 In late March we talked about Ken Ivory, a Republican lawmaker from the state of Utah who authored legislation that would empower parents to challenge and potentially remove books from schools that they deemed inappropriate. Shortly after the governor signed his bill into law, however, one clever parent submitted a challenge to a book that he didn't want to be challenged. I'm of course talking about the Holy Bible and this parent argued that the Bible was one of the most sex-written books around containing incest, onanism, bestiality, prostitution, genital mutilation, fallatio, dildos, rape, and even infanticide. And this parent concluded by saying that this porn should be removed from schools. Now because of this law, that parent's request had to be taken seriously and it was. And in response to this request to remove the Bible from schools, Ken Ivory condemned that parent even though he passed the law that enabled this challenge by saying, as LGBTQ nation explains, that it was a political stunt to quote drain school resources and added for people to minimize that and to make a mockery of it referring to his law is very sad he complained. In other words, when he sponsored legislation that would lead to books being banned in schools, he didn't intend for that book to be banned, only the ones that he doesn't like. But unfortunately for him, after a thorough review of the challenged material in question, the school district announced a decision that he definitely did not like. On June 2nd, the Davis School District announced that it would indeed be pulling the Bible from elementary and middle school shelves due to quote, vulgarity and violence. And just like that, his book ban had completely backfired because the Bible was banned and he did not anticipate that the outcome of his law would be that the Bible was banned. You love to see it. Now, his response to this news was absolutely hilarious because after his own law blew up in his face, he denied that it was the fault of his law that led to the Bible being banned, which is just demonstrably untrue. But at the same time, even though he claims that it's not his law's fault that the Bible was banned, he simultaneously called on lawmakers to revise his book ban in order to reverse the Bible ban. As AP explains, State Representative Ken Ivory, the sensitive materials law's Republican sponsor, rebuffed the idea that his law paved the way for the Bible to be banned. Though he defended the review process after the sacred text removal, he said on Wednesday that the Davis School District had overstepped its role by removing the Bible from the middle and elementary schools because of criteria not in state law. I've re-erged the legislature to change the law, so book removal decisions have to be overseen by elected officials at open public meetings, not the kind of committee that decided to remove the Bible from middle and elementary schools in the Davis School District. So the process works. Anyways, let's revise the process so that way something like this can't happen in the future. Sounds like mental gymnastics to me, Ken. Sounds like he doesn't want to admit that his sensorious law came back to bite him in the ass, and that's really embarrassing. And that sounds like he was coping pretty hard to me, but it gets even better, because he admits that the Bible does have some adult themes in it, but that shouldn't justify it being pulled from school shelves. Listen. That's a leap of logic that some have inappropriately made. Hey, Ken, have you considered that maybe you should apply that logic to other books? The Handmaid's Tale? Any of the books about race or LGBTQ plus people that were removed? Why is that set of standards okay for the Bible but not other books? Yeah. It's just they're so hypocritical that they don't even care how hypocritical they sound. But he wasn't the only one who was coping hard after this decision because parents lost their fucking minds and over a hundred people showed up to protest at the state Capitol following this decision. AP continues, Carly, what the fuck? Quote, we love the Bible. We love God and we need God in our nation, she said. Oh, okay. That sounds like a justification for keeping this violent pornographic book in schools. I don't know how to even respond to that, but I just have to say, Carly, I don't understand. I don't understand your logic. Okay. There is no logic. That's why I can't understand it. See, according to her, banning controversial material is good only if it's controversial material that she doesn't like. But let me ask you this, Carly. Does this sound like content that's appropriate for elementary age students? Deuteronomy 25, 11 to 12. Quote, if two men, a man and his countrymen are struggling together and the wife of one comes near to deliver her husband from the hand of the one who is striking him and puts out her hand and seizes his genitals, then you shall cut off her hand. You shall not show pity. Does that sound like something that's appropriate for elementary school students? Do you think a first grader should hear that, Carly? How about this? Ezekiel 16, 17. You also took the fine jewelry I gave you and jewelry made of my gold and silver, and you made for yourself male idols and engaged in prostitution with them. They're talking about dildos, Carly. They're talking about a woman using dildos to masturbate. Do you think that that's appropriate for elementary age children? Really? You gave this book to all of your kids? Hmm. Why do you want to sexualize kids, Carly? You sound like a groomer to me. In fact, all of these parents who showed up to protest the Bible being removed sounds like groomers. Why would you allow this pornographic material in schools when very clearly kids should not be subjected to this content? They shouldn't have access to stories about women masturbating with dildos. Of course, the hypocrisy is going to be lost on them, but unfortunately in this instance, the groomers won because the book ban was recently reversed. As the Salt Lake Tribune explains, with the unanimous vote late Tuesday afternoon, members of Davis School District's Board of Education moved to return the religious texts to library shelves for students of all ages. The highly anticipated reversal comes about one month after a review committee of staff and parents appointed by the district was initially determined that the Bible contained vulgarity or violence and should have access limited to just high schools. The district also released a statement saying that its policy was never intentionally manipulated to undermine Utah-sensitive materials' law. It said the process played out as it was supposed to and it noted reviews have been conducted on 60 challenged books with 37 removed. Several members of the Board of Education said Tuesday that the Bible is personally important to them and they are glad to see it on shelves again. It is my firm opinion that the King James Version of the Bible is a historically significant, very important book of scripture with deep spiritual meaning for many people, said Bridget Gerard, the Board's Vice President. Okay, groomer, it's weird to me that you think that children should be reading about women masturbating with dildos or women getting their hands chopped off if they grab men's genitals, but whatever, seems like you just think that kids should be sexualized, despicable. Now the Board also confirmed that they were forced to take requests to remove the Bible seriously specifically because of the law that Ken Ivory authored, even if he denied the effect that that law had on the Bible being banned. They're saying here, nope, it was because of his law. Yeah. But regardless, you can see how quickly these book banners violated their own standards of what is and isn't appropriate for children because it came to material that they liked. Even if there are literally depictions of bestiality and rape and sex and masturbation, they said, hmm, that's fine. Kids should be able to see that because we think it's okay. We think the deeper message here is more important than the pornographic content. Now the legislature apparently did not heed Ivory's call for this law to be revised because guess what? We're not done yet, baby, because after receiving two requests from parents to challenge the Book of Mormon due to its portrayal of physical and sexual violence, that book is now officially being reviewed and maybe pulled from school shelves next. Honestly, bravo to the parents in this district because they are absolutely clever. These parents, even if they are trying to weaponize this law against Republicans by using malicious compliance as a tactic, they have a point, right? If these lawmakers said that sexual content is inappropriate for kids, then why do you make exceptions for holy books? Is sexual content bad or is it not bad? I mean, if you're consistent, you would conclude that either all of it's okay or none of it's okay. But when you're a Christian supremacist or a religious fundamentalist of any kind in this country, you aren't necessarily wrong to think that the world revolves around you because we have lawmakers who constantly couch out to this space of people who have one standard for themselves and a different standard for everyone else. See, a book about queer kids or any LGBTQ-plus-related content is grooming and sexualizing children, but the Bible, well, that's not grooming and sexualizing children, even if it has things that they say are inappropriate when it's in other books because fuck you, that's why they just, they don't care, right? Now, even if the Book of Mormon is banned next, it's probably going to be unbanned just like the Bible, but that doesn't make their hypocritical seething and coping any less hilarious. And I, for one, recommend that all parents across the country challenge these bookbans in this very way. Actually challenge the holy books in states with bookbans because using their own bigotry against them by going after religion, that is one really important tool that we have in the fight against censorship. So I absolutely love that Ken Ivory has been thoroughly exposed and his own law led to the Bible being banned and possibly the Book of Mormon being banned, but is that going to get him to rethink his political positions and his own hypocrisy? Of course not because in the world of Republican politics, hypocrisy isn't a thing that applies to them, only liberals, only leftists. So, you know, if bookbans affect him in a negative way, that's not going to change his overall stance. It's not going to get him to be more logically consistent. It's just going to lead to him crying and getting what he wants because that's what leads to victories for Christians in this country. So either way, I think the story is absolutely hilarious and I will continue to follow these bookbans where they are challenged in this hilarious way. Thank you.