Among Banned Books in U.S. Schools, 41 Percent Have LGBTQ+ Themes: Report
newsweek.coma new report released by PEN America at the start of this year's Banned Books Week.Some LGBTQ+ advocates say the report is reflective of a larger "organized national attack on LGBTQ youth."Book bans have been on the rise in the U.S.
over the last few years, according to the report PEN America released on Monday. While some data indicates classroom censorship efforts have increased by about 250 percent over the last year, the trend appears to be widespread, with the American Library Association reporting an "unprecedented" number of book ban requests in 2021.In April, PEN America released a report covering the first nine months of the 2021-2022 school year.
That report found bans on 1,145 unique book titles, about 33 percent of which were found to "explicitly address LGBTQ+ themes, or have protagonists or prominent secondary characters who are LGBTQ+."PEN America's latest report found an increase in the percentage of banned books containing LGBTQ+ content.
According to the New York City-based nonprofit's updated data—which this time assessed titles banned during the entire 2021-2022 school year from July 2021 to June 2022—41 percent of the titles involved LGBTQ+ themes, or featured LGBTQ+ protagonists or important secondary characters.
