“The thing is, you have to actually see this material with your own eyes and read it in order to perceive how bad it really is,” Langton said. “And that’s what I did. I wasn’t just going to take somebody’s word for it.”

Indeed, in the context of school libraries, it is exceedingly difficult to defend the content of these books on the merits. While Lawn Boy does not feature Gender Queer’s graphic illustrations, it more than makes up for it in explicit sexual language. Evison writes about an experience “in fourth grade at a church group meeting out in the bushes” where “I touched Doug Goble’s d**k, and he touched mine. In fact, there were even some mouths involved.” Later, a character exclaims: “What if I told you I touched another guy’s d**k? What if I told you I sucked it? I was ten years old, but it’s true. I put Doug Goble’s d**k in my mouth. I was in fourth grade, it was no big deal. He sucked mine too.” Still later, the book details a fantasy about “holding or tugging or sucking d***s. All I could think about while he was chatting me up, was his little salamander between my fourth-grade fingers, rapidly engorging with blood.”

It is no wonder that the materials’ apologists shroud their defenses in euphemisms about free speech, “sex positivity,” and LGBT inclusion. On their own terms, these texts shock. And sunlight is the best disinfectant: “If the general public could be shown this material, there is no debate — it ends the debate,” Langton said.