***At the end of every year we revisit some of our most popular stories from the calendar year. This article highlights Gov. Kim Reynolds reading from a sexually explicit book during an interview with KCCI about pornographic, obscene materials being in Iowa school libraries. Nothing was done to address this issue in 2022 as only three House Republicans (Representatives Sandy Salmon, Jeff Shipley and Mark Cisneros) voted in favor of taking action on these books, but it could be revisited in 2023.***
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds did what needs to be done. During an interview with KCCI, Reynolds read aloud a passage from the book “All Boys Aren’t Blue,” one of the books frequently challenged by parents when it comes to its presence inside Iowa school libraries.
Here is the passage that Reynolds read:
“You told me to take my pajamas, my pajama pants, which I said to take off my pajama pants, which I told you when, which I did. You then took off your shorts, followed by your boxers,” she read from the passage. “There you stood in front of me, fully erected and said, ‘Taste it.’ At first, I laughed and refused. But then you said, ‘come on, Matt, taste it. This is what boys like us do when we like each other.’ I finally listened to you. The whole time I knew it was wrong, not because I was having sexual intercourse with a guy, but that you were my family. I only did that for about 45 seconds before you had me stop. Then you got down on your hands and knees and told me to close my eyes, and that’s when you began oral sex on me as well.”
Reynolds went on to say she doesn’t know if parents feel that is appropriate for children in K-12 education.
“I think that’s a decision for parents to make,” she said.
She went on to say that parents matter.
“These are the parents’ children, they’re not ours, they’re not the government’s, they’re not the school district,’s,” she said. “They’re the parents’ children and they have a right to say, to weigh in on their children’s education.”
A random Twitter account called “Iowa teacher with a ‘sinister agenda’ shared the clip, noting “if it wasn’t for teachers, more kids would turn out like their parents.”
If it wasn’t for teachers, more kids would turn out like their parents. https://t.co/UfYUpxyiDX
— Eric Cunningham (@against_kim) January 24, 2022
You can watch Gov. Reynolds read from “All Boys Aren’t Blue” below. Be warned it contains sexually explicit, vulgar, inappropriate content:
[…] Reynolds reminded members of the media of an interview she did where she read actual excerpts from “All Boys Aren’t Blue” and noted the media couldn’t show that portion of the interview without a disclaimer. And even then, some weren’t comfortable including that portion at all because they were uncomfortable saying those things on TV. Here is the excerpt she was talking about. […]