A fight for access to information runs rampant in the United States today. As stated by the American Library Association, from 2001 to 2020, the average number of books challenged or banned sat around 273. Last year, it was 2,452, and the numbers are steadily — and frighteningly — increasing. The discrepancy in these numbers comes from the concentrated effort from extremist campaigns to suppress access to books that has been ongoing since 2021.
One of the most common justifications for censorship is the inclusion of LGBTQIA+ characters and themes. The most powerful way to defy these attempts at censorship is to read. Read often, read widely, read unapologetically. Stay informed, stay compassionate, and stay open to the multiplicity of the world around you. Here are five moving and stunning LGBTQIA+ banned book recommendations to expand your thinking.
All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson
According to the American Library Association, Johnson’s All Boys Aren’t Blue was the most challenged book of 2024. Described as a memoir-manifesto, All Boys Aren’t Blue follows journalist and activist George M. Johnson’s exploration of their experience growing up Black and queer through an examination of their childhood, adolescence, and college years. A raw and open analysis of trauma and healing, Johnson’s memoir takes us through their experiences with violence and bullies, their first sexual experience, unflinching testimonies of sexual abuse, and their relationship with their family. Themes and investigations into gender identity, toxic masculinity, family, and Black joy are unearthed in this stunning and moving memoir. Johnson urges youth to be unapologetically themselves.
Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe
Banned from more shelves and more states than any other book, Gender Queer is a heartfelt, raw, and unflinching memoir detailing the experience of growing up nonbinary and asexual. Maia Kobabe, who uses e/em/eir pronouns, details the confusion and misplacement e felt as a child in trying to determine eir sexual identity. Kobabe grew up in a progressive home but felt the pressures of identity early on in school and society as a whole, and gradually eir dysphoria became more and more acute. Kobabe details attempts to connect with a single gender growing up through anecdotes of mortifying teenage crushes, disastrous Tinder dates, the pain of Pap smears, and the evolution of eir self-discovery. The chronicles of Kobabe’s life are a beacon for those who struggle to understand themselves, a relief for those who can identify with Kobabe’s journey, and a moving guide on gender identity, its meaning, and how we should conceptualize it, for all human beings.
Flamer by Mike Curato
Another frequently banned and obscenely contested YA graphic novel that details the sexual awakening of a young teenager named Aidan Navarro at summer camp, Flamer, coming from award-winning author and artist Mike Curato, draws on Curato’s own experiences with self-discovery and acceptance. Aidan Navarro heads to summer camp fresh off his middle school graduation and on the cusp of high school. While all kids are going through changes, Aidan feels isolated, scared, and more pressured than his peers. Navigating friendships, bullies, and his new friend, Elias, whom he can’t stop thinking about, Aidan finds himself on a journey of self-exploration and discovery. One of my favorite graphic novels and required reading for all looking to gain a deeper understanding of the LGBTQIA+ adolescent experience, Flamer is unforgettable and masterful.
And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson, Peter Parnell, and Henry Cole
With the poignant and unproblematic tagline “All kinds of love can make a family” on the front cover, the children’s book And Tango Makes Three is a highly banned book in the United States. Why? Well, it’s about two penguins in a zoo who are inseparable, and one day, when the zookeeper sees them trying to hatch a stone, he gives them a baby penguin to make them a family. The big controversy? The penguins are both male. Published in 2005, this true story captures Roy and Silo’s bond at New York’s Central Zoo as they raise a small female chick named Tango together.
This children’s book has made it onto ALA’s top ten challenged and banned books consistently throughout the years, with protesters citing its “homosexual themes.” It has also garnered critical acclaim with stellar reviews from School Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, and Booklist and multiple awards, such as recognition as an ALA Notable Children’s Book, a Nick Jr. Family Magazine Best Book of the Year, and a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award. Cut through the hateful and hysterical noise: Buy this book for your child.
Cinderella Is Dead by Kalynn Bayron
Two hundred years after Cinderella found Prince Charming, we see that the legacy they left their kingdom wasn’t such a fairy tale after all. Teen girls are required to go to the Annual Ball to be selected as wives by powerful and elite men based on their finery and delicacy. If they are not selected as a match, the girls are never heard from again.
Cinderella Is Dead follows 16-year-old Sophia, who would much prefer to marry her childhood best friend, Erin, as she flees the marital ball. Finding herself in Cinderella’s mausoleum, Sophie meets Constance, the last descendant of Cinderella and her step-sisters. Together, they decide to break the system and take down the king once and for all. A stunning reimagining of the fairy tale we all know, Cinderella Is Dead is a celebration of womanhood and community, queer romance, and LGBTQIA+ inclusiveness and a condemnation of the patriarchy.
Reading is one of the oldest forms of protest. Information, lived experiences and testimonials, and creative thinking that activate new perspectives in your mind all live within the pages of books. Suppressing books that focus on LGBTQIA+ themes is an act of discrimination, an attempt to silence, and above all, incredibly cowardly and short-sighted. Despite what many extremist groups argue, LGBTQIA+ groups have been around as long as humans have. They are ingrained in the fabric of storytelling and humanity as a whole.
This list is only a drop in the bucket of books being banned; any books with LGBTQIA+ representation are at risk of censorship. To find more banned books with similar themes, check out PEN America’s Pride reading list. Ideas, ways of existing, and ways of loving 一 that is what is being banned, and we must fight back.
To learn more about the realities of book banning, click here.
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