Democratic Maryland governor Wes Moore said schools and libraries that remove far-left books from children's reading lists are "castrating" kids.
Removing books that promote critical race theory or contain material that critics have called pornographic is "about telling other kids that they shouldn't understand their own power," Moore told former White House press secretary Jen Psaki, now an MSNBC host, in a Sunday interview. "It's castrating them."
Moore and Psaki echoed the Democratic and media talking point that removing books from reading lists is the same as "banning books." In many cases, the "ban" simply means moving the book to a different section of the library, as happened last month with the poem that Amanda Gorman read at President Joe Biden's inauguration.
In other cases, parents have called for schools to remove inappropriate books and materials. Far-left LGBT groups that promote transgenderism and "unlimited abortion access," for example, provided a roadmap for the Nebraska Department of Education's sex-education standards, the Washington Free Beacon reported. The standards led to widespread pushback from parents.
The College Board, meanwhile, promoted critical race theory in its high school course in African-American studies, leading to a public fight with Florida governor Ron DeSantis (R.).
In response, blue states have continued to push these books on children, with California requiring "schools to teach progressive takes on gender, sexuality, and race—sometimes in graphic ways," the Free Beacon reported.
Moore went on to say he wants to "make bigotry expensive" and ensure that states face "economic consequences" for restricting or removing books.