Lt. Gov. Robinson wants 'sexually explicit' LGBTQ-themed books removed from NC schools

Robinson's Facebook video targeting "George," "Lawn Boy" and "Gender Queer" was posted on Saturday, days after he was denounced by Democrats and the LGBTQ community for referring to homosexuality and transgenderism as "filth" and "garbage."

"Gender Queer" is a graphic novel with images that depict sexual fantasies and behavior among its characters, and Robinson showed some of them in his video.

"I challenge you to describe them as anything other than filth," he said. "These materials do not belong in public schools."

Wake County Public School System spokeswoman Lori Roach said Tuesday that two high schools have copies of "Gender Queer," and two have copies of "Lawn Boy." There are 72 copies of "George" across the district, she said.

"These books in question are not taught in our schools. They are not included in any curriculum. In some schools, they are available in the school library for students to check out," Roach said in an email.

"The books that Lt. Gov. Robinson discussed can be found in school systems throughout the state," Robinson spokesman John Wesley Waugh said in a statement, noting "Gender Queer" is available in Wake County schools.

"Additionally, the other books he referenced have been found in elementary, middle and high schools in multiple counties across the state," Waugh said.

He wasn't able to cite any school where the books have been used by teachers, however.

Mary Lee Gibson, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Public Instruction, said Tuesday that local districts decide what books to include in their school libraries.

"DPI also does not create classroom curriculum or the materials used to support classroom teaching. The materials used to support teaching are also made at the school level," Gibson said in an email.

"Gender Queer" has been temporarily pulled from several school libraries across the country.

"I will continue to fight for the rights of our children to receive an education that is free of sexual concepts that do not belong in the classroom, and I don't care who doesn't like it," Robinson said in the video.

"There is no reason anybody, anywhere in America should be telling any child about transgenderism, homosexuality or any of that filth," he told the congregation at Asbury Baptist Church in Seagrove during a June visit. "And yes, I called it filth. And if you don't like it that I called it filth, come see me about it."

The lieutenant governor said he wasn't speaking in his official capacity when he was at the church, only as a person holding to his religious beliefs.

"To me, it is against the tenets of my religion," he said. "But we do not live in a theocracy, and I do not have the right to tell anyone what they practice in their home.”

Teaching about those issues in public schools, however, "is absolutely off limits," he said.

"Those are adult topics that should stay in an adult place. They have no business around children," he said. "Homosexuality is not a culture. Homosexuality is a sexual preference, and sexual preferences, I believe, do not need to be discussed in our schools."

Faith leaders from about 20 organizations protested outside Robinson's downtown Raleigh office on Monday evening, demanding that he apologize for his remarks and asking him to meet with them and members of the LGBTQ community.

"First and foremost, they hurt me as a gay man, as a gay man of faith," protest organizer Rev. Vance Haywood said of Robinson's rhetoric. "To hear someone stand up – a public official, the lieutenant governor of the state where I live – saying that I am filth and that people like me are filth, that hurts."