Today marks the start of Banned Books Week, the annual event from the American Library Association (ALA) celebrating the freedom to read. Half of the books in the ALA’s latest Top Ten Most Challenged Books list contain LGBTQ content—to me, that’s a shopping list.
Book challenges are “an attempt to remove or restrict materials, based upon the objections of a person or group. A banning is the removal of those materials,” according to the ALA’s Office of Intellectual Freedom (OIF). LGBTQ-inclusive children’s and young adult books have long comprised a significant part of the Top 10 list; in 2017 (the most recent year of data), they were:
- Drama
, by Raina Telgemeier, a graphic novel about a girl in middle school trying to navigate the social world of the drama club; one of her friends is gay;
- George
, by Alex Gino, about a transgender girl;
- Sex is a Funny Word
, by Cory Silverberg and Fiona Smyth, a book about bodies and sexuality, inclusive of all gender identities;
- And Tango Makes Three,
by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson (who were kind enough to speak with me in 2011 about their reaction when Tango made the list for the fifth time);
- I Am Jazz
, by Jessica Herthel and Jazz Jennings, the autobiographical story of a transgender girl.
(The full 2017 Top 10 list is here; and here’s my longer post from April, when the list was announced. If you want more, the ALA has compiled challenges since 1990.)
But while OIF compiles yearly lists of challenges, it estimates that 82 to 97 percent of challenges go unreported. If you hear of a challenge in your community, report it to OIF.—it will help us all better understand the scope and targets of censorship as a first step to addressing it.
Of course, some people still have trouble getting the concept. Over the past couple of weeks, a group of pastors tried to have LGBTQ-inclusive books removed from the Banned Books Week display at a library in Maine, claiming they were inappropriate for a public library because they “promote homosexuality” and are “risque and immodest.” Because removing books from a display about banned books is a way to show people the harms of censorship? I think not.
One person’s “inappropriate” book could be another person’s lifeline, a reflection of themselves (or a friend or relative) that offers needed information, support, and comfort. And while as parents we may want to restrict certain books from our own children that we feel they are not yet ready for, we should not presume to do so for others, much less an entire community.
Celebrate with your favorite banned books this week—many are in my Books, Music, and More section. And be sure to thank the authors, librarians, and others you see standing up against censorship.
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