School district pulls book about boy who wears girls' dresses following complaints

A school district in North Carolina has canceled its plan to use a children's book about a boy who likes to wear girls' dresses for a first-grade lesson following complaints from conservatives.

According to Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools superintendent Ann Clark, the book titled "Jacob's New Dress" was supposed to be a part of an "age-appropriate" lesson for Child Abuse Prevention Month.

The book, authored by Sarah and Ian Hoffman, is intended to teach children about those who are "gender non-conforming," according to Christian News Network. It follows the story of a boy who is teased by his peers for his interest in wearing a princess dress for playtime in school.

Some teachers felt uncomfortable about reading the book to their students, and their complaints were eventually heard by some Republican lawmakers.

"I got a call that it was brought up in the House Republican Caucus Monday night, which is never a good thing," said district government liaison Charles Jeter.

Jeter was asked to relay the concerns of the lawmakers to the district, which soon decided to replace the controversial book. It has since been replaced by another children's book titled "Red: A Crayon's Story," which is about a red Crayon that thinks of itself as blue.

Tami Fitzgerald, executive director of the conservative group North Carolina Values Coalition, said that her organization was launching a petition against the book when the school system reversed course.

"I read the book online," she said. "It's clearly geared to young children. The book is meant as a tool of indoctrination to normalize transgender behavior. I think a lot of parents would object to that," she added.

The Hoffmans argued that the backlash against their book proves that there is a need for teaching acceptance to the children. Ian rejected that notion the book was intended to indoctrinate young people and said that the suggestion that reading the book can turn someone gay was "bizarre."

Ian said that the response to the book has been overwhelmingly positive, and the only backlash against it was in 2015 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where some parents complained that they were not notified before it was read to a kindergarten class.

"Our hope, when we wrote this book, was that some day it would be considered quaint," the Hoffmans wrote in an email to The New York Times. "We imagined future generations saying, 'What was the fuss about?' Clearly, there's more work to do," they continued.