Common thread in 2019’s “most challenged” books: LGBTQ issue
Eight of the 10 most challenged books last year were based on LGBTQ subjects or narratives, the American Library Association said in its annual ranking of books that were banned or protested in schools and public libraries.
One of them parodied Marlon Bundo, Vice President Mike Pence’s rabbit. Another told a story about a marriage between two men. Other books on the 2019 list were stories about children and transgender identity.
“This year, we saw the continuation of a trend of a rising number of challenges to LGBTQ. books,” said Deborah Caldwell-stone, executive director of the library association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom, which compiles the list.
“Our concern is the fact that many of the books are age-appropriate and developmentally appropriate books intended for young people, but they are being challenged because they allegedly advance a political agenda or sexualize children,” she said. According to the association, the challenges came from parents, legislators and religious leaders.
“Libraries are community institutions, intended to serve diverse communities,” Caldwell-stone added. “That includes all kinds of individuals and families.”
Challenges to books tend to reflect the times. In 2016, for example, an election year defined by political debates over bathroom bills, immigration and race, several of the most frequently challenged titles shared themes of gender, religious diversity and LGBTQ issues.
The Office for Intellectual Freedom said that in 2019, there were 377 attempts to remove books or materials from libraries, schools and universities. Most of the challenges came from patrons, followed by administrators, political and religious groups, librarians, teachers, elected officials and students.
Of the 566 books involved, these were the 10 most frequently challenged.
George, a 10-yearold transgender child who has secretly renamed herself Melissa, dreams of playing Charlotte, the female spider, in a fourthgrade production of “Charlotte’s Web.” “With refreshingly little fanfare, Gino uses the ‘herself’ pronoun to describe how George sees, well, herself — despite a birth certificate that says otherwise,” Tim Federle wrote in The New York Times Book Review in 2015. “George” was also on the American
Library Association’s 2016 and 2017 lists of most challenged books.
The library association said some school administrators removed the book because it included a transgender child, and because they believed that the “sexuality was not appropriate at elementary levels.” Some who objected to “George” said schools and libraries should not “put books in a child’s hand that require discussion”; opponents also cited its sexual references and a viewpoint described as at odds with “traditional family structure.”
“Beyond Magenta” was challenged for “its effect on any young people who would read it” and over concerns that it was sexually explicit and biased, the library association said.
The book, a gay romance between two bunnies, was the brainchild of HBO comedy host John Oliver, who described it as a mocking rebuke of the vice president’s opposition to gay and transgender rights. The book parodies one written by Pence’s daughter about a bunny who observes the vice president.
The library association said the book was challenged over its LGBTQ content and political viewpoints (“designed to pollute the morals of its readers”) as well as for not including a content warning. In one instance, a person defaced a copy of the book, writing: “Girl bunnies marry boy bunnies. This is the way it has always been.”
This sex-education comic book was challenged, banned and relocated for LGBTQ content for discussing gender identity and for concerns that the title and illustrations were “inappropriate.”
Josh Layfield, a pastor in Upshur County, W.VA., met with library administrators to object to the book, which is about a prince and a knight who fall in love, as “a deliberate attempt to indoctrinate young children, especially boys, into the LGBTQ lifestyle,” according to the library association’s field report. It was temporarily removed from the library, but later returned.
This 2014 picture book about being transgender has been at the center of controversy and a regular feature on the American Library Association list. Recent challenges focused on its LGBTQ content and objected to the fact that it features a transgender person and confronts a topic that is “sensitive, controversial and politically charged.”
Objections to this book centered on its “profanity” and “vulgarity and sexual overtones,” the American Library Association reported.
Callie is a theaterloving teenager determined to create a set worthy of Broadway. The book’s LGBTQ themes raised objections that it goes against “family values/morals,” the library association said.
The series was challenged over its magic and witchcraft references, for its curses and spells and for characters who use “nefarious means” to attain goals.
This children’s book, which details the true story of two male penguins and the baby chick they hatched together, raised objections for its LGBTQ content.