More than half of books banned during the last school year featured or were about people of color or members of the LGBTQ community, according to a report released Thursday.
PEN America, a nonprofit group that advocates for free expression in literature, released data in the fall that found more than 10,000 instances of schools or their districts removing books from school, classrooms or curriculums last year, affecting 4,218 titles. The analysis released Thursday found that those bans disproportionately affect books about certain identities, including people of color, and also more often apply to certain genres, such as history.
The analysis found that 36% of the more than 4,000 banned titles featured characters or people of color and 25% included LGBTQ characters or people. Of the titles featuring LGBTQ people, 28% featured a transgender and/or genderqueer character. One in 10 of the banned titles featured characters or people with a physical and/or learning or developmental disability, the analysis found.
“This targeted censorship amounts to a harmful assault on historically marginalized and underrepresented populations — a dangerous effort to erase their stories, achievements, and history from schools,” Sabrina Baêta, senior manager for PEN America’s Freedom to Read program, said in a statement. “When we strip library shelves of books about particular groups, we defeat the purpose of a library collection that is supposed to reflect the lives of all people. The damaging consequences to young people are real.”
Book challenges and bans — which are often spearheaded by parents and conservative activists — have skyrocketed in recent years, according to the American Library Association, which found that in 2024 the number of books challenged in libraries across the U.S. reached the highest level ever documented by the nonprofit. During the 2021 school year, PEN America found that more than 1,600 books were banned in schools, compared to the 4,218 removed from shelves last year.
For the first time, PEN America tracked the genres that were banned in schools. The top banned genres last year were realistic fiction, dystopia/sci-fi/fantasy, history and biography, mystery and thriller, educational and memoir and autobiography. Picture books and books with graphic or illustrated content made up nearly one-fifth, or 17%, of all banned books.
The nonprofit found that people of color and LGBTQ people were disproportionately affected across multiple categories. For example, 44% of banned history and biography titles featured people of color, and 26% featured Black people, specifically. Of the banned titles with pictures or illustrated content, 60% had illustrations related to race and racism or featured characters of color.
Of banned history and biography titles, 25% featured LGBTQ people and 9% featured trans and genderqueer people. More than one-third, 39%, of banned titles with pictures or illustrated content included LGBTQ themes and characters. Picture books made up about 2% of all banned titles, and PEN America found that “nowhere is the attack on stories of LGBTQ+ children and families more apparent” than in that category, where about 64% of all banned titles have LGBTQ+ characters or stories.
The analysis also found that book bans often affect titles that feature more than one marginalized identity. More than half, 54%, of all banned books with LGBTQ characters or people also featured characters or people of color.
Educational institutions that receive federal funding have become ground zero for the conservative-led effort in recent years to limit students’ access to information about race and racism as well as the LGBTQ community. Proponents of the restrictions argue that such information can make students uncomfortable and that students shouldn’t have access to sexually explicit material.
In Florida, for example, the state Department of Education in November released a list of hundreds of books — including “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison and “Slaughterhouse Five” by Kurt Vonnegut — that officials had removed from some schools across the state. Sydney Booker, a spokesperson for the department, told The Associated Press at the time that no books are being banned in the state.
“Once again, far left activists are pushing the book ban hoax on Floridians,” Booker said. “The better question is why do these activists continue to fight to expose children to sexually explicit materials.”
Critics of the bans argue that restricting access to information harms all students’ abilities to learn, can promote further discrimination and doesn’t allow students of color and LGBTQ students to see their lives reflected in books.
PEN America noted in the analysis that more than half of all U.S. schoolchildren are students of color, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Younger generations are also increasingly identifying as LGBTQ, according to a recent Gallup survey, which found that nearly one-quarter, 23.1%, of Gen Z identify as LGBTQ.
The nonprofit’s analysis also found that sex-related content is one of the most criticized subjects in book-banning efforts. However, PEN America found accusations that the targeted titles are “explicit” to be exaggerated. Out of the more than 4,000 overall titles banned last year, PEN America found that 31% had references to sexual experiences but with minimal detail, while 13% described the sexual experiences “on the page” with more descriptive sex scenes between characters.
“Books with sexual content allow students to raise questions about this aspect of human experience, which can help guide them,” PEN America’s analysis said, noting that books on other real-world experiences — such as death and grief, violence, abuse and mental health issues — made up more of the banned titles.
