Education

Duke University Freshmen Refuse To Read Graphic Novel With Lesbian Porn

Philip DeVoe Contributor
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Some members of the Duke University freshman class have refused to read “Fun Home,” a graphic novel depicting a young girl’s emergence as a lesbian accompanied by several sexually explicit drawings. School officials selected the book as required freshman summer reading.

Some Duke students don’t agree with the moral position advanced by the graphic novel’s author, Allison Bechdel.

“Duke did not seem to have people like me in mind,” incoming Duke freshman Brian Grasso told The Chronicle, the school’s student newspaper. “It was like Duke didn’t know I existed, which surprises me.”

Grasso is credited with starting the movement against the required book by utilizing the Duke Class of 2019 Facebook group.

The freshman objected to the book’s support and depiction of homosexual behavior, saying in his Facebook post that he felt he “would have to compromise [his] personal Christian moral beliefs to read it.”

Although he’s been the subject of a social media firestorm and many attacks via private messages on his Facebook page, Grasso told The Daily Caller in an email that he doesn’t regret his refusal, and has since published an opinion article in The Washington Post explaining in detail why he will not read the book.

After his post, other students quickly began showing support for Grasso. They posted similar moral objections to the summer reading requirement.

“I thought to myself, ‘what kind of school am I going to?'” student Elizabeth Snyder-Mounts said in a comment on the Facebook post.

“The nature of ‘Fun Home’ means that content that I might have consented to read in print now violates my conscience due to its pornographic nature,” Jeffrey Wubbenhorst, another freshman at Duke, added in an email to The Chronicle.

Bechdel’s graphic novel is focused on her family’s dysfunction. The adult comic book underscores the protagonist’s suicidal father and her own struggle with lesbianism.

“Fun Home” has been popular with college administrators in recent years and has been the center of controversy on campuses previously. At the College of Charleston, for example, officials spent around $39,000 buying up copies of the book to assign to 4,000 or so incoming 2013 freshmen students for required summer reading.

Some students at the taxpayer-funded South Carolina school refused to read the novel on moral grounds, citing pornographic scenes throughout the book. A group associated with the Family Research Council called for its removal from the summer reading list. The South Carolina House of Representatives later cut College of Charleston’s funding by $52,000, the cost of the book’s selection for summer reading. (RELATED: Public College Freshmen Forced To Read Comic Book Starring Lesbian, Child Molester) 

Michael Schoenfeld, vice president of public affairs and governmental regulations at Duke, told CNN that school officials chose “Fun Home” because “it is a unique and moving book that transcends genres and explores issues that students are likely to confront.”

Sherry Zhang, a member of the book selection committee and co-chair of the first-year advisory counselor board, told The Chronicle that students are not required to read the summer reading assignment.

Since Monday morning, the Duke “Fun Home” rebellion has been trending on Facebook. More than 110,000 users have discussed the kerfuffle.

Jordan Hale, head of the book selection committee at Duke, did not return The Daily Caller’s request for comment.