The first week of September, at a school board meeting in Texas, a woman lobbied fiercely to get my one of my novels, Lawn Boy (2017), banned from libraries for content relating to my gay protagonist, and his gay life experiences. My protagonist, Mike, has a sexual experience at a youth group meeting at the age of ten with another ten-year-old boy, which Mike is still ashamed of in early adulthood. During the course of the novel, which lands squarely in the realm of bildungsroman, Mike owns this particular sexual experience, and revisits it through a (sometimes uncomfortable) humorous lens as he re-contextualizes the event as a part of his self-actualization. There is graphic language in this scene, which depicts sexual acts. It is worth noting that the book, which was intended for an adult audience, found some crossover success due in part to winning an Alex Award from the Young Adult Library Association for “books written for adults that have special appeal to young adults, ages 12 through 18.” In addition to the aforementioned sexual passages, Lawn Boy was found to have contained “44 fucks, and 42 shits,” and I would argue that not one of them was wasted. Frankly, I would have put that number much higher. When your protagonist is a 23-year-old working class kid who is disillusioned with capitalism, racial assumptions, along with the deteriorating personal, political, and global events that seem to be conspiring against him, there’s bound to be some shits and fucks if you’re writing anywhere near the modern-realist realm.
In the days that followed the woman’s lobby, a video of the school board meeting went viral on TikTok and elsewhere, in which the woman read a few graphic passages with absolutely no context beyond the fact that her fourth grader had got his hands on the book (possibly mistaking it with Gary Paulson’s book by the same name). That’s all it took before I began to receive a steady stream of threats, both overt and veiled, to my messenger. Mostly men, but a number of women, too, calling me a “pedo,” and accusing me of “grooming” young boys, and in some instances threatening me with harm should I ever set foot in the state of Texas, or Arkansas. Of all the conversations I hoped to engage writing a coming-of-age novel about the empty promises of the American Dream for so many—be it wealth inequity, social inequality, racism, sexual identity—I assure you, pedophilia was not among them.
I have chosen, wisely, I hope, not to engage those who would seek to ban my book and call me a pedophile, because I suspect no amount of contextualizing would persuade these people, many of whom might have had their own sexual experiences in youth with which they are still deeply ashamed, that in addressing the subject of sexual identity graphically, metaphorically, or otherwise (particularly when it does not comfortably jibe with their Judeo-Christian conception), I am not a “sicko,” “pedo,” or “freak.” I am an author of fiction, and am well aware of where my moral center abides.
What really saddens and alarms me about all of this is the fact that beyond the fourth grader who mistakenly brought Lawn Boy home (again, the book was in no way intended for a 10-year-old), and his Mom, who at the very least turned every page counting fucks and shits, I am quite confident that not a single person threatening me, or lobbying to ban my book even read a single passage of Lawn Boy beyond those few isolated passages read on the TikTok video. That’s all it took to mobilize their blind hatred and zealous call-to-arms to ban my book. They. Didn’t. Even. Read. It. That’s what we’re still up against today. A streak of anti-intellectualism that runs so deep in America that people feel they no longer need to inform themselves before they make the decision to ban a book, or seek to destroy the reputation of a father of three.
But in the end, I’m glad this happened. Especially right before Banned Books Week. Because when I look at the wealth of great literature that unenlightened souls have sought to ban through the ages, how could I feel anything but pride to be listed among them? To those who would ban my book and burn me at the stake because they are ashamed of their own past experiences, or uncomfortable with any non-binary sexual identifications, I hope you find healing. And to poor Gary Paulson, who for all I know may also be receiving threats, sorry, man!
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Pedophile or not… some things are just better left out of the school library. I guess it’s not really your fault, what shelf the book ends up on. I’m a very relationship-with-Christ-centered individual. Most would call me radical for Jesus. I’ve heard worse stories when dealing with deliverance and calling demonic strongholds out of people through the power of Christ. I respect your right to tell a story, fact or fictional. I just wanted you to know that Jesus loves you regardless of your writing style and content. I haven’t even read the book and I probably won’t, but you have a right to say or publish whatever you choose, just like it’s my right to choose not to read it. God meets us right where we are, and don’t let any Christian shame you bc we have all fallen short of the mark. Your sin is no greater than the offense they take against you for having written the book. May God bless you abundantly!May His love change your life one day!
I’m just gonna keep this short. People who don’t read or can’t do a simple google search are idiot and I completely agree with you. On YouTube, it somehow blew up and people are just eating without actual reading it or researching it. I argued with those people and I shouldn’t have, but it’s too late. Someone even said Great Gatsby should also be banned because of that one tit world and she died in a crash. Reading is gonna be extinct lol.
[…] the author of “Lawn Boy” – a widely acclaimed novel about adulthood – received threats and was called “pedo” and “sicko” after a video of a mother reading an explicit scene from a book on a Texas school blackboard went […]
[…] realized that Evison, the writer of “Garden Boy” — a broadly praised coming-of-age novel — acquired threats and was referred to as a “pedo” and “sicko” after a video of a mother studying from an express scene from the guide to a Texas faculty board […]
[…] learned that Evison, the author of “Lawn Boy” — a widely praised coming-of-age novel — received threats and was called a “pedo” and “sicko” after a video of a mom reading from an explicit scene from the book to a Texas school board went […]
As an American of Mexican descent, a Texan, and someone who as a child also explored with another boy my age at 10 I want to thank you for the representation of this book. It’s rare for Hispanics to get the time of day in any sort of media. Keep doing what you are doing. I’m sorry this you are going through this. I just ordered your book and it’s shot to the top of my reading list.