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This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

You can't say "summer" at a library and not immediately think of the word "reading." But what if you're at the beach and you forgot your book?

Emma Clark Library has hosted a Little Free Library at West Meadow Beach in July and August since 2016, to inspire beachgoers to read, share, and reuse. This "Take a Book or Leave a Book" concept is one that embodies recycling and community. The structure was made from reclaimed materials and is maintained by Library teen volunteers. It is located under the pavilion at the beach. There is no need to live in Three Village to share in this give and take project, as long as you are a visitor of the beach. These books are donated by the public (books are not owned by Emma Clark – don't return your library books here!).

The Town of Brookhaven and Environmental Educator Nicole Pocchiare have once again graciously given their consent for Emma Clark to host the Little Free Library at the beach. Councilmember Jonathan Kornreich attended the installation to show his support of this outreach service to the community.

Find out what's happening in Three Villagewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"The Little Free Library at West Meadow Beach is just a great opportunity to put books into peoples' hands. I love the community spirit embodied in those little structures and knowing that favorite books can be shared among neighbors in this way," said Councilmember Kornreich. "By the way, when you're there check out the bottom of the little library case — it was constructed from an old wooden library chair."

Little Free Libraries have become an international phenomenon since their inception in 2010, and Little Free Library was established as a nonprofit organization in 2012 in Wisconsin. According to the official Little Free Library website, there are over 100,000 registered book-sharing boxes world-wide. Emma Clark's Little Free Library at West Meadow Beach is registered on www.littlefreelibrary.org and can be found on the site's official map of all Little Free Libraries across the United States and over 100 countries worldwide.

Find out what's happening in Three Villagewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Emma Clark Library is happy to promote literacy outside the walls of the building and help our neighbors discover new books. Whether it be a hot summer day or a beautiful, breezy sunset, the Little Free Library simply enhances the already beloved West Meadow Beach here in Three Village.

Questions? Email askus@emmaclark.org

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?

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These 14 titles have been under attack for doing exactly what literature is supposed to do.

Updated at 13:58 p.m. ET on February 3, 2022.
Book banning is back. Texas State Representative Matt Krause recently put more than 800 books on a watch list, many of them dealing with race and LGBTQ issues. Then an Oklahoma state senator filed a bill to ban books that address "sexual perversion," among other things, from school libraries. The school board of McMinn County, Tennessee, just banned Maus, Art Spiegelman's Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic memoir about the Holocaust. Officials said that they didn't object to teaching about genocide, but that the book's profanity, nudity, violence, and depiction of suicide made it "too adult-oriented for use in our schools."

No one has yet figured out how to depict the Holocaust without ugliness, for the very obvious reason that it was one of the greatest crimes in human history. Maus details the cruelties that Spiegelman's father witnessed during World War II, including in Auschwitz, as well as the pair's complicated relationship after the war. Some nudity shows Jews-depicted in the book as mice (their German oppressors are drawn as cats)-stripped naked before their murder. Hiding these images from children purposefully ignores the mechanized gruesomeness of the Holocaust. And Maus's removal isn't a side effect of an otherwise neutral attempt to keep classrooms wholesome. As I wrote in December, getting rid of books that spotlight bigotry is the goal.
Read: This is a shakedown
Books have been the targets of bans in America for more than a century. Maus is not the first, or the last, casualty of an ideology that, in the name of protecting children, leaves them ignorant of the world as it often is. The following 14 books employ difficult, sometimes upsetting imagery to tell complicated stories. That approach has made them some of the most frequently challenged, or outright banned, books in America's schools; it also makes them perfect examples of what literature is supposed to do. Please consider buying them for the students in your life, and for yourselves.

Lee's 1960 novel about a white lawyer defending a Black man falsely accused of rape in a segregated Alabama town won the Pulitzer Prize and was adapted into an Oscar-winning film. The novel, long used in classrooms as a parable about American racism, has faced various controversies over the decades. Last week, it was removed from a Washington State school district's required-reading list-although not outright banned-for its racial slurs and for the perception of Atticus Finch as a white savior.

Atwood's popular dystopian story turns the United States into a Christian theocracy called Gilead, where fertile women are stripped of their name and impregnated against their will. Its sexual violence and criticism of religion have made it ripe for challenges in schools. The original book, its adaptation into a graphic novel, and its sequel, The Testaments, were pulled from circulation, then quickly restored, in a Kansas school district in November.
Read: Slouching towards Gilead
Morrison's first novel, The Bluest Eye, has shown up multiple times on the American Library Association's annual list of challenged books. The classic, which kicked off Morrison's Nobel Prize-winning career, follows Pecola Breedlove, a Black girl with a tragic family history and a deep desire to have blue eyes. In January, The Bluest Eye was removed from a Missouri school district's libraries to keep children away from painful scenes of sexual abuse and incest-which in Morrison's hands become illustrations of the insidious psychological damage that racism deals to her characters.

This Coretta Scott King Award winner, like many of Myers's novels, follows a young Black protagonist. In this story, 17-year-old Richie Perry leaves Harlem for Vietnam, where he faces the horror and banality of war. As with Myers's 1999 book Monster, some have deemed it too violent and profane for students.

Newman's 1989 picture book broke ground by depicting exactly what its title says. A young girl named Heather has two lesbian mothers and realizes in the story that her family is different from her schoolmates' families. She learns why she doesn't have a father, and that there are many different kinds of families. Newman's story might feel anodyne today, but the furor it caused in the 1990s, when it was the ninth-most-challenged book of the decade, hasn't abated: Heather was taken off the shelves in a Pennsylvania school district in December.

The truth of the Holocaust is both abstracted and explicitly rendered in the graphic memoir Maus, which was banned in a Tennessee county last month by a unanimous vote. Spiegelman draws his Jewish family and protagonists as mice, Germans as cats, and Poles as pigs, but this style doesn't fully blunt the hideousness of the victims' suffering. Some of the topics that got the book banned, such as Spiegelman's mother's suicide, are essential to rendering the effects of the war. Without them, it would be a different story entirely.

This 1999 young-adult book about a teenager dealing with the effects of sexual assault was notably called "soft pornography" in a newspaper op-ed that drew notice from Anderson herself. Speak's honesty about its protagonist's trauma and the subsequent social shunning she endures has made it a perennial classic -and a target for criticism.

Pullman's award-winning fantasy trilogy is populated with talking armored polar bears, soul-sucking specters, and translucent angels. But ultimately, it's about a war on adolescence. The story's villains, all affiliated with an allegorical version of the Catholic Church, are motivated by a perverse desire to keep children innocent-even by essentially lobotomizing them. In contrast, the heroes celebrate knowledge and fight to overthrow the religious hierarchy threatening their world. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the books were criticized for their supposed anti-Christian themes and plotlines involving witchcraft.
From the November 2019 issue: Philip Pullman's problem with God
The teenagers at Green's Alabama boarding school drink, smoke, swear, and fumble their way through life. Those actions have made the novel controversial for more than a decade. Green, whose later book The Fault in Our Stars was hugely popular, has repeatedly defended it-including what he calls its intentionally "massively unerotic" oral-sex scene.

This epistolary book by the famed Atlantic writer reflects on racism's long shadow. Coates's frank assessment of the effect of centuries of racial violence on contemporary Black Americans has been attacked in some schools. Between the World and Me and Coates's We Were Eight Years in Power are also included on Representative Krause's list of books that "might make students feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress because of their race or sex."

Thomas's debut young-adult novel was a best seller and was quickly adapted into a film. Starr, a Black teenager, witnesses a white police officer kill her friend at a traffic stop. While navigating her grief, she gradually becomes a public advocate for racial justice. The Hate U Give has been challenged for its profanity and depiction of drug dealing, but most vigorously for its thematic connection to the Black Lives Matter movement. A South Carolina police union objected to its inclusion on a high-school reading list, calling it " almost an indoctrination of distrust of police."

Through illustrations and tender writing, this graphic memoir follows the nonbinary author's journey of self-discovery. Its exploration of sexuality and gender, especially in illustrations depicting oral sex, made its inclusion in school libraries a prime target for criticism last year.

Machado's captivating, experimental memoir details her abusive relationship with another woman, and her eventual escape from it. At a March 2021 school-board meeting in Leander, Texas, a parent read a sex scene from the book aloud and held up a pink dildo as part of an effort to demand its removal from a book club. In December, the district removed the book permanently from Leander schools.
Read: How surrealism enriches storytelling about women
The essays in this collection take apart and examine Black masculinity, queer sexuality, and Johnson's own life. The book has been removed from school libraries in multiple states and lambasted as "sexually explicit," which the author called "disingenuous for multiple reasons."
​​When you buy a book using a link on this page, we receive a commission. Thank you for supporting The Atlantic

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margaret atwoodatwood’s popular dystopian story

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illustrations of the insidious psychological damage

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These 14 titles have been under attack for doing exactly what literature is supposed to do. Updated at 13:58 p.m. ET on February 3, 2022. Book banning is back. Texas State Representative Matt Krause recently put more than 800 books on a watch list, many of them dealing with race and LGBTQ issues.

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https://www.edweek.org/leadership/educators-divided-on-whether-schools-should-teach-about-lgbtq-topics-survey-finds/2021/12

I found this article interesting because as someone studying education, LGBTQ topics are not topics too light to teach to students. I also thought it was interesting how teachers are not trained enough to teach or have such conversations with their students which says something about our education system.

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A little more than half of educators believe they should teach about LGBTQ topics, according to a recent Education Week poll. That's even though surveys have found safety and academic benefits to LGBTQ youth when having access to inclusive curriculum at school.

There can be a number of reasons for the hesitation specifically to teach about things like LGBTQ history, and major court cases tied to LGBTQ identities, experts said. Teachers fear parental pushback; they face a dearth of curriculum options, and even when there are resources available, they may not know what to look for; they may not have received training on the subject; or they simply don't want to get something wrong.

One estimate from the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law found that close to 10 percent of the U.S. population of teens ages 13-17 are LGBTQ youth. At a time when these students' identities are being targeted by legislation across the country-such as bathroom bills, laws limiting classroom discussions on gender and sex, banned books featuring same-sex couples-advocates say there is a need for students to engage in conversations in class that address the lived experiences of all students.

"This is an opportunity for us to really show students that not only do they belong, but how powerful they are to lean into who they are," said a.t. furuya the senior youth programs manager at GLSEN, a national advocacy group for LGBTQ youth.

Hard to teach what you don't know

The latest national EdWeek Research Center survey was administered between Nov. 17 and Dec. 1, with 1,343 district leaders, school leaders and teachers participating. Of these, a majority said they were willing to teach about politicized topics in the classroom such as race and racism (80 percent), climate change (80 percent), sex education (78 percent) and anti-Semitism (75 percent) in a grade-level and age-appropriate way.

But when it came to LGBTQ issues such as gender identity and expression, only 57 percent said yes. It was also the number one topic respondents said they believed parents didn't want taught in the classroom and the topic where educators gave the lowest rating in terms of the quality of curriculum they had available to teach students about it.

Alex Parker, a 4th grade teacher at Cossitt Avenue Elementary School in La Grange, Illinois, has had discussions around LGBTQ topics in class after students brought up issues related to the community based on what they've come across in their lives. For instance, during Pride month students mentioned seeing rainbow flags and wanted to learn more about what it meant and how the LGBTQ community is accepted more broadly. Or when talking about the ways people can be discriminated against or mistreated because of aspects of their identity, students brought up how that can include who people choose to marry and how they see themselves, whether they are boys or girls, Parker said.

But he admits that a lot of educators didn't receive a ton of training within teacher preparation programs on how to foster such conversations. In many cases teachers never learned about LGBTQ topics when they were students themselves.

That's where groups like History UnErased come in. The education nonprofit provides K-12 schools with training and resources to teach LGBTQ-inclusive history.

Topics like women's history, or African American history have been part of the mainstream curriculum much longer so it can be easier to find resources, said Kathleen Barker, program director and lead facilitator for History UnErased. The idea of LGBTQ history as a field to teach in K-12 is often seen as a newer idea.

But the materials are anything but new. The group's resources, for instance, include a case study looking at one of the first United States court cases involving gender identity. It revolves around an individual born Thomasine Hall in England who came to colonial Virginia in the 1620s dressed as a male identifying as Thomas Hall, later dressing in female clothes and going by Thomasine again. The case dealt with how this individual identified as it impacted what gendered labor and pay they would get, ending with a judge ruling they must wear both female and male gendered clothing, Baker said.

Other resources from the group address how the various identities of those within the LGBTQ community intersect, a point that's key to address when getting a full understanding of LGBTQ experiences, said furuya with GLSEN.

"When I first came out, it was like I existed separately as Asian and I existed separately as queer and trans and I was like, I don't exist walking half of myself into a room and half of myself into another," they said.

"When we talk about that inclusive curriculum, we're talking about representation across differences. We're talking about including Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera [both gay liberation and trans rights activists]. We're talking about incorporating people with disabilities and we're also talking about undocumented LGBTQ+ people."

External obstacles to address

When History UnErased does training, whether it's with elementary educators, secondary educators, or even district leaders, the overwhelming concern they hear is potential pushback from parents, said Debra Fowler, co-founder and executive director of the nonprofit.

So they offer informational sessions for parents at the request of school districts with the hope of mitigating any fear they may have in their perception of what LGBTQ academic content entails.

Brad Nelson, a high school social studies teacher at Axtell Community School in Nebraska, has found that in his community LGBTQ topics are something parents would rather teach about at home than have taught in school.

Earlier this year, a bill passed in Tennessee requiring that schools notify parents at least 30 days "prior to commencing instruction of a sexual orientation curriculum or gender identity curriculum" and must allow for parents to review the instructional materials and allow for students to be excused from parts or all of the curriculum without penalty.

When it comes to legislative hurdles or outright bans on LGBTQ inclusive efforts in schools such as student clubs, library books, participation in youth sports, and more, advocates have often seen the pushback come from outside of schools such as from politicians and parents, including parents not directly affiliated with a local school or district, said Barker with History UnErased.

For instance the picture book And Tango Makes Three published in 2005 about two male penguins who raise a chick together has, over the years, been one of the most consistently challenged books mostly by parents, Barker said.

"I think somehow this idea of presenting particularly younger students with someone's idea of an alternative family is scary to a lot of parents, because they don't know necessarily how to explain it," she added.

While Barker and others recognize that parents have the right to have some control over what their students are learning and how they're educated, sometimes ideas such as a parent not wanting their child to read a book can extend to a library removing the book entirely so no child can read it.

The importance of LGBT curriculum

While educators still work to try and address gaps in curriculum topics, the benefits of LGBTQ inclusive materials remain clear.

GLSEN's latest biennial national school climate survey, conducted in 2019 with more than 16,700 students ages 13-21 participating, found that close to 60 percent of LGBTQ students felt unsafe at school because of their sexual orientation, 42.5 percent because of their gender expression and 37.4 percent because of their gender.

The survey found that students in schools with an LGBTQ inclusive curriculum were less likely to feel unsafe because of their identity, furuya with GLSEN said. They also experienced lower levels of victimization related to their sexual orientation and gender expression.

Yet only 19.4 percent of LGBTQ students said they were taught positive representations of LGBTQ people, history or events in their schools with 17 percent saying they were taught negative content about LGBTQ topics.

Overall, the survey found little change in LGBTQ-related curricular resources since the survey's first installment back in 1999, furuya added.

At Terra Linda High School in San Rafael, Calif., David Tow, an AP English, honors philosophy and environmental leadership teacher, said he doesn't shy away from topics that are politicized in the general culture because of the needs of his students.

"For the students that I work with, things like race and racism, climate change, anti-Semitism, LGBTQ+ issues are not theoretical, abstract social justice issues," Tow said. "For most of my students, it describes their lived experience. In many ways, conversations around them are less controversial or politically charged for them than I think it is at the culture as a whole."

LGBTQ-inclusive curriculum, as furuya notes, is both helpful in terms of teaching acceptance among all students for those who have different identities, but it can also serve as a mirror to allow students learning who they are to better navigate that process.

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Teachers Are Divided on Teaching LGBTQ Topics

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Educators say a dearth of curriculum, lack of training, and fear of getting it wrong can cause hesitation to teach about LGBTQ topics.

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One of the books on the list I've actually read and I think it's crazy how certain parents try to pull certain books off the shelves for the content. The book I've read is called Persepolis, a book documenting living during the Iran Revolution. There's also a sequel that I've read as well, and I think that all of it was insightful towards historical moments in time. It was pulled from the shelves because the book was "promoting liberal values."

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Some 1,597 books have been challenged or removed from libraries over the past year, according to the latest figures from the American Library Association (ALA)-the highest number since the organization began keeping track 20 years ago. Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of the ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom, says, "We're seeing an unprecedented volume of challenges since last September, honing in on books that deal with the experiences of Black persons and LGBTQIA persons."

Also unprecedented: Books like George M. Johnson's memoir about growing up Black and queer, All Boys Aren't Blue (published in 2020), and The 1619 Project (2021) by Nikole Hannah-Jones and The New York Times Magazine are not only facing removal from schools this year, but legal opposition as well. Several states including Florida, Texas and Iowa, recently passed bills that prohibit teaching or discussing what they call "divisive concepts." Caldwell-Stone refers to the restrictions as educational gag orders, adding: "Books are being removed under the falsehood that they are 'critical race theory' or 'obscene' simply because they address topics dealing with gender and sexual identity."

On the ALA's list of 2021's top 10 most challenged books (see below), released earlier this month, every title focuses on marginalized communities or issues of sexuality. Newcomers to the list include Gender Queer (2019), Maia Kobabe's memoir on growing up nonbinary and asexual; Juno Dawson's This Book Is Gay (2014), which also focuses on sexuality and gender; and Jonathan Evison's Lawn Boy (2018), the coming-of-age story about a young Chicano landscaper.

Advocates who want to keep the challenged books out of schools argue that they are inappropriate for young people. "Books like Lawn Boy, which graphically describes oral sex between a young boy and an adult, don't belong in schools," says Elana Fishbein, founder and president of No Left Turn in Education, a national organization against what it describes as a "Leftist agenda" in public education. "Neither do books that teach kids to view each other through the lens of race." Those opposed to the challenges, however, note that they were written specifically for young people, and that book bannings violate the First Amendment-as well as depriving students of different perspectives and experiences. The public seems to agree: A recent ALA survey found that seven out of 10 voters across party lines oppose books bans.

The following selection of books tell the stories of marginalized protagonists-the target of most of the recent bans-from around the world. All have faced challenges or bans within the past few years, and most hold the dubious honor of spots on ALA's list of the Most Challenged Books of the past decade.

Lawn Boy by Jonathan Evison | Algonquin
Bainbridge Island & North Kitsap, Washington

Evison's coming-of-age, semi-autobiographical novel follows Mike Muñoz, a young Chicano living in Washington State who has recently been fired from his job on a landscaping crew. Parents from a Texas school district filed two police reports over the book, and officials in Minnesota removed the book from the high school library altogether for alleged pedophilia and inappropriate language, among other reasons.

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison | Vintage
Lorain, Ohio

Published in 1970, the story is set in Morrison's own hometown and follows the abused Pecola Breedlove, who yearned for blue eyes and to escape her circumstances. The book made headlines earlier this year when a St. Louis, Missouri school district voted to remove it from libraries, citing "graphic sexual violence." The ban was overturned in February.

All Boys Aren't Blue by George M. Johnson | Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Richmond, Virginia

This young adult memoir details the author's experiences growing up Black and queer in New Jersey and Virginia, from dealing with bullies to finding a sense of community within the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity at Virginia Union University. Removed from several school libraries across the country, a school board member in Florida even filed a criminal complaint, alleging the book violated state obscenity laws.

The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende | Bantam
Chile

Allende's debut novel is an epic story that follows four generations of women in the Trueba family through post-colonial Chile. A critically acclaimed bestseller, it's the winner of the Hans Christian Andersen award. It's also been relentlessly challenged since its publication on the grounds of being "immoral."

The 1619 Project by Nikole Hannah-Jones, The New York Times Magazine | One World
Africa and Virginia

Targeted by Republican lawmakers since its publication, the book attempts to reframe American history within the context of slavery. It begins with the first ship bringing enslaved African people to Virginia in 1619 and features essays by various authors and historians who explain the enduring present-day ramifications on American society.

Maus by Art Spiegelman | Pantheon
Poland

The Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel (1992) tells the story of Spiegelman and his father, Vladek, a Holocaust survivor. Vladek lived in Sosnowiec before being arrested by the Gestapo and taken to Auschwitz. This year, a Tennessee school board voted to remove the book from its eighth-grade curriculum, citing nudity and "rough, objectionable language." The ban sparked renewed interest in the book, which recently topped Amazon's bestseller list.

Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi | Pantheon
Tehran, Iran

This graphic memoir details Satrapi's youth in the capital city during the Iranian Revolution in the late 1970s. Since its publication in 2000, the book has been the target of multiple bans in school districts across the country. In the past decade, most of the removals have stemmed from Islamophobic sentiment. This March, it was pulled from a Pennsylvania school district curriculum due to parents' complaints of violence and "promoting liberal ideology."

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini | Riverhead Books
Afghanistan

Set during the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan, The Kite Runner follows the friendship of two boys, Amir and Hasaan. The bestselling novel has been on the ALA's most challenged list multiple times, stemming from its inclusion of a homosexual rape scene and fears it promoted Islam and terrorism.

Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers | Scholastic Inc.
Vietnam

The story follows a young Black protagonist named Richie Perry from Harlem to Vietnam, where he's enlisted in the army during the war. Schools around the country have banned the Coretta Scott King Award winner on the grounds of profanity, drugs, violence and sexual content.

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Recent surge in banned books targets titles with focus on race, sexuality

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Some 1,597 books have been challenged or removed from libraries over the past year, according to the latest figures from the American Library Association (ALA)-the highest number since the organization began keeping track 20 years ago.

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1. The books in the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling were the most challenged ones from 2000–2009.

2. From 2000–2009, the biggest reasons books were banned was because they were "sexually explicit" and had "offensive language."

3. In June, John Green's Paper Towns was challenged and taken off of library shelves in a Florida middle school.

4. Lawrence Ferlinghetti was arrested and went to trial as the publisher of Allen Ginsberg's "Howl" because the poem features "homosexual acts." Ferlinghetti ultimately won the case.

5. A community in Arkansas voted to put restrictions on Harry Potter books in the Cedarville School District but was overturned in 2003 by federal courts.

6. Last year, Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell was challenged by a Minnesota school board because of the author's "profanity" and "sexual content."

7. Seven books were successfully banned from the Highland Park Independent School District in Texas a couple of weeks ago: Song of Solomon, An Abundance of Katherines, The Art of Racing in the Rain, Siddhartha, The Working Poor: Invisible in America, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, and The Glass Castle: A Memoir.

8. The most challenged book from 2001–2013 is the Captain Underpants series by Dav Pilkey.

9. From 1990–1999, Judy Blume was one of the most challenged authors, with five books on the most frequently challenged list: Forever, Blubber, Deenie, Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret, and Tiger Eyes.

10. Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is one of the most challenged books of all time, citing "racism, homosexuality, sexually explicit, offensive language, unsuited to age group."

11. In 2013, a North Carolina school district decided in a 5-2 vote to ban Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison after a parent complaint. Nine days later, the school board voted again and reversed its initial decision due to backlash from the larger community.

12. Just this past August, a minister in Cleveland, Texas, started a petition to remove books about "vampires in relationships with young teens" (like Twilight by Stephanie Meyer and the House of Night series by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast) from a local library.

13. Parents in Oregon are currently trying to ban Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi from their high school libraries.

14. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie was banned from a school district in Idaho. This month, the book was reinstated again but with restrictions.

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22 Mind-Boggling Facts About Banned Books In America

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In the 21st century, a number of books and pieces of literature are still challenged and censored on a regular basis.

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https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2022-06-24/thomas-contraception-gay-marriage-sex

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The Supreme Court "should reconsider" rulings that rely on the same legal reasoning as Roe vs. Wade, including ones that protect gay sex, same-sex marriage and married people's use of contraception, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in a concurring opinion released Friday.

In his concurring opinion in Dobbs vs. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which overturned Roe vs. Wade, enabling states to ban abortion, Thomas wrote that the high court has a "duty to 'correct the error" established in Obergefell vs. Hodges (2015), which legalized same-sex marriage, Lawrence vs. Texas (2003), which protects same-sex relations, and Griswold vs. Connecticut (1965), which protects married couples' access to contraception.

Although Thomas signed on to the majority opinion, he wrote separately to urge the high court to reexamine these cases. All three rely on substantive due process, the idea that the Constitution protects certain rights its text doesn't explicitly mention.

Thomas has repeatedly cast doubt on this legal principle, calling it an "oxymoron that 'lack[s] any basis in the Constitution.'" And, because "any substantive due process decision is 'demonstrably erroneous,'" the court needs to revisit the rulings, Thomas argued. "After overruling these demonstrably erroneous decisions, the question would remain whether other constitutional provisions guarantee the myriad rights that our substantive due process cases have generated," Thomas, who was appointed by President George H.W. Bush, wrote.

The Biden administration and civil rights advocates had warned that if conservative justices overturned the 1973 landmark Roe decision that established the right to abortion, they could soon curtail other freedoms as well. In remarks on Friday, President Biden highlighted Thomas' concurring opinion, saying it signals "an extreme and dangerous path the court is now taking us on."

Thomas' opinion is "one of the most retrograde" in modern history, Anthony Michael Kreis, a law professor at Georgia State University College of Law, said in an interview. If Thomas' "constitutional vision ever became a reality, it would require a surveillance state that is incompatible with basic notions of liberty and freedom," Kreis added.

Kreis said it is unlikely that a majority of the public would back Thomas' preferred course of action, and noted that other justices did not echo Thomas' sentiment. (Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh wrote in his concurring opinion that "overruling Roe does not mean the overruling of those precedents, and does not threaten or cast doubt on those precedents.")

Kreis said his concern is not that Thomas could muster up a majority on the high court to back his view, but instead that the opinion could "embolden people on the ground - in state legislatures and other places," he said. "They could feel as if they have allies to rally against the basic civil rights of their neighbors."

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Contraception, same-sex marriage should be next in the crosshairs, Thomas says in opinion

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The Supreme Court "should reconsider" rulings that rely on the same legal reasoning as Roe vs. Wade, including ones that protect gay sex, same-sex marriage and married people's use of contraception, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in a concurring opinion released Friday. In his concurring opinion in Dobbs vs.

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Naomi Washington Leapheart

This past June, my wife, Kentina, and I consecrated our legal marriage with a sacred wedding ceremony in the presence of our loved ones on a beach in Cape May, New Jersey. Three months later, we're still basking in the joy of that day. Our joy is sweeter because in many ways, it is our resistance-not everyone was supportive of our union. In fact, we still ache as we remember that in January, a prospective wedding planner we considered hiring told us she couldn't work with us because she believes in the biblical definition of marriage, which, to her, made ours illegitimate. Kentina and I are Christian ministers. Our faith is precisely what animates our love and the decision we made to make a spiritual commitment to each other and to our communities. Yes, we are grateful that we could be legally married in any State in the country. Yet the rejection we experienced during one of the happiest seasons of our lives starkly reminded us that there is still so much more work to be done.

Preston Mitchum

I am a black gay and queer man from the Midwest. I have experienced discrimination based on my race, sexual orientation, and class, more times than imaginable. Because of what it means to be intersectional-that is, multiple marginalized identities existing at once-it is nearly impossible to determine whether I am experiencing discrimination and mistreatment on the basis of me being unapologetically Black or queer; and many times, both. In an ever-expanding and gentrifying Washington, D.C., where I now reside, it's commonplace to be followed by law enforcement and be watched as I'm entering more expensive stores. While browsing in Georgetown, a majority-white area, I was once told to leave a store because I "was taking too long looking" just to be mocked by other staff. Not only was I in this particular store for less than 10 minutes, I was certainly not the only one. I was profiled, targeted, and belittled because of where I was and who I was perceived to be. No one defended me, no one made me feel human; and these are not isolated incidences. Every day, LGBTQ people of color wake up understanding that we can be targeted at the intersection of our identities, and it is a perpetual process of healing and understanding.

K'Danz Cruz

I was working at a retail store, and I was never allowed to start my gender-affirming transition because the management team would tell me that customers would feel uncomfortable. I was repeatedly told that the customer always comes first and that due to customer apprehension, I could not transition.

Sophia Jackson

I was working at a rehabilitation facility in San Francisco, California, which works with women and children. One day while I was on duty, my immediate supervisor said that she needed to have a conversation with me. I believed we were going to talk about me finally getting hired full time, but she started the conversation by telling me "that the Lord had brought me before her during her prayer time." After entering into a moment of prayer she disclosed to me that she was concerned that the way I dressed and carried myself was unpleasing to God, and that I "knew God had created me to be a wife." At that point she asked me if I was involved in a homosexual relationship with the woman that she had seen me coming to church with. I did not respond; rather, I asked why she was asking me that question because we belonged to the same church at the time. I was curious as to why this was suddenly an issue. She said that I was sending mixed messages because I presented as male. I ended up having to go on leave due to the stress, and while I was on leave my employment was terminated. I have been unemployed from that field of work ever since.

Victoria Rodriguez-Roldan

When my wife was working at a tutoring center, although the manager knew about me, my wife was forced to keep my existence hidden from the children. My wife actually had to make up a fictional male fiancé and later husband to account for the wedding rings to anyone who asked. The business claimed to be supportive of us but did not want to "upset the parents."

Taissa Morimoto

Born to immigrant parents and raised in a predominately white neighborhood, I spent most of my adolescence trying to fit in. In order to assimilate, I would always try to hide my differences, including aspects of my race and sexual orientation. For most of my life, I didn't feel comfortable to dress how I want, love whom I want, or be whom I want because I felt like I had to choose safety and security over being myself. I would comply when cashiers told me I should smile more, I would keep silent when restaurant owners made racist comments, and I refused to hold my girlfriend's hand in public, all because I was scared for my safety. I was scared something could happen to me.
These first-hand stories were originally shared in an amicus brief submitted to the Supreme Court on behalf of the LGBTQ Task Force, et. al. Click here to read the full brief.
Return to National Weekend of Prayer Home Page

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First Hand Stories of LGBTQ Discrimination | Religious Institute

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Naomi Washington Leapheart This past June, my wife, Kentina, and I consecrated our legal marriage with a sacred wedding ceremony in the presence of our loved ones on a beach in Cape May, New Jersey. Three months later, we're still basking in the joy of that day.

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https://www.forbes.com/sites/marisadellatto/2022/04/04/unprecedented-book-ban-attempts-in-2021-many-with-lgbtq-themes-library-group-reports/?sh=29daac4f5b52

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Topline

The American Library Association said Monday there were over 700 challenges to materials in 2021, the most the organization has seen since it began compiling data 20 years ago, most of which targeted Black or LGBTQ authors or subjects.

Amanda Darrow, director of youth, family and education programs at the Utah Pride Center, poses with ... [+]
ASSOCIATED PRESS

Key Facts

The ALA said its Office for Intellectual Freedom tracked 729 challenges, which can contain more than one book title, against materials in libraries, schools and universities that resulted in 1,597 book challenges or removals, an "unprecedented number of attempts to ban books," the organization said in a statement.

In 2020, there were 156 challenges to materials and in 2019 there were 377, according to NPR.

The ALA told NPR it's unusual to have more than 500 challenges in a year.

The most-challenged book of 2021 was Maia Kobabe's Gender Queer, which was challenged, banned or restricted because of LGBTQ content and was considered to contain sexually explicit images, the ALA said.

Top 10 Most Challenged Books Of 2021

1. Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe, for LGBTQ content and was considered to have sexually explicit images.

2. Lawn Boy by Jonathan Evison, for LGBTQ content and was considered to be sexually explicit.

3. All Boys Aren't Blue by George M. Johnson, for LGBTQ content, profanity, and was considered to be sexually explicit.

4. Out Of Darkness by Ashely Hope Perez, for depictions of abuse and was considered to be sexually explicit.

5. The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, for profanity, violence, and because it was thought to promote an anti-police message and indoctrination of a social agenda.

6. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, for profanity, sexual references and use of a derogatory term.

7. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews, because it was considered sexually explicit and degrading to women.

8. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, because it depicts child sexual abuse and was considered sexually explicit.

9. This Book is Gay by Juno Dawson, for providing sexual education and LGBTQ content.

10. Beyond Magenta by Susan Kuklin, for LGBTQ content and it was considered to be sexually explicit.

Key Background

Last year, lawmakers across the country spurred a wave of ideological challenges to books, including in Texas, Oklahoma and South Carolina. Books were also removed from schools in Florida, Virginia, Kansas, Utah and Missouri, and some criminal charges against librarians were weighed, though they have largely been unsuccessful, according to the New York Times. In an illustrated opinion piece for the Washington Post last year, Kobabe questioned why Gender Queer was constantly a target for bans, writing, "removing or restricting queer books in libraries and schools is like cutting a lifeline for queer youth, who might not yet even know what terms to ask Google to find out more about their own identities, bodies and health."

Tangent

The ALA's report comes one week after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed the controversial "Don't Say Gay" bill into law, preventing and restricting how topics of gender identity and sexual orientation can be discussed in schools. Similar bills are in the works in various stages in other states including Georgia, Tennessee and Indiana. Recently, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) asked the state's Department of Family and Protective Services to investigate the parents of trans children who received gender-affirming care.

Further Reading

Efforts to ban books jumped an 'unprecedented' four-fold in 2021, ALA report says (NPR)

Florida Gov. DeSantis Signs 'Don't Say Gay' Bill Into Law Despite Controversy (Forbes)

America ends 2021 with censorship surge. Will 2022's new year be better? (NBC)

Book Ban Efforts Spread Across the U.S. (New York Times)

Why book banning is back (Vox)

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'Unprecedented' Book Ban Attempts In 2021-Many With LGBTQ Themes-Library Group Reports

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The American Library Association said Monday there were over 700 challenges to materials in 2021, the most the organization has seen since it began compiling data 20 years ago, most of which targeted Black or LGBTQ authors or subjects.

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The Books Briefing: The Fight Over What Kids Can Read

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The Books Briefing: The Fight Over What Kids Can Read

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https://www.theatlantic.com/books/archive/2022/04/banned-books-critical-race-theory-1619-project/620394/

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Editor's note: This week's newsletter is a rerun.

We'll be back with a fresh newsletter next week.

After the Capitol riot, Matt Hawn, a teacher from Tennessee, brought an Atlantic essay to class for his students to analyze: " The First White President," by Ta-Nehisi Coates. Earlier the class had discussed a police shooting in Kenosha, Wisconsin; later in the year, they watched a performance of Kyla Jenée Lacey's poem "White Privilege." Hawn told my colleague Emma Green that he didn't have an ideological bent in choosing these works; he merely wanted students to evaluate their claims. "For a lot of my students, this is the first time they're getting the opportunity to even assess something like that," he said. Before the end of the school year, Hawn was fired. (He's since appealed his termination; representatives from his school district declined Green's request for comment on the incident but emphasized in his hearing that they don't condone racism.)

Hawn's firing comes at a time when many legislatures-Tennessee's included-are moving to ban critical race theory in schools. These debates rely on what the Atlantic contributing writer Ibram X. Kendi (whose book Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You has also been censored) argues is an imagined conservative idea of the concept that ignores how those who developed it actually define it. States such as Texas have taken specific aim at Nikole Hannah-Jones's 1619 Project, a searing New York Times report arguing that slavery is central to our country's founding. As my colleague Adam Harris writes, these bans and proposed bans "would effectively prevent public schools and universities from holding discussions about racism."

This moment may be particularly dangerous for students' intellectual freedom, but restricting what kids read is nothing new. Take Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye, which has been targeted for its depiction of child abuse. Keeping that work out of children's hands also keeps readers from what Morrison herself calls a depiction of one of "those most vulnerable, most undescribed, not taken seriously little Black girls." Another book, Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, was banned for its use of racial slurs and a "white savior" protagonist. Adults may be right to question its portrayal of race, but when the book is taught well, young people can join in reevaluating the legacy of the novel's much adored, though deeply flawed protagonist-work that Lee herself did in the sequel, Go Set a Watchman. More recently, censorship of Angie Thomas's The Hate U Give has shut kids out of discussions about the deeply personal hurt of police brutality.

It's no accident that these works consider issues such as race, gender, and disability; a whopping 52 percent of banned or challenged books from 2006 to 2016 included "diverse content." Rather than protecting children, this practice harms those who are already marginalized by spreading a message that their lives are dangerous and inappropriate, the professor Paul Ringel argued in The Atlantic. Only by encouraging students to discuss difference can we empower them to find self-understanding and acceptance.

​ Every Friday in the Books Briefing, we thread together Atlantic stories on books that share similar ideas. Know other book lovers who might like this guide? Forward them this email.

When you buy a book using a link in this newsletter, we receive a commission. Thank you for supporting The Atlantic.

What We're Reading

Matt Hawn; The Atlantic He taught a Ta-Nehisi Coates essay. Then he was fired.
"I believe my kids can handle this difficult subject material. It does them a great service academically."

Raquel Zaldivar / Chicago Tribune / Getty / The Atlantic Why conservatives want to cancel the 1619 Project
"The work of [Nikole] Hannah-Jones and others suggests ... that present-day inequalities have been shaped by deliberate political and policy choices. What appears to be an argument about reexamining history is also an argument about ideology-a defense of the legitimacy of the existing social order against an account of its historical origins that suggests different policy choices could produce a more equitable society."

Deborah Feingold / Corbis / Getty Remembering the peerless Toni Morrison
"Since the publication of her debut novel, The Bluest Eye, in 1970, Morrison has been established as one of the most powerful and distinct voices in literature, a lyrical chronicler and witness to the African American experience."

Lucas Jackson / Reuters Go set a legacy: the fate of Harper Lee
"Will [Lee] be remembered for Jurist Atticus, or Racist Atticus? Will she be remembered as the author of a book so beloved, and so revered, and so culturally dilute, that it seems wrong to call it simply a 'book'? Or as the author of the work that complicates Mockingbird 's tidy vision of right and wrong?"

Balzer + Bray / HarperCollins The Hate U Give enters the ranks of great YA novels
"[Angie] Thomas's debut novel offers an incisive and engrossing perspective of the life of a Black teenage girl as [the protagonist] Starr's two worlds converge over questions of police brutality, justice, and activism."

About us: This week's newsletter is written by Kate Cray. The book she's reading next is Intimacies, by Katie Kitamura.
Comments, questions, typos? Reply to this email to reach the Books Briefing team. Did you get this newsletter from a friend? Sign yourself up.

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The Books Briefing: The Fight Over What Kids Can Read

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Editor's note: This week's newsletter is a rerun. We'll be back with a fresh newsletter next week. After the Capitol riot, Matt Hawn, a teacher from Tennessee, brought an Atlantic essay to class for his students to analyze: " The First White President," by Ta-Nehisi Coates.

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Phoenix, Arizona - Today, the Arizona House passed Senate Bill 1138, which bans some types of medical care for transgender youth, and Senate Bill 1165, which prevents transgender students from participating in school sports. The bills now head to Gov. Doug Ducey's desk for signature or veto. Unfortunately, Speaker of the House Bowers sent SB 1138 and SB 1165 to a vote on the House floor knowing that several members of the legislature who oppose this legislation were on their way to a legislator conference.

SB 1138 is a cruel and potentially life-threatening bill that would harm transgender youth for whom gender-affirming services are medically necessary. The American Academy of Pediatrics and the nation's other leading medical and mental health professionals oppose this legislation, which interferes with their ability to provide best-practice, often life-saving care.

Two Republican governors, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox in Utah and Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb, vetoed similar anti-trans sports bans earlier this week, rejecting the discriminatory bills approved by their legislatures. In a letter explaining his veto, Gov. Cox cited high suicide rates among transgender youth and stated, "Rarely has so much fear and anger been directed at so few. I don't understand what they are going through or why they feel the way they do. But I want them to live." Both Gov. Holcomb and Gov. Cox also cited concerns over legal challenges, which have followed similar laws in other states.

Former Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer vetoed an anti-LGBTQ+ RFRA Bill in 2014, which she said divided the state and would have led to similar legal and economic consequences for Arizona.
Human Rights Campaign Arizona State Director Bridget Sharpe issued the following statement in reaction to today's vote:
"It is simply not the job of legislators to make healthcare decisions for the families who this legislation will directly impact. We have been coordinating closely with medical professionals, athletic administrators, and, most importantly, the children and their families who will be directly impacted by this legislation and all are confused, hurt, and scared as to why their legislators have decided to single them out when their lives are already extremely difficult. It is disappointing and disheartening that the Speaker of the House decided to bring these bills to a vote without all members of the House present.

We strongly urge Gov. Ducey to follow the leadership of Republican Gov. Cox in Utah and Gov. Holcomb in Indiana and veto these discriminatory bills.

Transgender kids do not deserve to be the targets of dehumanizing attacks that invalidate their identity. For transgender young folks for whom this care this medically necessary, this bill could have serious, life-threatening consequences. And like all children, transgender youth deserve to participate in school athletic programs as their true selves, not forced to be isolated and dismissed by their schools. Transgender kids are just kids, and they deserve to play.

Arizonans deserve better than legislators who are seeking to bully transgender youth with politically motivated bills for the sake of discrimination itself. Caught in the crosshairs of anti-LGBTQ+ elected officials' divisive political strategy are vulnerable kids who are simply trying to navigate their adolescence. We urge Gov. Ducey to do the right thing and veto these harmful bills."
Darrell Hill, Policy Director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona:
"Arizona has unfortunately joined the long list of states that have made bullying and discriminating against trans students a priority this legislative session. These unabated attacks on trans kids attempt to solve problems that do not exist and singles out people for simply being transgender. Gov. Ducey should follow in the footsteps of the Republican governors in Utah and Indiana and veto legislation that harms the health and well-being of transgender youth."

A record number of anti-transgender bills were filed in 2021, largely focused on denying transgender youth the ability to receive gender-affirming care and participate in school athletics programs. Even more anti-transgender legislation is on track to be filed in 2022. There are more than 320 anti-LGBTQ+ bills under consideration in state legislatures across the country. Of those, at least 130 directly target transgender people and approximately half of those (70+ bills) would ban trans youth from participating in school sports consistent with their gender identity.

Politicians are culpable for the harm they cause to LGBTQ+ people's wellbeing simply by being subjected to continual legislative attacks on their dignity and humanity. There are real consequences to the discrimination perpetrated upon LGBTQ+ people, and particularly transgender youth. According to a recent analysis, 55% of LGBTQ+ Arizonans reported they've suffered from depression in the past two weeks.

In a recent roundtable, parents on transgender youth in Arizona spoke out about the harm these bills have on their children's mental health and well-being. A recording of the roundtable can be found here.

The latest PRRI data show that support for LGBTQ+ rights is on the rise in Arizona and nationwide: 77% of Arizonans support nondiscrimination protections, and 67% of Arizonans oppose refusal of service on religious grounds. Approximately eight in ten Americans (79%) favor laws that would protect LGBTQ+ people against discrimination in jobs, public accommodations, and housing. This reflects an 11% increase in the proportion of Americans who support nondiscrimination protections since 2015 (71%).
Anti-Transgender Attacks As A Political Talking Point
Legislators in a record 34 states introduced 147 anti-transgender bills in 2021, focusing on discriminatory anti-equality measures to drive a wedge between their constituents and score short-term political points. In 2021, legislators in twelve states enacted anti-LGBTQ+ bills despite failing to provide examples of what exactly they were legislating against.

Merely introducing anti-transgender bills and peddling anti-transgender rhetoric has already had a damaging impact, leading to LGBTQ+ youth resources being surreptitiously removed from a government website, 11-year old kids literally having trouble sleeping, and a school district banning graphic novels with a transgender character after a parent's complaint. 2021 and 2020 were the deadliest and second deadliest years on record for trans & gender non-conforming people respectively, with the Human Rights Campaign tracking at least 50 violent deaths in 2021 alone. A new Trevor Project survey shows that a startling 85% of transgender or gender non-binary youth say their mental health has been negatively affected by these legislative attacks.

Anti-transgender content on social media is also a radicalizing issue all by itself. This is in large part because transgender young people are among the most marginalized, voiceless, and defenseless communities in America, and because right-wing arguments play on long-standing misogynistic, racist, and sexist tropes about gender roles.
Anti-Equality Forces Are Spending Big
These bills are the result of a concerted effort by right-wing organizations that have been battling against LGBTQ+ progress for years. Across recent elections, one of the key anti-equality groups working to turn back decades of LGBTQ+ progress has been the American Principles Project (APP). APP and its chief underwriter Sam Fieler have invested millions of dollars in support of anti-LGBTQ+ candidates. In 2020, APP spent more than $2.6 million in ad spending in support of anti-equality candidates. In Virginia in 2021, APP spent at least $300,000 on digital advertising in support of Glenn Youngkin's gubernatorial campaign.

Restoration PAC, run and funded by major anti-LGBTQ+ bankroller Dick Uihlein, spent at least $1.9 million in advertising across Virginia in support of Youngkin and donated $942,000 to the political arm of anti-abortion group Women Speak Out Virginia. Anti-equality group Free to Learn Action launched a $1 million ad campaign spreading widely debunked anti-transgender misinformation in support of Youngkin's campaign.
Businesses, Advocacy Groups, and Athletes Oppose Anti-Trans Legislation
About 200 major U.S. corporations have stood up and spoken out to oppose anti-transgender legislation being proposed in states across the country. Companies like Amazon, American Airlines, Apple, AT&T, AirBnB, Dell, Dow, Google, IBM, Lyft, Marriott, Microsoft, Nike, and Paypal have objected to these bills. Four of the largest U.S. food companies also condemned "dangerous, discriminatory legislation that serves as an attack on LGBTQ+ individuals, particularly transgender and nonbinary people," and the Walton Family Foundation issued a statement expressing "alarm" at the trend of anti-transgender legislation that recently became law in Arkansas. And more than 60 major companies joined HRC to urge Texas Governor Abbott & elected officials across the country to abandon anti-transgender efforts.

Many are rightly protective of the legacy of women's sports in this country, and a robust Title IX is central to that legacy. Importantly, advocates for women and girls in sports - such as the National Women's Law Center, the Women's Sports Foundation, Women Leaders in College Sports, and others - support trans-inclusive policies and oppose efforts to exclude transgender students from participating in sports. So do prominent female athletes including Billie Jean King, Megan Rapinoe, and Cheryl Reeve. That's because while there are real issues facing women's sports, including a lack of resources devoted to supporting them, transgender participation in athletics is not one of them.

The nation's leading child health and welfare groups representing more than 7 million youth-serving professionals and more than 1,000 child welfare organizations released an open letter calling for lawmakers in states across the country to oppose dozens of bills that target LGBTQ+ people, and transgender children in particular.

Nearly 550 college athletes have stood up to anti-transgender legislation by demanding the NCAA pull championships from states that have enacted anti-trans sports laws.
Trans Equality Is Popular Across All Demographics
The reality is that however sensational and polarizing this issue may seem, public opinion polling across the country show strong support for trans-inclusive and pro-equality policies:

Recent PRRI data shows a large majority of Americans (82%) favor laws that protect LGBTQ+ people from discrimination in jobs, public accommodations, and housing, and majorities of Republicans (67%), independents (85%), and Democrats (92%) favor nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ+ Americans.

A PBS/NPR/Marist poll states that 67% of Americans, including 66% of Republicans, oppose the anti-transgender sports ban legislation proliferating across 30 states.

In a 10-swing-state poll conducted by the Human Rights Campaign & Hart Research Group in 2020 showed:

At least 60% of Trump voters across each of the 10 swing states say transgender people should be able to live freely and openly.

At least 87% of respondents across each of the 10 swing states say transgender people should have equal access to medical care, with many states breaking 90% support

When respondents were asked about how they prioritized the importance of banning transgender people from participating in sports as compared to other policy issues, the issue came in dead last, with between 1% and 3% prioritizing the issue.

Another poll conducted by the Human Rights Campaign & Hart Research Group revealed that, with respect to transgender youth participation in sports, the public's strong inclination is on the side of fairness and equality for transgender student athletes. 73% of voters agree that "sports are important in young people's lives. Young transgender people should be allowed opportunities to participate in a way that is safe and comfortable for them."
T he Human Rights Campaign is America's largest civil rights organization working to achieve equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people. HRC envisions a world where LGBTQ+ people are embraced as full members of society at home, at work and in every community.

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BREAKING: Arizona House Passes Anti-Transgender Sports and Medical Care Bans

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Phoenix, Arizona - Today, the Arizona House passed Senate Bill 1138, which bans some types of medical care for transgender youth, and Senate Bill 1165, which prevents transgender students from participating in school sports. The bills now head to Gov. Doug Ducey's desk for signature or veto.

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/05/03/teens-books-ban-clubs-protest/

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A lot of books I read while growing up, so it's very weird to see that they're banned now.

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Celebrate the freedom to read by picking up one (or all) of these banned books.

Every editorial product is independently selected, though we may be compensated or receive an affiliate commission if you buy something through our links. Ratings and prices are accurate and items are in stock as of time of publication.

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Support banned books

Whether it’s on the news or your Facebook feed, you’ve probably noticed comments about the rise in book banning in libraries and schools. The fight over censorship and banned books is nothing new, but there seems to be a fresh effort to purge the shelves of so-called edgy cultural commentary (as in Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You), uncomfortable interpretations of reality (such as Maus and I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings), and provocative stories that could lead to political questioning (The Handmaid’s Tale, anyone?).

Parents, school board members, and activists have all been responsible for removing some of the best fiction books and nonfiction books from bookshelves. Of course, sometimes book banning backfires. When a book is banned, readers wonder why. And some feel compelled to buy the restricted work as a vote for free speech.

It’s difficult to say which book is the most banned in the United States. That’s because book banning is rarely a federal matter. Book bans tend to be specific to schools, towns, or sometimes states. But we do know that book banning has affected some of the best books of all time, from the best children’s books to classic books—even some Holocaust books.

Our curated list of stellar banned books includes 23 of what the American Library Association deems the most frequently banned books since 1990. (Psst—in the United States, a book might be banned from the library or the store, but that doesn’t mean it’s illegal to read it!) So whether you want to read a classic novel or a new work of fiction, these banned books are a great place to start.

Via Merchant

1. Maus by Art Spiegelman

Let’s start with the banned book on everybody’s mind these days: Maus, a memoir in graphic novel form. The story was first published in 1980 as a magazine serial but really gained attention when it was released as the first volume of Maus: A Survivor’s Tale in 1986. The second volume was published in 1992 and went on to win a Pulitzer Prize—the first and only graphic novel to achieve that honor. Through cartoons, Art Spiegelman detailed the horrors of the Nazi invasion and Holocaust in a brazen way that wouldn’t be possible otherwise. The characters are portrayed as animals separated by species rather than ethnicity, a bold, jarring move. Despite its widespread critical acclaim, Maus was recently pulled from Texas library shelves. Why? Nudity (of animals) and profanity. Removing thoughtful materials because they offend is nothing new, but this particular ban has rekindled debates over censorship and convenient whitewashing of tragic historic events.

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Via Merchant

2. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

An olive branch for busy readers: Toni Morrison’s 1970 best seller is also one of the best short books in our collection. The Bluest Eye is a perfect introduction to Morrison’s iconic lyrical style. The book offers the story of Percola Breedlove, a Black girl who longs for blue eyes. When her dream comes true, it turns out to be more nightmare than fantasy. In 1994, the book was banned in Alaska and Pennsylvania schools for graphic descriptions and offensive language.

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Via Merchant

3. T he Call of the Wild by Jack London

Jack London’s 1903 classic follows Buck, a giant, lovable cross between a Saint Bernard and Scotch collie. When the dog is stolen from his home to be sold as a sled dog, he must fight tooth and nail to survive. The story of a pampered pet turned survivor includes strong themes of individualism and social Darwinism. The result? Multiple incidents of book-banning in Europe—Italy, Yugoslavia, and Nazi territories, specifically—for this historical novel.

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Via Merchant

4. James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl

No matter how you feel about human-sized bugs, Roald Dahl’s James and the Giant Peach seems innocent enough at first glance. It’s a 1961 children’s book about an orphan who makes friends with two creatures living inside a peach. Adventure ensues. Some schools have challenged the fantastical story for language, plus tobacco and alcohol references. But the oddest reason? In 1999, one small Wisconsin town officially made it one of its banned books after claiming that a scene in which a spider licks her lips could be “taken in two ways, including sexual.” Can’t say that would have been our first thought.

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Via Merchant

5. The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

Anne Frank’s diary was never meant to be public. The book, published in 1947, is a clear-eyed glimpse into the thoughts of a young teenager hiding in an attic to avoid being rounded up by the Nazis during World War II. But no, her diary hasn’t been removed from libraries because of the terror undergirding this heartbreaking account. Schools have deemed some of the 14-year-old’s plain descriptions of her anatomy “pornographic.” Even worse: One Alabama textbook committee asked for it to be added to the banned books list because it was “a real downer.” And, yes, it’s certainly a sad book because of Anne Frank’s fate, but it’s also moving, hopeful, and funny—and definitely worth a read.

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Via Merchant

6. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Despite being so beloved, Harper Lee’s novel is still the fourth most challenged or banned classic book in the United States. Set in 1960s Alabama, the coming-of-age classic follows young Scout Finch, brother Jem, and father Atticus during the arrest and trial of a Black man accused of raping a white woman. Through Scout’s eyes, readers bear witness to the deep injustice of the situation along with the bittersweet lessons of growing up. Advocates of banning the book argue that its issues with racism and sexuality aren’t suitable for young readers. Their stance hasn’t affected the popularity of the book (or its movie adaptation)—it’s widely considered one of the greatest books of all time.

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Via Merchant

7. Where’s Waldo?

Nope, this one isn’t a joke. The Where’s Waldo? illustrated books barely have any words, yet for an entire decade, they were some of the most banned. While readers were searching for Waldo after the book was originally published in 1987, they spotted something: a partially topless woman sunbathing in a beach scene. People complained, and the book landed among the top 100 most banned books in America between 1990 and 2000. More recently, Where’s Waldo? Santa Spectacular was banned in Texas prisons because it contained stickers. For more child-friendly fare, pick up one (or a few) of these nonfiction books for kids.

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Via Merchant

8. Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling

Despite their widespread popularity, the Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling have been challenged by Christian religious leaders and groups, with some even calling them “satanic.” That’s because the book series centers on a young wizard and his crew of friends at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Dark magic, evil villains, sorcerers, oh my! Schools across the country have banned them for their themes of witchcraft as well as their portrayals of death and evil.

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9. Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak

Where the Wild Things Are is one of those rare children’s books that frightens some adults for its edgy portrayal of kids’ imaginations and subconscious desires. The story follows young Max, who is sent to bed without supper because he ran wildly through the house. That night, Max’s dreams take him to a dark land where he becomes king of the Wild Things and leads a loud, hair-raising “Wild Rumpus.” It was tough enough for author Maurice Sendak to get his borderline dark book published, but when it finally hit shelves in 1963, it (like Max) got in even more trouble. Where the Wild Things Are is now a fun classic, but it was initially banned because little Max’s punishment was starvation and the story had disturbingly supernatural themes. If the supernatural’s your jam, check out our list of the top vampire books for adults.

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10. The Giver by Lois Lowry

Lois Lowry’s 1993 dystopian children’s book has made waves for nearly three decades now. Set in a seemingly utopian community where everyone has a clear role and family group, the novel turns quickly dark when a boy named Jonas realizes the high cost of living without pain, war, or blatant hatred. As the underworld of this dystopia is revealed, readers are exposed to mentions of infanticide, suicide, and euthanasia. These themes—along with some violent passages—led to the story’s first banned books case in 1994. Despite its somewhat grown-up themes, Lowry’s Newbery Medal–winning classic is a worthy read (or listen; it’s available as an audiobook on Audible) for all kids.

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11. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

This whimsical 1865 novel by Lewis Carroll has been adapted numerous times in literature, onstage, and on-screen, but it’s not beloved worldwide. The story centers on Alice’s disorienting adventure down a rabbit hole and into a fantasy world of talking animals and utterly absurd events (ahem, Mad Hatter tea party). It’s obvious why some parents might feel bewildered by this nonsensical book. But is its psychedelic-like prose worth banning? In 1931, the governor of China’s Hunan province thought so. He believed it was “disastrous to put animals and human beings on the same level” as the book does.

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12. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Aldous Huxley’s 1931 dystopian classic was first banned in Ireland for “anti-religion, anti-family, and blasphemous content,” according to Carnegie Mellon University’s Banned Books Project. Other countries soon followed suit. Before long, Brave New World was topping banned book charts in at least eight U.S. states. So what makes the cast of characters and plot so shudder-inducing? Possibly the portrayals of orgies, drugs, and rampant consumerism in exchange for personal freedom. In the book, a man born and raised outside the dystopian society becomes a tourist spectacle for his lack of addiction and adherence to independence. The book’s tragic ending begs the reader to answer: Would you rather be happy or free?

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13. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

Khaled Hosseini’s 2003 debut novel whisks readers away to Afghanistan, where the son of a rich man and the son of his servant forge an unlikely friendship. As the plot unfolds, fissures form in their nation’s foundation, and the boys explore betrayal, redemption, and the power of familial love. Despite the poignant themes, The Kite Runner has been banned multiple times for referencing sexual violence and “promot[ing] Islam.”

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14. The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien

Considered by many (including Reader’s Digest) one of the best books of all time, The Things They Carried is Tim O’Brien’s heartbreaking account of the Vietnam War. Though sometimes billed as a novel, this 2009 book is more of a collection of short vignettes and essays, all semi-autobiographical portrayals of the author’s time in Vietnam. Will it reflect all soldiers’ experiences? No. But for the throngs of readers who have never been forced to see war head-on, the book offers a sampling of memories. Though frequently included in high school curriculums, this book has been banned in the past for obvious reasons: senseless and, according to some, gratuitous violence.

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15. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

Laurie Halse Anderson’s 1999 book dives straight into the thorny subject of sexual assault. The young adult novel follows high school freshman Melinda Sordino after a life-changing assault during a summer party. The ensuing confusion—both internal and external—results in her being ghosted by her peers. The novel has been banned and challenged more than once, usually due to the rape scene. In some instances, it has been removed from shelves for its portrayals of teen drinking, profanity, and even a claim that it’s biased against male students.

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16. George by Alex Gino

Alex Gino’s novel has been on the American Library Association’s Top 10 Most Challenged Books list more than once since its 2017 debut. The unfortunate reason for the widespread restriction of this Scholastic novel is all too clear: It’s a children’s book about a transgender girl. The story follows Melissa, who her teacher and classmates call George. When Melissa is shut down for wanting to play a female role in the class play, she decides it’s time to change things. Though many teachers have praised George for its straightforward portrayal of a transgender child, it has frequently been pulled from shelves for LGBTQIA+ content and a plot that conflicts with certain communities’ religious beliefs.

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17. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle

Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time is widely considered a must-read for its creative take on splitting the twin elements of space and time. The 1962 science-fantasy classic follows persnickety Meg Murry as she enters parallel universes in search of her father. Her companions, Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who, and Mrs. Which, add loveable quirks and color along the way. So why has the book been banned, you ask? Primarily for its whimsical melding of science and supernatural, which some religious adherents take issue with. Those in favor of banning this book can’t seem to agree on a reason, though: It’s been banned for being both too religious and not religious enough.

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18. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

Margaret Atwood’s best-selling book (which inspired the Hulu TV show) is as dystopian as they come. A mysterious medical blight has rendered most women infertile. New England has been overtaken by a group of patriarchal religious fanatics. And at the crossroads are the handmaids—women taken hostage by the government because of their ability to have children. In The Handmaid’s Tale, one of the women tells her story. Of course, the requisite scenes of sexual tyranny have gotten this book banned again and again. According to the American Library Association, it has been challenged for “vulgarity and sexual overtones.”

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19. Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi

Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi’s book was birthed just before a swell of Black Lives Matter protests in the summer of 2020. But even before that, the authors of Stamped had begun leaving a deep imprint on libraries’ nonfiction collections. This children’s book about diversity provides readers with context for the racial tensions of today and offers hope for a more antiracist world in the future. And yet it was among the top ten most challenged books of 2020, primarily for the authors’ bold public words and claims that the book includes “selective” snippets of history. But while it may not be a history text, it’s certainly a must-read book about race relations in America.

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20. Go Ask Alice by Anonymous

What makes Go Ask Alice (1971) one of the most controversial books of all time? The depiction of teenagers locked in a destructive cycle of drug abuse, for one. And probably the bold stories featuring sexual abuse and prostitution too. This hotly debated work of young adult fiction is written in diary form and reads as if written by a 15-year-old teen runaway on a journey to find herself—if she doesn’t destroy herself first. It’s no wonder Go Ask Alice has been banned time and time again for its explicit themes.

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21. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou’s 1969 memoir unpacks the poet’s childhood and early years as a writer. It’s a beautiful and tender coming-of-age story that offers readers a glimpse of love and creativity, yes, but also racism and trauma. As of 2010, the book was already weighed down by 39 challenges or bans. Most complaints stem from the memoir’s true depictions of rape and molestation. But some go so far as to call the book “anti-white.” But as many point out, when a Black author’s true story is deemed offensive simply for being told, readers would do well to ask themselves who provoked the abusive events in the first place.

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22. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

This 1937 by Nobel Prize-winning author John Steinbeck has been pulled from shelves for almost a century. Common complaints focus on the novella’s racial slurs and stereotypes. Of course, the debate over Steinbeck’s prized work is similar to the ones around the likes of To Kill a Mockingbird. Using racial slurs to highlight racism still means that the writer used profane, hateful language. Racism is a central theme in Of Mice and Men, which details the journey of two migrant ranch workers in Depression-era California.

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23. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

Sherman Alexie’s semi-autobiographical young adult novel about an amateur cartoonist has made waves since 2007. In the story, Junior leaves behind his school on the Spokane Indian Reservation to attend an all-white public high school with a Native American mascot. The reflections on race and identity are at once funny, poignant, and heart-wrenching. The book has been banned several times, mostly for its profanity and references to sex. More recently, however, the book has been challenged because of sexual harassment allegations against the author himself.

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Sources:

American Library Association: “Banned & Challenged Books”

Office for Intellectual Freedom of the American Library Association: “Intellectual Freedom Blog”

Carnegie Mellon University: “The Banned Books Project”

Marshall University: “Banned Books 2021: Speak”

The University of Tulsa: “Banned Books: Publications by Roald Dahl”

Originally Published: February 28, 2022

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23 Banned Books You Should Probably Read Right Now

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Celebrate the freedom to read by picking up one (or all) of these banned books.