The LGBTQ-Inclusive Picture Books That Are Being Targeted for Bans

• Books for Kids, Politics and Law • banned books, banned books week, censorship, children's books

It’s Banned Books Week, during a year that has seen record numbers of bans and challenges. Let’s kick things off by looking at some of the picture books that have been targeted recently for being LGBTQ inclusive.

LGBTQ-Inclusive Picture Books Banned

Young adult books have dominated the American Library Association’s (ALA’s) latest list of the most frequently banned and challenged books (and PEN America’s latest list, too), but picture books have been on the list in previous years and remain a target. Bans on LGBTQ-inclusive picture books in fact have a long history. Lesléa Newman’s Heather Has Two Mommies (1989) and Michael Willhoite’s Daddy’s Roommate (1990) faced conservative outrage and attempted bans since shortly after their publication. Heather was one of the most frequently challenged books for the decade 1990 to 1999. Most librarians supported it, though, Newman told me in a 2015 interview, and it mostly stayed on shelves.

Bans and attempted bans of picture books with LGBTQ and other marginalized characters have surged in the past few years, however, as I’ve discussed before. Let’s look at just two recent examples. This past week in South Carolina, the Greenville County Republican Party passed a resolution asking that books that mention LGBTQ topics be banned from the children and juvenile sections of the county’s libraries, per the Post and Courier. The books named are:

  • I’m Not a Girl: A Transgender Story, a first-person story based loosely on the life of one of the co-authors, a 12-year-old transgender boy.
  • My Own Way: Celebrating Gender Freedom for Kids, a simple poem that asks readers to reflect on what gender can mean. (While I have some concerns about whether this book presents its information well, I do not believe that anything in it is inappropriate for children.)
  • My Shadow is Purple, a rhyming tale starring a child whose shadow isn’t blue like dad’s or pink like mom’s, but rather purple—meant to be an analogy to being nonbinary. It follows the author’s My Shadow Is Pink, about a gender creative boy, inspired by his own child.
  • The Rainbow Parade, a winsome story about a young girl with two moms who is excited about going to the Pride Parade, based on the author-illustrator’s own experiences as a child.
  • ‘Twas the Night Before Pride, a fun take on the classic poem that gives us a vision of Pride and its history through the eyes of a child with two moms. I had the honor of doing the cover reveal for the book, whose author and illustrator are both queer moms.

And in Missouri, a parent has asked that five books be removed from the children’s section of the local library and placed where only students in eighth grade and up can access them. Not only are these books intended for elementary-age children, but if you know anything about middle schoolers, you’ll know that most wouldn’t be caught dead reading a picture book of any type. Such a removal would effectively be a ban. The books are:

What strikes me about all of the books here is just how … ordinary they are. Many are based on true stories or the real lives of their authors; others simply look at everyday family life or show children expressing who they really are with the support of their parents and siblings. The danger of these bans is not just to an author’s livelihood or to the number of books that a library has available. It is a razor-thin edge between banning these books and banning the children and families whose images they reflect, and that is where the real danger lies.

PEN America’s Index of School Book Bans of books banned between July 1, 2021 and June 30, 2022, shows us an even fuller picture of the books under threat right now. I’ve extracted the below LGBTQ-inclusive picture books titles from their list. (It doesn’t include some of the above titles that were banned very recently or in non-school libraries.) Some of the books have already been fully banned; others have been banned pending investigation. And these are far from all such books that have been banned over the past decades, just the most recent ones  (and I’ve probably missed a few).

I’ll have more later in the week about how we can fight these bans and how these bans go hand-in-hand with legislative efforts to censor curricula, such as Florida’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay or Trans” law.

  • 10,000 Dresses, about a transgender child who learns to express himself.
  • 47,000 Beads, in which Lakota child gets a little help from her aunt, mother, cousin, and a two-spirit elder in expressing a two-spirit self and dancing at a pow wow.
  • A is for Activist, a board book with themes of social justice.
  • All Are Welcome, which celebrates the many different people in a community, including families with same-sex parents.
  • And Tango Makes Three, the true story of a male penguin pair who incubate and hatch an egg.
  • Best Best Colors: Los mejores colores, in which a boy learns he can have more than one favorite color, best friend, and mother. As part of the story, he makes a rainbow flag for the Pride parade.
  • Call Me Max, in which a transgender boy faces the challenges of a first day at school, but speaks up for himself and finds support.
  • Daddy’s Roommate, about a boy getting to know his dad’s new boyfriend after his mom and dad (amicably) divorce.
  • Everywhere Babies, in which babies do baby things, sometimes with their parents (who are occasionally of the same gender).
  • The Family Book, a book celebrating many different types of families.
  • A Family Is a Family Is a Family, in which children in a classroom share the stories of their families. One has two moms.
  • From the Stars in the Sky to the Fish in the Sea, about a magical child can change into anything they want to be, including a boy or a girl.
  • Heather Has Two Mommies, in which a girl and her classmates learn about their many different types of families.
  • Ho’onani: Hula Warrior, based on the true story of a Native Hawaiian child who feels neither wahine (girl) or kane (boy) and wants to join the school performance of a traditional kane hula chant.
  • I Am Jazz, the true story of a trans girl.
  • In Our Mothers’ House, the story of a two-mom adoptive family across many years.
  • Jack (Not Jackie), about a young girl who comes to understand her transgender brother.
  • Jacob’s New Dress, about a young boy who wants to wear a dress and be a princess during dress-up time in school. Despite the teasing of one classmate, he finds support in his parents, teacher, and a friend.
  • Jacob’s Room to Choose, in which Jacob, wearing a dress, wants to use the boys’ restroom, while his friend Sophie, in pants and a button-down shirt, wants to use the girls’. Both are teased, but the class comes up with an inclusive solution.
  • Julián Is a Mermaid, about a gender creative boy dressing up as a mermaid to attend a mermaid festival (based on a real one on Coney Island) with his abuela.
  • Julián at the Wedding, where Julián meets a new friend and shows that he’s still full of imagination and a creative sense of style.
  • Lola Sleeps Over, in which Lola is excited about her first sleepover, with her cousin Hani and Hani’s two moms.
  • Mommy, Mama, and Me and Daddy, Papa, and Me, in which children with same-sex parents do everyday things.
  • Morris Micklewhite and the Tangerine Dress, about a boy who loves wearing a dress during school dress-up time, but is teased by other kids. His mom lets him stay home one day, when he lets his imagination soar and gains the confidence to return.
  • My Princess Boy, a mother’s poem to her gender creative son.
  • My Two Dads and Me and My Two Moms and Me, in which children with two moms or two dads do everyday things with them.
  • Neither, a charming little fable about difference, which many have related to nonbinary and trans identities (though it could be an allegory for other identities as well).
  • Peaceful Fights for Equal Rights, a history of activism and protests (including LGBTQ ones).
  • A Peacock Among Pigeons, about a boy peacock who learns to love his flamboyant feathers as he finds community and friendship with other colorful birds, leaving the teasing of the gray and narrow-minded pigeons behind.
  • Peanut Goes for the Gold, in which guinea pig Peanut (who happens to be nonbinary) has their own way of doing things, but that’s a strength.
  • Phoenix Goes to School: A Story to Support Transgender and Gender Diverse Children, A story by a mom and her seven-year-old transgender daughter, loosely based on their own life.
  • Pink is for Boys, a simple but effective look at how not just pink, but also blue, red, green, yellow, and other colors apply to things loved by both boys and girls.
  • Pride: The Story of Harvey Milk and the Rainbow Flag, a biography of the civil rights icon.
  • Prince & Knight, a fairytale about two young men who fall in love, with the support of their parents.
  • The Sissy Duckling, about a boy duck who doesn’t like doing typical “boy” things, but who ultimately shows his courage in other ways.
  • Sparkle Boy, about a boy who loves sparkly things and his sister who learns to support him.
  • Stonewall: A Building. An Uprising. A Revolution. A history.
  • They, She, He Easy as ABC, an alphabet book celebrating a diversity of pronouns and identities.
  • This Day in June, a kids’-eye view of a Pride parade.
  • Two Dads: A Book About Adoption, a simple, rhyming, and affirming tale of a boy talking about his two dads.
  • Worm Loves Worm, in which two betrothed worms must respond when their friends want to know: Who will be the bride and who the groom? The lesson? Gender labels don’t matter here.
  • When Aidan Became a Brother, in which a boy (who happens to be trans) prepares to be the best big brother he can.
  • Were I Not a Girl: The Inspiring and True Story of Dr. James Barry, the true story of a 19th-century surgeon assigned female at birth but who lived adult life as a man.
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