When a police officer entered a high school library in Missouri to investigate accusations of distributing pornography, the school librarian was dumbfounded. Award-winning books like “The Handmaid’s Tale” and “Gender Queer: A Memoir” were targeted as pornographic, sparking a wave of censorship. Around the country, bans on books representing LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC voices have escalated, turning school libraries into battlegrounds.
Florida made it a felony for teachers to allow access to banned books, while Tennessee banned Pulitzer Prize-winning novels like “Maus” and demanded the removal of a book on Martin Luther King Jr. In Pennsylvania, books like “The Story of Ruby Bridges” were banned, while Wyoming fired a librarian for refusing to pull certain titles.
As censorship grows, educators report “shadow banning,” where books quietly disappear from shelves. This suppression of anti-racist and LGBTQIA+ narratives aims to maintain inequitable power structures. Despite resistance from librarians, educators, and students, the fight against book bans continues to protect the freedom to explore diverse voices and crucial conversations.
Defend access to anti-racist ideas and stories that uplift LGBTQIA+ people during National Banned Books Week and beyond to preserve our collective history and humanity.
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