Gay content in 6 of 11 top banned books

You can call it freedom of (selected) speech.

Six out of the 11 most banned or challenged books in the U.S. last year had some form of LGBT content, according to a list released Monday by the American Library Association. The list, part of ALA’s annual “State of America’s Libraries Reports,” looks at material that was censored for its subject matter.

For 2018, the top spot went to “George,” the story of a 10year-old transgender girl named Melissa, known to some as George. Her dream is to play Charlotte in her school’s production of “Charlotte’s Web.”

It’s the third consecutive year “George,” written by Alex Gino for readers between the ages of 8 and 12, made the list, alongside other critical and commercial successes such as “Last Week Tonight With John Oliver Presents A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo,” a picture book by Jill Twiss and illustrated by EG Keller about a (spoiler alert!) gay bunny living with his non-gay grandpa Mike Pence. The kid-favorite series of “epic novels” by Dav Pilkey, “Captain Underpants,” also made the banned list for portraying a same-sex couple, and for “encouraging disruptive behavior,” according to ALA.

Of the 483 books that were challenged or banned in 2018, ALA only listed the top 11.

“Half of the books on this year’s list are there for LGBTQIA+ content for young people. That was true last year, too. It frustrates and angers to me to know that adults are trying to block kids’ access to awareness and stories about who’s in the world,” author Gino told the Daily News.

And young readers are probably the ones who can benefit the most from learning about differences, Gino added.