Rome:
The new mayor of Venice, Luigi Brugnaro, has officially banned from schools dozens of children's books on subjects such as homosexuality and disability, provoking a flurry of criticism.
The controversial move to ban the titles was one of Brugnaro's promises during his campaign leading up to the June elections.
According to a statement published Wednesday on the mayor's website, Brugnaro said he would not be "intimidated", and listed 49 books as blacklisted for schools.
Th e banned titles include the French book "Jean has two moms", which centres around a wolf family with two mothers.
The mayor said that it is "parents that need to educate their children on these things, and not schools".
Reacting to the announcement, organisations launched a marathon of public readings of the banned books. Several libraries laos encouraged people to read the banned titles with signs reading "Blacklisted books, be a rebel, read them".
The controversial move to ban the titles was one of Brugnaro's promises during his campaign leading up to the June elections.
According to a statement published Wednesday on the mayor's website, Brugnaro said he would not be "intimidated", and listed 49 books as blacklisted for schools.
Th e banned titles include the French book "Jean has two moms", which centres around a wolf family with two mothers.
The mayor said that it is "parents that need to educate their children on these things, and not schools".
Reacting to the announcement, organisations launched a marathon of public readings of the banned books. Several libraries laos encouraged people to read the banned titles with signs reading "Blacklisted books, be a rebel, read them".