More than half of 2023’s most challenged library books have LGBTQ themes or characters, the American Library Association (ALA) said Monday.
Maia Kobabe’s “Gender Queer,” a 2019 graphic novel recounting Kobabe’s exploration of gender identity and sexuality, topped the organization’s list of the 10 most challenged titles for the third year in a row. The next four books also have LGBTQ themes.
Kobabe’s memoir, which the author has said is meant for older teens and adults, is often cited by conservative groups and lawmakers making the case that certain titles should be removed from schools and libraries because they are inappropriate for children.
Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) read from the book during a September hearing on book bans to defend banning it and similar titles from schools.
“In looking at the titles of the most challenged books from last year, it’s obvious that the pressure groups are targeting books about LGBTQIA+ people and people of color,” ALA President Emily Drabnski said Monday in a statement.
Book challenges soared in 2023, according to Monday’s report, jumping 65 percent from 2022 to the highest level ever recorded by the group, which began tracking such data in 2001. More than 4,200 unique titles in schools and public libraries were targeted last year, the ALA said in March, a dramatic increase from the previous all-time high of 2,571 in 2022.
Individuals and “pressure groups” that demanded the removal of multiple books — often dozens or hundreds at a time — drove last year’s surge, according to the ALA. Titles elevating the voices and experiences of LGBTQ people and people of color made up 47 percent of challenges in 2023.
“These are books that contain the ideas, the opinions, and the voices that censors want to silence — stories by and about LGBTQ+ persons and people of color,” said Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of the association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom. “Each challenge, each demand to censor these books is an attack on our freedom to read, our right to live the life we choose, and an attack on libraries as community institutions that reflect the rich diversity of our nation.”
“When we tolerate censorship, we risk losing all of this,” she said.