Giannoulias, Durbin push back against book bans at Capitol Hill hearing as GOP senators urge parents to ‘speak up’

Among the banned books discussed at Tuesday’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing were: “Gender Queer,” “All Boys Aren’t Blue,” “Maus,” “The Handmaid’s Tale,” “A Raisin in the Sun,” and “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.” (Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times)

WASHINGTON — As Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., was laying the groundwork to beat up Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias at a Senate hearing Tuesday on book bans, he read out loud sexually explicit passages from “Gender Queer” and “All Boys Aren’t Blue.”

Those two titles are among the books most frequently banned by school districts over the last two years, according to PEN America, a nonprofit that advocates for authors’ rights and free expression.