Juno Dawson’s This Book Is Gay was among the books most requested for removal or restriction in libraries in the US in 2022, according to new data on banned books.
The list of books, released by the American Library Association (ALA) to mark the start of National Libraries Week, shows that titles were challenged most often because they contained LGBTQ+ representation or content that the complainants deemed sexually explicit.
The list is normally a top 10, but this year was expanded to include 13 titles because multiple books received the same number of challenges. The most challenged book was Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe, a graphic novel-memoir about gender identity, while second was All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M Johnson, another memoir, this time about the author’s childhood, adolescence and college years, growing up Black and queer.
The ALA tracks requests for the removal of books in libraries across the US, and said in 2022 it had seen the highest number of reports of calls to remove or restrict books since it began compiling data more than 20 years ago. The data is compiled from reports filed to the ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom by library professionals and from news stories published throughout the US.
Last year, there were requests to ban 2,571 titles; this is up 38% from 1,858 titles in 2021. Most of the books for which removal requests were made, said the ALA, were written by or about members of the LGBTQ+ community and people of colour.
Lessa Kanani’opua Pelayo-Lozada, president of the ALA, said that by releasing the list the organisation recognised “all of the brave authors whose work challenges readers with stories that disrupt the status quo and offer fresh perspectives on tough issues.
“The list also illustrates how frequently stories by or about LGBTQ+ persons, people of colour, and lived experiences are being targeted by censors,” she added. “Closing our eyes to the reality portrayed in these stories will not make life’s challenges disappear. Books give us courage and help us understand each other.”
Dawson’s This Book Is Gay, which the author described as “a manual to all areas of life as an LGBT person”, was the 10th most targeted book.
Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye was challenged for its depictions of sexual abuse, with complainants also saying that it was sexually explicit.
Young adults novels on the list include John Green’s Looking for Alaska, Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower, and Sarah J Maas’s A Court of Mist and Fury.
There have been a number of political moves in the US to restrict the books available in public and school libraries. In Missouri, Republican state senator Rick Brattin added an amendment to a bill about anti-child trafficking and sexual exploitation which criminalises anyone who makes visually explicit materials available at a school.
Some Utah school libraries now require permission slips for students to borrow books covering LGBTQ+ themes, while Republicans and the far right have targeted drag story hours, where drag storytellers introduce children to new books and ways of thinking.
In the UK, the Chartered Institute for Library and Information Professionals said that librarians had seen an increase in requests for books to be removed, with titles about sexuality and race the most targeted.
