This is lascivious?Corrupting? A page from “The Rainbow Parade,” a 32-page illustrated book that the publisher, Penguin Random House, describes as “a sweet and celebratory story” of a two-mom family’s first time at Pride event.” Retails at $20.
Superintendent: “Inappropriate” for 5-year-olds
ROCHESTER, Minn. – The superintendent of Rochester schools, Kent Pekel, removed a book “The Rainbow Parade” from the Franklin Elementary School after a prudish parent objected to the book. Pekel defended his decision because of a drawing of a street scene in which two men in a crowd are naked. “I do not believe that image, like the nudity, is an appropriate one to make available to children as young as kindergarten and first grade in our schools.” He noted too that he founda reference to BDSM culture – shorthand for bondage dominance, ubmission and masochism in what he inter0retted as a man in a dog collar beiig led around by a chain. Pekel’s decision came despite a 9-1 vote by the school district review committee to keep the book on the shelves and also despite a 2024 Minnesota statute against book bans. he statue is unambiguous: Libraries, including school libraries, “must not ban, remove, or otherwise restrict access to a book or other material based solely on its viewpoint or the messages, ideas, or opinions it conveys.” The School Board stood by Pekel’s decision, which he said had been had been vetted by legal counsel and upheld.
Pekel. Sees shades of sado-masochism.