https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/27/banned-books-people-of-color-lgbtq
Study counteracts claims by conservative lawmakers that books being removed from classrooms are sexually explicit
Becka Robbins of Fabulosa Books packs up LGBTQ+ books to send to parts of the country where they are banned, on 27 June 2024 in San Francisco. Photograph: Haven Daley/AP
The majority of banned books in US public schools last year dealt with people of color, LGBTQ+ people and other demographics, according to a new study from PEN America.
The report also counteracts claims by conservative lawmakers that books being removed from classrooms are sexually explicit and that book bans are altogether a “hoax”, an assertion made by Donald Trump.
There were more than 10,000 instances of books being banned in the 2023-24 school year, PEN America reported, a sharp increase from the previous year, as Republican-led states implemented new censorship laws.
Out of 4,218 book titles that were banned, 1,534 – or 36% – featured people of color, the most censored identity group in book bans. Some removed titles included August Wilson’s Pulitzer-prize winning play Fences and Innosanto Nagara’s A is for Activist, a picture book for children about social issues.
Books featuring people of color were disproportionately targeted in all banned-book categories, the report found, especially in removed historical and biographical titles. Of such banned books, 44% included people of color; more than one-fourth, or 26%, of those books featured Black people.
Advocates with PEN America noted that at the same time as the onslaught of book bannings, more than 50% of young people in the US are children of color, according to 2021 data from the Children’s Defense Fund.
“This targeted censorship amounts to a harmful assault on historically marginalized and underrepresented populations – a dangerous effort to erase their stories, achievements, and history from schools,” said Sabrina Baêta, senior manager for PEN America’s Freedom to Read program, in a press release about the report. “When we strip library shelves of books about particular groups, we defeat the purpose of a library collection that is supposed to reflect the lives of all people. The damaging consequences to young people are real.”
Titles featuring LGBTQ+ characters also made up a sizable number of book bans: 1,066 books, or 25% of all banned titles, included LGBTQ+ people. Transgender or genderqueer characters were specifically targeted in such book bans, as 28% of removed books featuring LGBTQ+ characters included that demographic.
Beyond people of color and LGBTQ+ people, books including disabled people were also affected by nationwide bans. About 10% of all removed titles included characters with physical, learning or developmental disabilities or who were neurodivergent. Several affected books with disabled characters focused on “confidence, self esteem, or experiences with ableism”, PEN America reported.
Meanwhile, only 13% of removed titles included “on the page” instances of sexual experiences. Inferred or “off the page” instances of sexual encounters were included in 31% of banned books.
The vast majority of banned books (85%) were fiction, with 14% being non-fiction and 1% poetry. About 67% of removed books were for younger audiences, PEN America reported.
The ongoing banning of books comes as the Trump administration has cracked down on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts in US public schools and universities. In a memo last week, Trump threatened to withhold federal funding from any schools that refused to eliminate diversity initiatives, such as scholarships for students of certain identity groups and school programming.
Scottie's Playtime 
Tell young folk it is banned and they will rush to it. Try and ban it on the internet and it will be shared one way or another.
The USA culturally is used to having free access, the Right may think they can impose their will.
But over five time zones; 300,000,000 + people and where 70,000,000 people did not vote for Trump?
Gee guys do you really think you can?…..
Well I suppose you do think you can.
I’d laugh if it wasn’t so tragic.
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Hi Roger. Sorry I do not have your confidence. Russia outlawed LGBTQ+ people “for the sake of the children”. And it worked. All mention of LGBTQ+ is non-existent in Russia now. Not seen in social media, in books, in movies, or in the public. That is what the hate Christians here desperately want. That is what is fueling a lot of this hate.
Either the idea that if I don’t feel like that then it doesn’t exist or shouldn’t exist, or the hate is pushed by fundamentalist Christians who demand everyone in the country live by their church doctrines. God said it is an abomination, so you can’t be gay, or wear the wrong clothing. Basically these people, and look at the republicans in state or federal legislatures and the ones pushing these laws to erase people like me, to remove our rights, they are all fundamentalist Christians who follow a vengeful god of the OT. They want to do here what Russia did. They want us erased from society. So one of their great fears was kids were being taught acceptance and tolerance, so they removed the anti-bullying programs, all the LGBTQ+ media from schools so kids couldn’t see themselves represented in media or see how others lived. Then they went after drag queens which are just people in costumes reading stories to little kids. Why because in their minds it taught kids acceptance and tolerance. Again their goal is to erase the LGBTQ+ from society. It is also to demand kids recognize that only a cis straight society is acceptable. I have told the story of a teacher who watched me get set on by a group of kids one twice my size and beaten to the floor and kicked. When they stopped he leaned over me and said “That is what you get for being a faggot, and I hope they do it again. A lot” I was not out, I was simply a small abused boy trying hard to understand and function in a world I did not fit into or understand. That is what these people want to return to.
They start like Anita Bryant did in the 1970s by claiming the need to protect the children as the gays are threats to little kids. They say the same things now about drag queens and trans people. They are a threat to your daughters in the bathrooms. Notice it is always trans girls and your daughters that are threatened, never trans boys in boys bathrooms. We have to protect the straight cis kids by vilifying and making laws against the bad evil confused mentally ill trans kids. Then it moved to trans adults. Now in states that had laws against allowing kids to even socially transition are now saying adults are banned from transitioning. Again the idea is to erase trans people, then the entire LGBTQ+ from society.
Roger thanks for letting me vent. I admit to being depressed and fearful. I only got the right to marry my long time life mate in 2015 gaining the 1,150 rights afforded only to straight cis married people before then. It allowed me to have a surgery I needed so I could get out of a wheelchair and walk again because I could be put on his work insurance. Yes the healthcare system nightmare in this country is another topic. But there are so many rights that we gained in 2015 that we had not had since we promised ourselves to each other in 1990. And yet haters want to take those rights away as if somehow our having the right to marry makes their marriages bad? I guess I should apologize to you and your grand wife for harming your marriage. Anyway. Sorry I am just feeling depressed today. Hugs
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You are quite right to vent your anger, your views and fears Scottie, seeing all the hard work being unravelled by small-minded folk who live in fear and ignorance.
You mentioned Russia…… Here’s the thing though to bear in mind when comparing Russia to the USA.
Historically Russia’s state of government is normally authoritarian in varying degrees, thus to move to suppression is not a great problem. The current president having been a KGB officer is quite at home with operating this kind of state. Russia is also on a conventional war footing and in such states freedoms tend to get chipped away in any case. Add to all that the predisposition for societies to pick on minorities and amongst others it is easy to see why the LGBT+ community has been forced back underground. Of course there has been the backing of the Orthodox Church to the state’s efforts.
Whereas from the perspective of folk used to a society where freedom of speech is common, albeit only tolerated in some section, and also a greater degree of freedom of action and less state surveillance, there is a different dynamic.
Firstly those who attempt to impose, to be frank and realpolitik about it, are not practiced in the grim skillsets, they think all they have to do is pass laws. It doesn’t work that way. In a nation used to having its say, objections and oppositions will pop up. They may risk legal action and imprisonment but there is not the inherent dread of what that that will entail as in an authoritarian system. Coupled with the fact the legal system still remains comparatively unbiased whereas in an authoritarian society it is simply and arm of government.
Therefore for the USA to reach the state of governance that the average Russian citizen has to live with would take a very long time, and the unravelling of two and a half centuries of culture, as I am fond of saying, across five time zones and in a population of 300,000,000+.
This is not to say that there are challenges and it will require a large number of groups to quit arguing over relatively minor issues and join hands.
Basically, if you feel threatened or even just inconvenienced by the current administration then join hands with others. Unite under a common cause.
They are clumsy, they are inept, they have no idea of how to run a nation in the way they think they would like to, and above all they are not united.
What will happen in the USA in the years ahead cannot be predicted in detail. This I will offer, The forces which propelled Trump into where he is and allowed Musk in are by no means that overwhelming and predominant. They are built on very shaky and woefully idealistic grounds of assumption.
Take care you guys. We are with you.
Roger & Sheila.
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