A Florida school district in July ordered its librarians to remove all books with LGBTQ characters or themes from classrooms and libraries. While the district later asserted that such books are still allowed in high school libraries, there is evidence that many have been removed from them as well.
According to information obtained by the Florida Freedom to Read Project (FFTRP) through a public records request and shared with journalist Judd Legum of Popular Information, librarians in Charlotte County reached out to Superintendent Mark Vianello in July for clarification of district policy around the state’s expanded “Don’t Say Gay/Trans” law. When they asked if it was acceptable for school and classroom libraries to retain books with LGBTQ characters “as long as they do not have explicit sex scenes or sexual descriptions and are not approaching ‘how to’ manuals for how to be an LGBTQ+ person,” Vianello responded, “No. Books with LBGTQ+ characters are not to be included in classroom libraries or school library media centers.”
When the librarians asked, “Are we removing books from any school or media center, Prek-12 if a character has, for example, two mothers or because there is a gay best friend or a main character is gay?” Vianello replied, “Yes.”
And when asked whether student-selected books for silent reading or book reports can include LGBTQ characters or themes, as long as they weren’t pornographic, Vianello responded, “These characters and themes cannot exist.”
The district later told Popular Information that books with LGBTQ characters were removed from K-8 libraries but were still available in high school libraries. It issued a similar statement to the Los Angeles Blade. But Popular Information obtained logs of books removed from the district’s high school libraries, showing that “numerous” books with LGBTQ characters were removed just before the start of the school year, after the July guidance. The publication is awaiting a response from the district on why they were removed.
Although the “Don’t Say Gay/Trans” law applies only to classrooms, not libraries, it is being used to ban library books, as Popular Information reported earlier. A Charlotte County spokesperson told Legum that because some schools use their libraries as classrooms, their attorney advises that including LGBTQ-inclusive books in the libraries would be a violation of the law.
Even if the ban applies only to grades K-8, it is still a sweeping ban. Children with LGBTQ parents and other family members and LGBTQ children themselves will be denied the opportunity to see themselves reflected in school books during key formative years. Other children will be denied the opportunity to understand that LGBTQ people are a part of the rich tapestry of the world. And this begs the question: Will LGBTQ children and children with LGBTQ parents and other family members be allowed to speak or write about their families and identities at school?
I’ll have more next week, Banned Books Week, on this and other book bans around the country. For now, I will emphasize, as I have done before, that the current wave of book bans (like other book bans in history, say, in Germany in the 1930s) is not simply about which books are appropriate or not appropriate for children. It is about erasing identities.
If your school, school district, or public library tries to ban or restrict books, please confidentially report the attempts to the American Library Association (ALA) and/or to the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC). A few additional resources for fighting censorship include:
- Unite Against Book Bans, an ALA-led coalition that includes LGBTQ organizations, publishers, and others, for talking points, suggested actions, and more resources.
- “A Template for Talking with School and Library Boards About Book Bans,” from Bookriot. Unite Against Book Bans also includes some helpful tips for testifying at such meetings.
- The Book Challenge Resource Center from the National Coalition Against Censorship
- Book Ban Busters resources and training, from Red Wine and Blue
- PEN America’s extensive research and reporting on book bans
- Information on responding to bans, from GLSEN’s Rainbow Library