School officials in Metro Atlanta’s Forsyth County canceled two talks by a children’s book author last week after he used the word “gay” in a presentation to elementary school students about the history of the superhero character Batman.

The author, Marc Tyler Nobleman, has spoken to students of all ages all over the country hundreds of times about the superhero franchise’s co-creator without incident.

He calls it a suspenseful and inspirational talk that uses the word “gay” once because it’s a pivotal fact in research that led DC Entertainment to acknowledge Batman’s true origins.

“I did not come in to talk about sexual orientation,” he said. “The fear in that district of the parental backlash is so severe that one three-letter word overrode 57 minutes worth of other valuable content that I came to deliver.”