As fans swoon over season 2 of ‘Heartstopper’, Iowa conservatives try to scrub Nick & Charlie from existence
Heartstopper Season 2 premiere day—and it’s simply impossible to be in a bad mood after you’ve watched Heartstopper!It’s been just over 15 months since the teen rom-com premiered on Netflix (though it’s felt like eons!) and became a global sensation.
Created by Alice Oseman—adapted from her web comics of the same name—the love story of Nick Nelson (Kit Connor) and Charlie Spring (Joe Locke) continues to unfold in the newest batch of episodes, which, judging from early reactions, have been well worth the wait.But apparently not everyone loves Heartstopper. (We know, we’re shocked, too!)The same week we’re all abuzz over season two, word’s gotten out that an Iowa school district has included the Heartstopper books series on a list of nearly 400 works of literature it believes could violate so-called “education reform bills” that were passed in the state earlier this year under Republican Governor Kim Reynolds.According to the Des Moines Register, the Urbandale Community School District is set to ban titles from the list, which also includes literary classics like Ulysses, The Catcher In The Rye, and The Color Purple, and hundreds of other books considered to feature sex acts, or any mention of gender identity or sexual orientation—which they deem inappropriate for students before seventh grade.New York Times bestselling author Ryan Douglass shares his list of the ten most crucial banned LGBTQ titles.Teachers have been asked to remove all titles from the list, in accordance with Iowa’s Senate File 496, signed by Governor Reynolds back in May.
Many of the bill’s particulars echo Florida’s infamous “Don’t Say Gay” laws, in what is another instance of conservative law-makers trying to define what is “age appropriate” in.
