In Part I of this series, I discussed age and law and how they can impact writing content for young adults. In today’s post, I discuss minors’ rights.
Our government believes that we have a duty to protect minors from themselves. They also feel the same way about majors. By way of example, it is illegal to vend, purchase, carry, or consume illicit drugs. This does not mean that we don’t have rights. It means that our rights are conditioned. The application of this largely undefined duty by and through the inconsistent law discussed in Part I of this series is often applied to youth inappropriately and to extremes.
I had a discussion not too long ago with a middle school teacher who disrespectfully referred to his male students as “nothing more than a bag of walking hormones just looking for a hole and will read anything containing sex.” While male youth may be a bag of hormones, I disagreed and expressed that tweens and teens will not read something that they are uncomfortable reading. Young adults are much smarter and more knowledgeable than we might recognize and they will self-govern.
Though little or no sexuality education exists for GLBTQIA youth, I stick to what is taught in Abstinence Plus Sexuality Education when I write, and adapt it to same-sex relationships. To wit, my novella, Safe, includes intercrural sex which is taught as an alternative to intercourse. It is interesting to note that sexuality education is more graphic than what I write and includes pictures.
Jamie Deacon of Boys on the Brink asked this question of me in an interview regarding my book Safe: “This is billed as being for young adults, and some might say the content is perhaps a little too sexually explicit for the intended audience. How would you respond?” My response, in part was, “Sadly, no sexuality education exists in our school systems for GLBTQ young adults. They are left to gather and process information from a range of unsanctioned and potentially unreliable sources. Writing about normal, healthy sexual exploration in teen same-sex relationships is propaedeutic in that it provides introductory information to young adults that they may not otherwise find or have access to. It also goes without saying that a young adult is always far better prepared for the outside world if armed with knowledge.” The entire response to the question is here: Boys on the Brink: Q&A with C. Kennedy.
Do librarians, teachers, and school personnel have the right to censor what a student reads? No. By law, parents and guardians, and only parents and guardians, have the right to censor what a minor reads. No one else has a place in making that decision. By the same token, please have empathy for school librarians. They are often faced with parents and communities demanding that a book be challenged or banned from a school library.
Of greatest import, minors do have the right to access timely, accurate information. Please recall that a number of deaths occur each day around the country because our GLBTQIA youth can’t access information to enable them to reach out for assistance when they need it. Though schools and libraries are required by law to allow minors to access this information via the internet, some restrict that access by programming “appropriateness” into their firewalls. By way of example, in some areas, searching for GLBTQIA help results in access only to social, religious, and conversion therapy resources as opposed to emergency help and clinical/medical sites.
Do minors have the right to read and think for themselves? I believe they do and to disallow them to do so speaks to a lack of confidence in them. Check out Part III of Youth Should Read About Life as it is Lived: Popular Opinion.
“Too many adults wish to ‘protect’ teenagers when they should
be stimulating them to read of life as it is lived.” ~Margaret A. Edwards
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