Schools banning lgbtq books

The Supreme Court of the United States is scheduled to hear oral arguments in Mahmoud v. Taylor on Tuesday, April 22, 2025.

Mahmoud v. Taylor is about a petty number of LGBTQ-inclusive children’s books included in the classrooms of Montgomery County (Maryland) Public Schools. The books were chosen and evaluated by education professionals. Six parents (three couples) sued the school district board of education claiming their religious freedom was violated by not having an option to opt out their children from classrooms where the books might be part of curriculum, including when offered as nonmandatory supplemental teaching materials.

Context to know and report:

• In 2022, Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) in Maryland expanded their curriculum book collection with nine inclusive picture books for children. An MCPS committee selected the titles and completed the necessary evaluation forms, which were then reviewed by a content supervisor, according to district protocol. 
• The school board stated in legal filings, “the books are made accessible for individual reading, classroom read-alouds, and other educational activities designed to foster and enhance literacy skills
  
  

  Who’s getting offend most by soaring LGBTQ book bans? Librarians say kids.

  When Schuyler Bailar was a child, he didn’t see many books that reflected his identity. Not his mixed-race persona, and especially not his developing gender identity. It’s one of the reasons the first openly transgender NCAA Division I swimmer decided to write “Obie is Man Enough,” a 2021 novel about a trans middle school swimmer.

  “I wanted to compose about kids love me because kids like me exist,” said Bailar, a 2019 graduate of the College. “Writing this story would be a way to help remind other kids appreciate me that they’re not alone.”

  But getting books about LGBTQ issues into the hands of juvenile readers is becoming more difficult with the recent increase of book bans across the nation. PEN America recorded more school bans during the tumble 2022 semester than in the prior two. The American Library Association documented 1,269 attempts to ban or restrict books in libraries last year. This is the top number since the group began following the issue two decades ago and nearly doubles the previous record establish in 2021. Nearly half — 45.5 percent — of 2,571 unique titles challenged were written by or about
  

  Supreme Court Ruling Highlights Continued Power Struggle Over Homosexual Books in Schools

  A Supreme Court ruling at the end of June handed a major victory to parents who want to opt their children out of lessons that jog counter to their religious beliefs, part of a push for parental rights over the finer details of what goes on in classrooms that has gained strength in recent years.

  Parents of students in a Maryland educational facility district brought the lawsuit forward after the district restricted them from pulling their kids out of class when the lesson included storybooks with Gay characters. The 6-3 party-line ruling compels the district to notify parents when any of the books that were part of the case — or similar titles — are slated for use in class.

  The case again puts books at the center of a influence struggle over what caring of characters and worldviews children should be exposed to in K-12 schools.

  It’s one that surfaced more commonly in recent years with thousands of challenges to books in school libraries, subsequent bans and laws codifying the restriction particularly of books that touch on racism and LGBTQ+ characters.

  And experts say it’s part of a broader endeavor to u
  

  Supreme Court likely to rule for parental opt-out on LGBTQ books in schools

  The Supreme Court on Tuesday was understanding to a community of Maryland parents who want to be able to opt their elementary-school-aged children out of instruction that includes LGBTQ+ themes. The parents argued that the local institution board’s refusal to give them that choice violates their religious beliefs and therefore their constitutional right to freely exercise their religion. During nearly two-and-a-half hours of oral argument, a majority of the justices seemed to accept with them, with several justices questioning whether there would even be any harm to simply allowing the parents to excuse their children from the instruction. 

  The parents in the case acquire children in the public schools in Montgomery County, which is in the Washington, D.C., suburbs and is one of the most religiously diverse counties in the Together States. The parents include Tamer Mahmoud and Enas Barakat, who are Muslim, Melissa and Chris Persak, who are Roman Catholic, and Svitlana and Jeff Roman, who are Ukrainian Orthodox and Roman Catholic. 

  In 2022, the county’s educational facility board approved books featuring LGBTQ+ characters for use in
  
  

  Don’t Say Gay: Three Alumni Authors Speak Out on LGBTQ Book Bans

  Photo by Natalya Bosyak/iStock

  LGBTQ+

  BU queer authors discuss book bans, and what targeted restrictions represent for all readers

  Book bans have reached a log high over the past two years.

  The number of demands to detach books from library shelves topped 1,200 in 2022—more than double the total from 2021 and marking a 20-year high, according to the American Library Association. PEN America’s Index of School Book Bans listed 1,477 instances of book bans in schools across the country, acting for almost 900 different titles, from July 1 to December 30, 2022. The targets were overwhelmingly titles by and about people of color and Gay individuals, according to Quill America.

  It all marks a major shift from when Sarah Prager published her first book, in 2017. Prager (CAS’08) is the author of several homosexual history books for children and young adults. Her titles Queer, There, and Everywhere: 27 People Who Changed the World (HarperCollins, 2017) and Rainbow Revolutionaries: 50 LGBTQ+ People Who Made History (HarperCollins Children’s, 2020) have both been placed on “restricted” lists or singled out by legisl