As reported earlier on NatZero, Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott sent a letter Monday to the Texas Association of School Boards asking the group’s members to review the title in school libraries for “obscene” material, according to KXAN NBC Austin reports.

While Abbott doesn’t specify any titles or school districts where such material is available, he warns that “A growing number of parents of Texas students are becoming increasingly alarmed about some of the books and other content found in public school libraries that are extremely inappropriate in a public school system. … You have an obligation to Texas parents and students to ensure that no child in Texas is exposed to pornography or other inappropriate content while inside a Texas public school.”

Abbott’s claims are likely intentionally ambiguous, seeing as there have been no issues with Texas schools distributing pornography in the past.  But as the Houston Chronicle noted, Republican politicians in Texas have been targeting for removal from school libraries books having to do sexual identity, gender identity and race. 

The censorship effort, done under the cover of morality, is being led by Republican Matt Krause of Fort Worth, who chairs the state legislature’s Committee on General Investigating.  Krause compiled a list of 800 books he would like to have banned, and he sent a letter to the state’s school boards asking for an inventory of all the copies of the books they have, as well as the amount they paid for those books.

Krause’s letter said they also wanted the school districts to include a list of all books that dealt with “human sexuality, sexually transmitted diseases, or human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) or acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), sexually explicit images, graphic presentations of sexual behavior that is in violation of the law, or contain material that might make students feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress because of their race or sex or convey that a student, by virtue of their race or sex, is inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously.”  The schools are expected to submit the lists by November 12th.