Majority of Anti-LGBT Book Challenges Were Filed by Just 11 People

To listen to Christofascists and Republican politicians who are using a "parents' rights" smoke screen to justify their efforts to erase LGBT people (and race and racial minorities) from the public schools and public libraries would have the world believe that there is a broad base of support banning books and "don't say gays" laws.   The truth is actually the opposite with surveys showing a majority of Americans (i) oppose book bans and (ii) want an accurate version of history taught in the public schools.  Now, a study of book challenges across the country by the Washington Post has disclosed that there is a very small group of far right activists - most hiding under the banner of the falsely named "Moms for " funded by far right dark money.  The goal?  To erase LGBT students and people and to tell the majority of citizens what their children can read and impose a Christofascist agenda that seeks to stigmatize gays and perpetuate the myth that gays "groom" children and youths.  It's sick, it's ugly and it is in keeping with the past practice of right wing hate merchants.   Here are highlights from the Post piece that looks at the small cadre of activists behind book bans: 

Books about LGBTQ people are fast becoming the main target of a historic wave of school book challenges — and a large percentage of the complaints come from a minuscule number of hyperactive adults, a first-of-its-kind Washington Post analysis found.

A stated wish to shield children from sexual content is the main factor animating attempts to remove LGBTQ books, The Post found. The second-most common reason cited for pulling LGBTQ texts was an explicit desire to prevent children from reading about lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, nonbinary and queer lives.

The Post requested copies of all book challenges filed in the 2021-2022 school year with the 153 school districts that Tasslyn Magnusson, a researcher employed by free expression advocacy group PEN America, tracked as receiving formal requests to remove books last school year. In total, officials in more than 100 of those school systems, which are spread across 37 states, provided 1,065 complaints totaling 2,506 pages.

Nearly half of filings — 43 percent — targeted titles with LGBTQ characters or themes, while 36 percent targeted titles featuring characters of color or dealing with issues of race and racism. The top reason people challenged books was “sexual” content; 61 percent of challenges referenced this concern.

In nearly 20 percent of the challenges, petitioners wrote that they wanted texts pulled from shelves because the titles depict lesbian, gay, queer, bisexual, homosexual, transgender or nonbinary lives. Many challengers wrote that reading books about LGBTQ people could cause children to alter their sexuality or gender.

A small number of people were responsible for most of the book challenges, The Post found. Individuals who filed 10 or more complaints were responsible for two-thirds of all challenges. In some cases, these serial filers relied on a network of volunteers gathered together under the aegis of conservative parents’ groups such as Moms for Liberty.

The surge in anti-LGBTQ book challenges comes as Republican-dominated state legislatures are proposing and passing a record-breaking wave of laws and policies that restrict LGBTQ civil liberties, especially in the K-12 setting. . . . And seven states have adopted laws that threaten school librarians with years of imprisonment and tens of thousands of dollars in fines for giving children “obscene” or “harmful” books.

Library and free speech advocates warn that the rise in book challenges, especially those targeting LGBTQ texts, will imperil teachers’ ability to do their jobs, undermine the mental health of LGBTQ students and rob children of exposure to lives different from their own.

“These censorship attacks on books have real-life human impacts that are going to resonate for generations,” said John Chrastka, cofounder and executive director of library advocacy group EveryLibrary.

Opposition to LGBTQ books is not a new phenomenon in America. But the current wave is likely unprecedented in scope and scale, according to a Post analysis of data provided by the American Library Association, which has tracked book challenges by calendar year for more than two decades.

From the 2000s to the early 2010s, LGBTQ books were the targets of between less than 1 and 3 percent of book challenges filed in schools, according to ALA data. That number rose to 16 percent by 2018, 20 percent in 2020 and 45.5 percent in 2022, the most recent year for which data is available.

[M]any challengers were also uncomfortable with LGBTQ books for other reasons. In 37 percent of objections against LGBTQ titles, challengers wrote they believed the books should not remain in libraries specifically because they feature LGBTQ lives or stories.

The developments across the nation contain a message, said Sarah Kate Ellis, president and chief executive of LGBTQ rights group GLAAD: “Being gay or transgender is somehow something to avoid.” . . . Eight percent of the challenges lodged against LGBTQ books said they would “groom” children, priming them to adopt an LGBTQ identity and/or to become sexually deviant.

There is little research into the effects of LGBTQ literature on children, said Amy Egbert, a University of Connecticut assistant professor who studies youth mental health, partly because books about LGBTQ people have only recently become widely available. But “we do have a lot of data about other topics that doesn’t lead us to think that reading a book would make a child suddenly become gay,” she said. And, she said, there is a clear risk to removing LGBTQ books. “Any time a certain identity is stigmatized, that tends to lead to more discrimination, more bullying, increased mental health challenges,” Egbert said. “Everything we know suggests this is very harmful to LGBTQ kids.”

The majority of the 1,000-plus book challenges analyzed by The Post were filed by just 11 people. Each of these people brought 10 or more challenges against books in their school district; one man filed 92 challenges. Together, these serial filers constituted 6 percent of all book challengers — but were responsible for 60 percent of all filings.

Sixteen percent of all objections claimed that school books violated either state obscenity laws or legislation passed in the past three years restricting education on race, racism, sexuality and gender identity. Calling books “illegal” was the ninth-most common reason employed by book challengers.

This tactic was especially popular in Florida and Texas: Of the 153 complaints contending books were illegal, 56 percent were brought in Florida and 18 percent in Texas.

Of course, these people care nothing about the harm done to LGBT youth because inflicting harm is the whole point behind the effort.