Story highlights Some Duke freshmen protest Alison Bechdel's "Fun Home"

The award-winning book, on a summer reading list, "violates my conscience," said one

(CNN) "Fun Home" may have won several awards for author Alison Bechdel, but some Duke University freshmen were not impressed.

The 2006 graphic novel, an autobiographical work about Bechdel coming to terms with her homosexuality as her funeral-director father remains closeted, was selected as a summer reading book for the Duke Class of 2019. But some students declined to read it because of its sexual themes and use of nudity.

"I feel as if I would have to compromise my personal Christian moral beliefs to read it," incoming freshman Brian Grasso wrote on Facebook, according to the Duke Chronicle

"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," freshman Jeffrey Wubbenhorst added in an email to the publication.

A Duke spokesman observed that the reading was voluntary, though he hoped that "students will begin their time at Duke with open minds and a willingness to explore new ideas, whether they agree with them or not."

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