. The public has an interest, and a mandate, to remove these vile materials from public spaces, and particularly to protect children.

Last of all, censorship and removal of books is not prime facie unconstitutional. The Supreme Court has determined in Miller v. California and Island Trees Union Free School District No. 26 v. Pico that standards exist to remove obscenity, and they direct public institutions to implement them in the public interest.

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Arthur Schaper is field director for MassResistance. Born in Torrance, Calif., Schaper describes himself as a committed pro-family activist fighting the LGBT agenda, including “their efforts to push pornography onto students in public schools and libraries.”