Attempts to ban children’s and young adult books with characters who are LGBTQ or people of color are sadly nothing new. Such efforts have risen sharply this year, however, and more than 700 organizations and individuals have signed a statement condemning such attacks on children’s education.
The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC), an alliance of more than 50 national non-profits, joined with other LGBTQ, civil rights, faith, literary, and youth organizations, as well as major publishers and book agencies, independent bookstores, authors, teachers, librarians, and other individuals, to release the statement, which asserts, “An organized political attack on books in schools threatens the education of America’s children. These ongoing attempts to purge schools of books represent a partisan political battle fought in school board meetings and state legislatures.” I am among the many who signed it.
Over 150 unique censorship incidents have been tracked by the American Library Association’s (ALAs) Office for Intellectual Freedom since June 1, 2021, “a rate not seen in decades,” according to a fact sheet from NCAC and GLAAD. They offer some context (my bold):
For several years, anti-LGBTQ groups have strategically targeted schools—and LGBTQ youth—in their policy and campaign efforts. From “bathroom bans” to school sports bans (both targeting transgender youth) and “Don’t Say Gay” laws that limit the free speech and inclusive lesson plans of teachers, schools are the centerpiece of the anti-LGBTQ agenda. Many of the same organizations are also involved in recent efforts to ban teachers from including concepts about racism in U.S. history in lesson plans as well. Those dual goals converged in 2021, as a wave of legislation sought to ban teachers from teaching certain concepts involving race, sex, and gender. Combined with a backlash to school mask and vaccination mandates, activists have swarmed school board meetings—and sometimes even threatened teachers, school board members, and librarians.
Just a few of the recent incidents have included:
- A Texas state lawmaker who asked schools to tell him whether they hold any of about 850 books that he is concerned “might make students feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress because of their race or sex.”
- A conservative Republican candidate for school board in Waukee, Iowa, who wants to find out the names of students who check out LGBTQ-inclusive books and notify their parents, while the person who ordered them “will be answering to the school board.”
- South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster asking South Carolina Superintendent of Education Molly Spearman to “begin a comprehensive investigation into the presence of obscene and pornographic materials in public schools in South Carolina,” triggered by conservative parents in one school district who sent him a copy of Gender Queer: A Memoir, by Maia Kobabe (Bookshop; Amazon), which in 2020 won the ALA’s Alex Award for adult books with “special appeal” to young adults and was a Stonewall — Israel Fishman Non-fiction Award Honor Book.
- The president of the Iowa Senate stating that he was drafting legislation making it a felony for teachers and other school employees to give “obscene” material to students. He announced his intent at a meeting over two books that one couple had said were inappropriate and obscene: The Hate U Give, by Angie Thomas (Bookshop; Amazon), and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie (Bookshop; Amazon).
- A Utah group urging parents to call the police if they find any of nine books in their children’s schools, including Gender Queer (see above) and Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out, by Susan Kuklin (Bookshop; Amazon), a Stonewall Honor Book.
- A group of New Jersey parents filing a formal complaint against five LGBTQ-inclusive books in their local high school library. Several falsely claimed the county prosecutor’s office was investigating the books as an issue of peddling pornography to minors.
- An unprecedented wave of attempted school board recalls across the country.
The FBI has also begun to track threats against school administrators, teachers, and board members.
The coalition statement also says what many readers here already know, but which is worth repeating:
Libraries offer students the opportunity to encounter books and other material that they might otherwise never see and the freedom to make their own choices about what to read. Denying young people this freedom to explore–often on the basis of a single controversial passage cited out of context–will limit not only what they can learn but who they can become.
Books help students connect with characters whose stories reflect their own lives. They also widen their view of a changing world that embraces diversity and multiculturalism. But there is always resistance to change. So it is not surprising that most of the books that are being attacked address concerns of groups previously underrepresented in libraries and school curriculums: books about lived experiences of racism or of growing up LGBTQIA and experiencing bias, discrimination, hate and even violence.
What can we do? This is a multi-pronged problem with multiple ways it must be addressed. As a start:
- Confidentially report censorship that you see to the ALA and/or to NCAC via simple online forms.
- Visit NCAC’s Resources page and/or the ALA’s Fight Censorship page to learn more about First Amendment rights, censorship, and how to prevent and address it effectively.
- Take part in GLAAD’s #BooksNotBans social media campaign.
- Take heart that the number of LGBTQ-inclusive children’s books and the number of diverse children’s books generally continues to grow. (I’ve listed more than 80 LGBTQ-inclusive picture books from 2021 alone in my database.) Support their authors and let the publishers know you value these books by buying them if your means allow, or by checking them out from your local school or library (and recommending them if they’re not on the shelves). Leave reviews at online booksellers saying why you appreciate books with LGBTQ and BIPOC characters. (Be honest about the books’ literary qualities, of course, good or bad, but separate that from the fact of diverse content.) Buying these books doesn’t directly fight censorship—it’s not all you should do—but does show publishers that these books continue to be needed.
- If you write about book bans or know someone who does, make sure to check out GLAAD’s Media Guide: Reporting on Book Bannings and School Censorship.
- Stay tuned in to your local politics and participate in town meetings and the like if you can. Vote even in purely local elections.
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