Book on hookup apps, gay sex available in Tampa middle school library

Parents of Hillsborough County Public Schools students in Tampa, Florida, are voicing their outrage after at least one sexually explicit book was made available to students, including a book in a middle school library that features instructions for gay sex and hookup apps.

Students as young as 11 at Pierce Middle School, in Tampa, are able to check out one of two available copies of "This Book is Gay" by Juno Dawson, The Florida Standard reported. The book on Amazon is described as an "instruction manual" for people who come out of the closet by providing a "candid, funny, and uncensored exploration of sexuality."

The book also includes a cartoon of a naked man under the section "Boy-on-Boy Sex."

Florida Standard Editor in Chief Will Witt spoke at the Hillsborough school board meeting Tuesday against the book be available in children's libraries.

Children are not allowed to watch porn online but able to read the graphic "This Book is Gay," Witt said.

The book is "encouraging them to go on the dating site Grindr," an app used primarily for gay hookups, he stated. 

By allowing children to read the book, school administrators are "opening them up to sexual predators" and "to grooming," Witt said.

This is not the first time parents have come forward with concerns regarding books in the Hillsborough school libraries. 

Parent Julie Gebhard pulled her three children out of the district over the library's reading materials, the newspaper also reports.