Number of book challenges nationwide doubled from 2021 as book ban movement gathers speed in Republican-led states

Texas made the most attempts to ban or restrict books in 2022, according to a new report from the American Library Association (ALA).

Last year, there were 1,269 documented censorship attempts to restrict 2,571 unique titles – the highest number ever recorded by ALA’s Office of Intellectual Freedom and double the 729 book challenges made in 2021.

Texas made 93 attempts to restrict access to over 2,300 books.

The book ban movement, has been gaining speed in recent years across the US, particularly in Republican-led states, and is becoming a central theme in religious-political activism. Often the books contain issues related to LGBTQ+ communities or race.

    • littlewonder@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      You’re right. Let’s go ahead and remove all the naked statues from museums, the paintings of naked people, any media mentioning rape, abuse, or even normal teens having sex, and any hint that lgbtq people existed before Will and Grace.

      So happy my children are protected from all this porn! Sure hope they remember how protected from porn they are if they happen to be in the 1/3 of people who are sexually abused before the age of 18 and have no way to know what happened, how to deal with it, or how to find support.

      • Uranium3006@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        That’s what they want. They want children to be abused, espically LGBT children. They’re starting with children because they’re an easy target. They have no rights and conservatives want to keep.it that way

    • dragonflyteaparty@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Oh yeah, because we all know sexually explicit books were just all over in public school libraries. Those kids were reading so many sexual books at school libraries. It was such a problem for so many years and everyone thought it was ok until just now. And of course the only books being removed are actually explicit ones. There’s not a single one that just has to do with LGBTQ people that regressives are calling sexual because they want to equate being publicly not straight as being publicly sexual. Of course not. And of course they didn’t ban any books about racism. Nope. Never.

      Yes, people are calling it a book ban. And yes, that is an apt term. They are banning books from school libraries. It doesn’t have to be a blanket nation/state wide ban to be called a ban. It’s still a ban even when you ban something from specific locations.

    • Dudewitbow@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      Has Texas banned the bible yet, the book cotains a lot of sexually explicit imagery and moments of rape and murder

    • agent_flounder@lemmy.one
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      1 year ago

      The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison was the most challenged book in the state, on grounds it contained sexually explicit content. Other challenged books include Gender Queer, All Boys Aren’t Blue, and other books with LGBTQ+ or anti-racism themes.

      What do you call it when they remove books that aren’t sexually explicit but deal with LGBTQ+ and anti-racism themes?