The U.S. has a long history of banning books — specifically, those that challenge the status quo or make cis het white people in power uncomfortable. And there seems to be a boisterous resurgence of attempts, especially to quiet the voices of queer authors. George Johnson’s memoir All Boys Aren’t Blue, for example, is about growing up Black and queer; it dropped a mere eight months ago and has been banned in school boards across 15 different states. Johnson is rightfully frustrated with attempts to keep their book out of the hands of students but, the resistence they’re facing as a queer writer is far from an isolated event.
This past week, Gene McGee, the Mayor of Ridgeland, Mississippi, said he would withhold $110,000 of funding from the Madison County Library System unless they got rid of books with ‘homosexual material,’ per the Mississippi Free Press. Library officials who spoke with the Mayor said that he specifically asked them to get rid of a book called The Queer Bible, which includes essays by literally all of my icons, including Elton John.
