Diana Schmertz

In several states it is against the law for children and teens to talk openly about their queer friends, parents, relatives, or their own personal feelings.  So many profound books by authors like James Baldwin, Alice Walker or Anne Carson are now hidden from students. Disney spoke out against the bill and Florida Governor DeSantis took away their “special taxing district” for Disneyland as retaliation.  The paintings in this series depict two gay dads with their daughter on Sesame Street and Disney LGBTQ+ characters; loving and innocent imagery that is censored by the “Don’t Say Gay” Act. The law is laser cut throughout each of these image. The remnants of the burnt out negative space is piled at the bottom of the frame, symbolic of the destruction this law causes.

Included in this series is a painting of Stacey Bailey and her fiancé, (now wife), in little Nemo outfits from a photo she showed her 4th grade students.  The heterosexual teachers in her Texas school community commonly show images of their spouses as a way to personally connect with their students.  Stacey Bailey was the only one penalized, put on administrative leave and almost fired for “pushing her gay agenda” by showing this very innocent photograph.  Her court case, which she won, is cut throughout this image. 

The painting, Carroll High School Petition, is of students from Carroll High School in Fort Wayne, Indiana performing the play Marian after their school stopped production due to complaints about LGBTQ+ characters.  The image has the text from the students' petition against the ban and the text from the district's board meeting.  After hearing from the community the board decided to keep the ban in place.  The students raised money and performed the play off school grounds.

The painting Redacted has the entire script from Perks of a Wallflower, (one of the top ten banned books), laser cut throughout the movie poster image.  I removed the gay character by making him a silhouette in the image and by blacking out any text that dealt with him.  I also blacked out any non-heteronormative content and text about characters dealings with their experience with child abuse. The book is banned for this content. Schools in states where it is illegal to discuss LGBTQ+ content are requesting scripts that remove these people from the play.  My painting visually demonstrates the damage done by removing such content.  My favorite part of this painting, which happened accidentally, is that it is so much easier to read “the gay parts” because they have black ink over the text.  For me, this shows you can try to deny a group of people exist, but they will always be there!