Seven of 10 of the most banned books in American libraries featured LGBTQ+ characters, according to the latest banned books report from the American Library Association (ALA), while 2024 ranked as the third-biggest year for book-banning efforts in the U.S. since the ALA started tracking them in 1990.
All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M Johnson and Maia Kobabe’s Gender Queer topped the list of banned books. Both titles have consistently held high spots on the list since they were published in 2020 and 2019, respectively.
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It’s a pretty “crummy” situation, as Holden Caulfield might say.
While the titles remained similar, those initiating challenges and bans have changed, according to the ALA.
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Parents accounted for just 16% of demands for books to be removed from shelves, while 72% came from “pressure groups and government entities that include elected officials, board members and administrators.”
“We can trace many of the challenges to Moms for Liberty and other groups,” Deborah Caldwell-Stone, the director of the ALA’s office for intellectual freedom, told NBC News.
The 120 titles most frequently targeted for censorship during 2024 are all identified on partisan book rating sites, which provide tools for activists to demand the censorship of library books, and are distributed by anti-LGBTQ+ “parents’ rights” groups like Moms for Liberty.
The most common justifications for censorship provided by complainants were false claims of illegal obscenity for minors; inclusion of LGBTQIA+ characters or themes; and covering topics of race, racism, equity, and social justice, the ALA said.
ALA documented 821 attempts to censor library books and other materials in 2024 across all library types, a decrease from 2023, when a record high of 1,247 attempts were reported.
But Caldwell-Stone said the number isn’t an indication censorship is declining. Libraries are now more likely to avoid controversial titles that may be prohibited by law, she says.
“I spoke to a librarian from Texas who told me she was looking over a political book and wasn’t sure if she could add it to the collection,” Caldwell-Stone said. “Librarians don’t want to get prosecuted or otherwise face legal trouble. A lot of librarians are operating under these kinds of threats.”
One more indication book bans continue to flourish: ALA recorded attempts to remove 2,452 unique titles in 2024, a significant increase from the average of 273 unique titles that were challenged annually during the 2001–2020 school year. That indicates an organized, cut-and-paste campaign from pressure groups like Moms for Liberty.
The latest report doesn’t include efforts by the current administration to purge titles that conflict with executive orders recognizing only two “immutable sexes,” male and female, and a ban on diversity, equity, and inclusion across the federal government.
Earlier this month, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth ordered the removal of 381 books from the U.S. Naval Academy’s Nimitz Library on the school’s Annapolis, Maryland campus because their subject matter was considered pro-DEI.
In January, the president declared a ban on DEI in K-12 education for any school receiving federal funding.
“Books are not the enemy; ignorance is the enemy,” PEN America’s managing director, Jonathan Friedman, said of Hegseth’s order. The book ban was the first on a college campus since the group began tracking the trend in 2021, Pen America said.
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