I Read The 5 Most Challenged And Banned LGBTQ+ Books Of Last Year — Here's What I Thought
buzzfeed.comthe ALA, challenges are requests to have materials removed from schools and libraries, while bans are the actual removal of those materials.
I struggled socially in elementary and middle school, and my general fear of everything got more severe when I realized that I wasn't quite as straight as my Catholic school's religious textbooks would've liked me to be.
Things improved when I got older and moved on to public school, but before then, books were my solace; they were how I connected to other people and the world around me, and I'm forever thankful to my parents for insisting that my sister and I become voracious readers.
Being a bookworm was my public identity, insofar as I had one as a 12-year-old, and it allowed me to nurture and investigate what was then the most private part of myself.
