November 06 2025, 08:15 
An award-winning children’s book will remain on shelves in one Florida school district after it was challenged because of its LGBTQ+ themes.
On Tuesday evening, the Pinellas County Schools Instructional Materials Review Committee voted unanimously to reject a request to remove author Robert Tregoning’s Out of the Blue from schools. According to the Tampa Bay Times, local parent Ciro Goncalves filed an official objection to the book, writing that it promotes “gay ideology of ‘coming out of the closet.’”
Related
Six big-name publishers sue Ron DeSantis’ Florida over “unconstitutional” book-banning law
Per the district’s policies on Instructional Materials, any resident of the county — regardless of whether they are the parent of a student enrolled in Pinellas County Schools (PCS) — can file a written objection to a book or other instructional material with the district’s Instructional Materials Department, beginning the challenge process. The PCS Instructional Materials Review Committee, appointed by the district’s superintendent and consisting of two instructional staffers, a district content specialist or coordinator for library media, and three parents of students who will have access to the material, is tasked with reviewing both the objection and the material in question.
As the Tampa Bay Times notes, Tregoning’s 2023 children’s book centers on a boy who loves the color yellow, but lives in a world where everything is blue. After the boy’s father discovers his son’s preference, he celebrates it by painting the family’s house yellow, inspiring others to embrace their own preferences for colors other than blue. Out of the Blue won a 2024 Sunshine State Young Readers Award and was shortlisted for a 2024 Polari Prize — the U.K. and Ireland’s only book prize specifically for LGBTQ+ literature — and a 2024 Spark! School Book Award.
Insights for the LGBTQ+ community
Subscribe to our briefing for insights into how politics impacts the LGBTQ+ community and more.
Subscribe to our Newsletter today
