On Wednesday Republican Virginia Delegate Tim Anderson, suing on behalf of his client, a Republican Congressional candidate Tommy Altman, posted on Facebook he scored “a major legal victory. Today, the Virginia Beach Circuit Court has found probable cause that the books Gender Queer and a Court of Mist and Fury are obscene to unrestricted viewing by minors.”
“My client, Tommy Altman, has now directed my office to seek a restraining order against Barnes and Noble and Virginia Beach Schools to enjoin them from selling or loaning these books to minors without parent consent. We are in a major fight. Suits like this can be filed all over Virginia. There are dozens of books. Hundreds of schools,” Anderson wrote. Per CBS News, Altman describes himself as pro free speech on his campaign website, so just imagine that little asterisk that says “Some race and religion-based restrictions apply, especially to queers.”
Barnes and Noble for its part gave a standard customer service statement to CBS, saying it carries “thousands of books whose subject matter some may find offensive… We ask that our customers respect our responsibility to offer this breadth of reading materials, and respect also that, while they chose not to purchase many of these themselves, they may be of interest to others,” as if herpes sores like Altman and Anderson give a fuck about others. Barnes and Noble and other consumer brands need to put on their big boy undies and wake the hell up to the reality that there is no middle lane anymore. It doesn’t stop at this “injunction”, however toothless it may ultimately be. They’re going to keep coming at you. First it’s LGBT. Next are science books. Then Judaica. Books by Black and Latino authors. History. They won’t stop until everything’s gone except for the Bible, the “Art of the Deal”, and “Mein Kampf”. It’s coming.