this post was submitted on 08 Apr 2024

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These are the most challenged library books in America — yes, most are LGBTQ+ (www.advocate.com)

submitted 10 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[+] [email protected] 11 points 10 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (3 children)

[deleted]

[–] [email protected] 12 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Now that I think about it, I've never seen anyone quote specific parts of challenged and banned books. They just say the content is this and that and leave it there.

Tried even searching for specific quotes just now but can't find anything. So I guess it either has never happened, or happens so rarely that instances of it are difficult to find.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago (2 children)

With the exception of Genderqueer, there isn’t much “pornographic” material. Genderqueer has a scene where there is a blowjob, and I can’t speak to it’s nature since I haven’t read it. This Book is Gay also gets some flak because it is essentially a manual on some gay topics, such as sex, grindr, dating, etc. But I wouldn’t consider that porn, you watch porn to masturbate, not learn how to safely date and have sex. Both books are meant for older teens, and both are important, especially This Book is Gay.

There is an effort to conflate porn with queerness. Most books that are “pornographic” are merely just about queer topics, or have a queer cast. This is similar to older efforts to call LGBTQ+ folk “groomers” or “seducers,” such as around the time of gay marriage being legalized, or during gay power movements after stonewall, or when states were legalizing gay marriage, and so on.

This new phase of calling books “pornographic” is just bigots trying to prevent queer representation, and while some books are explicit, they are a smokescreen for a broader queer erasure.

[–] eardon -1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Where are these books being banned?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

That's a great question, I hope you're asking because you actually want to know!

These books have been banned mostly in school districts across the U.S. Below is a list of several school districts that have banned genderqueer books over the last few years. All of the ones below have banned All Boys Aren't Blue, as well as many of the others mentioned in OP:

The Frisco Independent School District in TX
Shawnee Heights Unified School District in KS
North Hunterdon-Voorhees Regional High School District in NJ
Flagler Palm Coast High School in FL
Alta High School in The Canyons

If you need more examples, a quick Google search for "which places have banned [book title]" will give you lots of results! Alternatively, here is the URL I was referencing for my short list.

[+] [email protected] -8 points 10 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

[deleted]

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Well, if there was a valid reason for people to be upset at most the books that have been challenged/banned, then you could list the books that have been challenged/banned and the objections to them.

But the reason is bigotry and as such there is no list of valid reasons to be upset.

I also want to point out that if you read the fucking article it would have had the reasoning behind the challenges/bans in the article.

While I didn’t provide a site or some shit that had a list of books bigots found offensive, I answered your question. If you need a site to tell you that the queerphobes find books with queer topics offensive, I’m sorry that my three short paragraphs answering your question was at a third grade reading level and therefore too complex. To make it simpler, I’ll summarize it in one sentence:

bigots don’t like queer topics

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, school board meetings targeted by Moms for "Liberty". Online, you can find rightwingers bitching, but it's a lot of exaggerated stuff.

In high school, I read some pretty sexual stuff (Canterbury Tales are fuckin vulgar, Toni Morrison writes in a very erotic way at times. Nobody ever bitched about that though because it was straight eroticism. Any page I've seen from these newer books is only "objectionable" because its not cishet sex/eroticism.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago

Time to start a banned book reading club at your school

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago

I've said for a while now that we have an exit plan if Trump gets back into power and it's not an idle thread, because I'm Jewish, my daughter is Jewish and queer, and my wife is a librarian.

People laugh about the last part because they don't realize that Republicans are trying to pass laws to jail librarians for offering these books in their libraries.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago

I just keep buying more banned books when I see articles like this!

Gotta support those authors. Sometimes these books are perfect for the little free libraries around town too

[–] eardon -2 points 10 months ago

who cares