Ian Hrabe's Reviews > Lily and Dunkin

I love it when the only reason I read a book is because some idiotic school board banned it. Such is the case with Lily and Dunkin, which the Gardner, KS school board voted to remove from their system. Yes, the pilled the one copy they had because a local ignoramus and culture warrior named Carrie Schmidt raised hell because they mention puberty blockers 27 times or whatever. Schmidt is obviously an unserious idiot, but these people are everywhere. It’s the school board who voted 4-2 to remove the book that are the real embarrassment. These people think a book like this will give our impressionable children the idea that they too want to be trans. They do not believe it is something you’re born with. Their crusade is trans erasure. Full stop.

No one made themselves out to be a bigger dipshit than board member Greg Chapman, who, based on his quotes against the books seems like a very insecure man and a terrible father.

From the Johnson County Post:

“Board member Greg Chapman voiced stronger negative assessments of the book, saying he couldn’t find any redeemable qualities in the novel.”

He could have stopped there and it would have made him seem like one of the dumbest men on the planet, but he continued to dig down into the MAGA shitpile that he calls a brain:

“It shocked me that so many staff members were on board with this book and praising it so heavily,” he said. “Where do we draw the line with mental health and which ones we are going to glorify and which ones we are going to help them get the assistance they need?”

Yeah we gotta draw a line, don’t we Greg. Never mind that this book explicitly has a kid’s therapist tell her dad—who is against Lily transitioning—that 40% of trans kids contemplate suicide. The therapist literally states, “would you rather have a dead son or a living daughter?” Chapman doesn’t care for “facts” though, much less having to expand his narrow worldview.

“Chapman said he also felt the book sent a terrible message to men and fathers.

“This happens too many times in the real world, and it would be nice if men stood up and did not cave and take care of their families like they are supposed to,” he said.”

Did he read the book? Can he read? I know his critical thinking skills are borderline non-existent but if the lesson he took from this story was “the dad was right to be cruel to his trans daughter and it’s a shame he evolved into a caring father,” what IS connecting the dots? Like how dumb can you be, and to be this stupid this publicly is truly the behavior of someone who should not be trusted with a seat on a school board. Hell, I wouldn’t even let this guy have a driver’s license.

Anyway, Greg Chapman is a piece of shit. Most people who read his comments will understand that. But the funniest thing to me, and the reason they’re fighting so hard to ban this book, is because it does an incredible job illustrating the struggles trans kids and their families go through. Rosie loved it and it we had some great conversations about it.

Funnier still is that since Gardner pulled the single copy from their shelves—a book no one probably would have even thought twice about had such a stink not been made—it has 30+ holds at the county library (with more copies on order to meet demand). The Streisand Effect is the only upshot of such barbarism. Plus, if you want to guarantee a kid reads a book, you tell them they can’t read it.