After Moms for Liberty chair’s son raises concerns over LGBTQ+ book, some say it’s a ‘setup’

• By Brett Sholtis/LNP | LancasterOnline

This story is published in partnership with our sister newsroom LNP | LancasterOnline.

For those clamoring to ban library books, a Warwick High School senior provided another example of explicit materials being made available to students: The teen said he stumbled upon a book called “Queer, 2nd Edition: the ultimate LGBTQ guide for teens” while printing out some documents at the school library.

“I was a little surprised to see it lying in with the philosophy and religion and social science books, so I picked it up,” Chance Wilson said at an Oct. 3 Warwick school district meeting. “One would think that it is a book explaining what homosexuality is, and how to have safe sex, or something along those lines. However, the book was quite different.”

Wilson isn’t just a student. He’s the son of Rachel Wilson-Snyder, the Moms for Liberty Lancaster County chapter chair who since 2021 has led and supported challenges to books and teaching materials at schools across the county — while galvanizing support for GOP school board candidates.

The public challenge to “Queer,” the group’s critics say, provides a glimpse at how Moms for Liberty works to create a controversy in order to spur action by public officials. In this case, Republican school board member Emily Zimmerman cited Wilson’s public comments on Tuesday at the state Capitol as she testified about GOP state Sen. Ryan Aument’s bill to make it easier for parents to restrict students’ access to books in schools.

Speaking to Zimmerman and the rest of the board on Oct. 3, Wilson, whose relationship to Wilson-Snyder was confirmed through public records, explained his issue with the book.

“My concern is that it also included numerous instructions about maximizing sexual pleasure,” Wilson said.

After reading passages offering tips on masturbation, the teen’s remarks turned technical.

“Due to the subtle wording of the policy on gratuitous sexuality in board policy 109.1, the book could be argued to not even violate the policy,” Wilson said. “But either the book contradicts the policy, in which case we must get rid of the book, or the book passes the policy, in which case, the policy itself, I think, must be changed.”

Noting the book’s content and its targeted teen audience, Wilson said “it’s difficult for me to see how the book could be desired by someone to remain in our library, without that person intending to increase grooming of children.”

At the same meeting, Zimmerman, who is not up for reelection this year, read from prepared comments:

“This past weekend it was brought to my attention by numerous community members that there is a book in the Warwick High school library that has raised serious concerns as to the instructural (sic) and manual-type format pertaining to sex acts and how to specifically carry them out.”

Zimmerman said at the meeting that she would follow policy in considering whether the book should be removed but called the book “shocking and abhorrent.”

Responding Wednesday to questions about the issue, Zimmerman said she was not aware that the student who found the book was Wilson-Snyder’s son until he spoke up at the meeting.

“I likely would have never known his identity as the book was brought to my attention by community members,” Zimmerman said. “I honor and respect all individuals who are willing to share their thoughts and concerns — especially students.”

A ‘setup’

Shelly Chmil, a parent and educator in the district, said the whole scenario “feels like a setup.” For one thing, she noted, that Zimmerman prepared a statement to read at the Oct. 3 meeting showed that she planned to address the issue in advance.

Zimmerman herself serves on the school district’s library book review committee, which approved the book, Chmil noted. However, district records show she wasn’t yet on the committee in March 2022 when “Queer” was approved. Those records show the book had 83% support among the committee, which is made up of teachers and school staff, parents and two school board members.

Chmil said that after the meeting she took a look at the book. Even compared to other books targeted by Moms for Liberty in recent years, this one felt tame. “It pretty much just reads like a health book,” Chmil said. “So this crap about being a ‘groomer,’ it just infuriates me.”

Lititz resident Shirley Showalter said the episode strikes her as an effort to drum up a sense of urgency among Republican voters in the weeks leading up to a municipal election where seven school board seats are up for grabs in Warwick.

“Well the timing is quite strategic,” Showalter said in an email. “The book was ‘found’ at the last meeting before the election. Hmmm.”

Showalter, who recently founded an alternative to Moms for Liberty called Grandmas for Love, said she remains concerned about the group’s effect on the community.

“This is a manufactured crisis,” Showalter said.

While the school has a clear policy on how Wilson and his parents can challenge the book, that may not have served their ends, she said.

“(I)f the objective is to excite or enrage the voting public, then simply filing a challenge does not suffice,” Showalter said. “Moms for Liberty do not want carefully selected processes like the Warwick book policy. They want to generate anger in the community in order to motivate voters to elect their candidates.”

Zimmerman testifies

Speaking under oath before the Senate Education Committee on Tuesday, Zimmerman recounted the concerns expressed about “Queer,” then read what she described as a passage in the book about how to safely have anal sex.

She said “this high school student was not intending to locate a book of this topic or nature and even came to speak to our school board about their displeasure of finding and being exposed to this content erroneously.”

Aument said he wasn’t aware that one of the examples Zimmerman provided traced back to a student whose parent is involved with Moms for Liberty. But he said this information doesn’t change his perspective on what Zimmerman said.

“Mrs. Zimmerman’s views were based on fact, and she provided specific examples,” he said in an email. “I would encourage LNP to publish and your readers to view her testimony in full with the examples she provided.”

Aument said the bill he introduced to give parents more say in what materials are available in schools “closely mirrors” a law passed in Virginia last year, and was not influenced by Moms for Liberty.

“Like many organizations, I suspect I agree with some of their views and oppose others,” Aument said. “However, I do not seek to cancel their views or the views of any resident I represent. This is unhealthy in a civil society.”

This reporter’s work is funded by the Lancaster County Local Journalism Fund. For more information, or to make a contribution, please visit lanc.news/supportlocaljournalism.