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Here are 50 books Texas parents want banned from school libraries

A collage of books banned in Texas.

Conservative parents have swarmed school board meetings in Texas and across the country in recent months to call for the removal of library books that deal with race, racism, sex, gender and sexuality. Some parents have taken it a step further, filling out paperwork to formally challenge the appropriateness of library books and forcing school administrators to review them.

Read more: Books on race and sexuality are disappearing from Texas schools in record numbers

NBC News sent public records requests to nearly 100 school districts in the Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and Austin regions — a small sampling of the state’s 1,250 public school systems — and found 86 formal requests to remove books from libraries last year, the vast majority coming during the final four months of the year. Several titles were targeted in multiple districts.

Drawing from those records, below is a list of 50 books that Texas parents tried to ban in 2021.

1. "Drama," by Raina Telgemeier

Image: book cover of "Drama" by Raina Telgemeier

A parent asked administrators at the Spring Branch Independent School District in Houston to pull this graphic novel, which features gay and bisexual characters, because she claimed it might lead young students "to question their sexual orientation when they don't even comprehend what that means."

2. "When Wilma Rudolph Played Basketball," by Mark Weakland

Image: book cover of "When Wilma Rudolph Played Basketball" by Mark Weakland

A parent in Prosper, a Dallas suburb, said this illustrated children's book , which touches on the racism that Olympian Wilma Rudolph experienced growing up in Tennessee in the 1940s, should be removed from school libraries because "it opines prejudice based on race."

3. "Lawn Boy," by Jonathan Evison

Image: book cover of "Lawn Boy"

A parent in Plano said this coming-of-age novel about a Mexican American character's journey to understanding his own sexuality and ethnic identity should be banned because it contains "profanity, pornography, gambling, homosexuality." The parent claimed the book encourages "admiring people with low morals and values, and hate of other people."

4. "Better Nate Than Ever," by Tim Federle

Image: book cover for "Better Nate Than Ever"

A parent in Leander, an Austin suburb, asked for this book, which features a subplot about a teenager who’s starting to notice his attraction to other boys, to be removed because the parent didn't believe "books should discuss sensitive/controversial topics such as gender, sexuality."

5. "Five, Six, Seven, Nate!" by Tim Federle

Image: book cover for Five, Six, Seven, Nate!

A Leander parent suggested replacing children's books that mention gender identity or sexuality, including this one, with "classics," such as "White Fang," "The Indian in the Cupboard," "The Swiss Family Robinson" and Shakespeare.

6. "The Bluest Eye," by Toni Morrison

Image: book cover for "The Bluest Eye"

This classic novel by the Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison should be banned from schools, according to a parent in the Fort Worth suburb of Birdville, because it includes a graphic description of rape. 

7. "Out of Darkness," by Ashley Hope Pérez

Image: book cover for "Out of Darkness"

This novel, about a 1930s East Texas romance between a Mexican American girl and a Black boy, isn't suitable for teens, a Birdville parent wrote, because "it depicts a graphic sexual experience between minors."

8. "Ghost Boys," by Jewell Parker Rhodes

Image: book cover for "Ghost Boys"

According to a Houston parent, reading this novel about a Black boy killed by police might cause white children who attend the Spring Branch Independent School District to “feel ashamed based on color of their skin.”

9. "l8r, g8r," by Lauren Myracle

Image: book cover for "L8r, g8r"

Told entirely through instant messages among three high school students, this novel has no place in schools, according to a parent in the Dallas suburb of McKinney, because it contains a "description of oral sex with minors," among other sexually explicit passages.

10. "Me and Earl and the Dying Girl," by Jesse Andrews

Image: book cover for "Me and Early and the Dying Girl"

A parent in the Houston suburb of Katy wrote that this book, which chronicles the relationship between a teen boy and a girl with leukemia, includes "obscene language" and could lead students to "become over sexualized and objectified."

11. "White Bird: A Wonder Story," by R.J. Palacio

Image: book cover for "White Bird"

A parent in the Spring Branch ISD said this graphic novel — about a Jewish teen living in France after Nazis seized power — should be banned because it's "biased" and could lead to the "skewing of a young child's mind."

12. "Ground Zero: A Novel of 9/11," by Alan Gratz

Image: book cover for "Ground Zero: A Novel of 9/11"

A parent in Prosper said this novel, which tells the story of 9/11 and its aftermath from the dueling perspectives of an American boy and an Afghan girl, should be removed from schools because it "depicts American soldiers as callous, evil and terrorists" and because the author mentions the racial or ethnic identities of every character.

13. "Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic," by Alison Bechdel

Image: book cover for "Fun Home"

This illustrated memoir, which recounts the author’s coming of age as a lesbian, is unsuitable for schools, according to a parent in Birdville, because it includes graphic descriptions of sexual violence.

14. "Jack of Hearts (and Other Parts)" by L.C. Rosen

Image: book cover for "Jack of Hearts and Other Parts"

A Katy mom asked administrators to remove this book, about a 17-year-old gay student who has a lot of sex and isn’t ashamed of it, after reading explicit passages aloud at a school board meeting: “We cannot unread this type of content," she said, "and I would like to protect my kids’ hearts and minds from this.”

15. "City of Thieves," by David Benioff  

Image: book cover for "City of Thieves"

A parent in San Antonio asked the Northside Independent School District to ban this work historical fiction, set during the Nazis’ siege of Leningrad, because it includes “pornographic imagery” that is "not suited for the majority" of readers, the parent wrote, adding, "... unless you're into that."

16. "Gender Queer," by Maia Kobabe

Image: book cover for "Gender Queer"

This illustrated memoir by a nonbinary author, which includes sexually explicit cartoon images, triggered attempted bans — and even threats of criminal charges — in several Texas school districts.

17. "This One Summer," by Mariko Tamaki

Image: book cover for "This One Summer"

A Birdville mom wanted this book, a graphic novel featuring LGBTQ characters, removed from libraries because, she said, it "has a recurring theme of oral sex."

18. "We Are the Ants," by Shaun David Hutchinson

Image: book cover for "we are the ants"

This coming-of-age novel about a gay teenager came under fire in Birdville when a parent complained that it has explicit descriptions of "masterbation and genitalia."

19. "The Breakaways," by Cathy G. Johnson

Image: book cover for "The Breakaways"

Parents in Keller and Spring Branch complained that this graphic novel, which features a transgender character, should be off-limits for young students because it includes images of children kissing in bed.

20. "All Boys Aren't Blue," by George M. Johnson

Image: book cover for "All Boys Aren't Blue"

This memoir by a queer Black author was flagged for removal by a group of Katy parents because it includes descriptions of molestation and sex between men.

21. "The Perks of Being a Wallflower," by Stephen Chbosky

Image: book cover for "The Perks of Being a Wallflower"

A parent in McKinney asked the district to remove this coming-of-age novel because it includes descriptions of homosexuality, date rape and masturbation.

22. "Michelle Obama: Political Icon," by Heather E. Schwartz

Image: book cover for "Michelle Obama: Political Icon"

A Katy parent asked to have this children's biography of the former first lady banned at every grade level because, the parent said, it unfairly depicts former President Donald Trump as a bully and because Obama's reflections on race gave the impression that "if you sound like a white girl you should be ashamed of yourself."

23. "Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You," by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi

Image: book cover for "Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You"

This young adult adaptation of "Stamped From the Beginning," Kendi's National Book Award-winning historical examination of racism, was flagged for removal by a parent in Katy, who wrote that the children's book "is littered with completely fabricated and conspiracy theory views on history" that make it seem as if "all historical events of the past were a result of racism."

24. "New Kid," by Jerry Craft

Image: book cover for "New Kid"

A Katy mom asked to ban this graphic novel about a Black seventh grader at a mostly white school. She claimed that, because it includes references to microaggressions, the book is "about critical race theory, which is forbidden by Texas law."

25. "Class Act," by Jerry Craft

Image: book cover for "Class Act"

A Katy mom said this graphic novel, the second in a series, should be removed from schools because it will make white children feel guilty and "kids will be brainwashed that one race is superior than the other."

26. "Salvage the Bones," by Jesmyn Ward

Image: book cover for "Salvage the Bones"

In asking to ban this book about the plight of a Black working-class family as they prepare for Hurricane Katrina, a parent in Katy wrote, "I object to the explicit description of the teenage girl having sex with the boys in her social group."

27. "Woke: A Young Poet's Call to Justice," by Mahogany L. Browne, Elizabeth Acevedo and Olivia Gatwood

Image: book cover for "Woke: A Young Poet's Call to Justice"

A dad in Grapevine, a Dallas suburb, asked his child's school district to ban this book, a collection of poems by women of color on topics relating to social justice, activism and discrimination, because, he said, it promotes "terrorism."

28. "Not My Idea: A Book About Whiteness," by Anastasia Higginbotham

Image: book cover for "Not My Idea"

A parent asked the Eanes Independent School District in Austin to remove this picture book about racial justice, arguing that no books that promote the Black Lives Matter movement should be available to children.

29. "How to be an Antiracist," by Ibram X. Kendi

Image: book cover for "How to be an Anti-Racist"

In asking to ban this nonfiction book about resisting racism, an Eanes parent suggested replacing it with copies of the Bible.

30. "A Good Kind of Trouble," by Lisa Moore Ramée

Image: book cover for "A Good Kind of Trouble"

An Eanes parent asked administrators to get rid of this novel, about a 12-year-old girl who gets involved in the Black Lives Matter movement, because it might cause a white child to feel "confusion or distress."

31. "We Rise, We Resist, We Raise Our Voices," by Wade Hudson and Cheryl Willis Hudson

Image: book cover for "We Rise, We Resist, We Raise Our Voices"

This illustrated collection of poems and essays about overcoming prejudice and racism shouldn't be allowed in schools, an Eanes parent wrote, because it "promotes discrimination."

32. "On the Bright Side, I'm Now the Girlfriend of a Sex God," by Louise Rennison

Image: book cover for "On the Bright Side, I'm Now the Girlfriend of a Sex God"

A parent in Denton, north of Dallas, wanted this teen romance removed from schools, arguing that it should be replaced with books "that have humor that do not promote sexual activity."

33. "The Kite Runner," by Khaled Hosseini

Image: book cover for "The Kite Runner"

This acclaimed novel about an unlikely friendship between a wealthy Afghan boy and the son of his father's servant was flagged for removal by a mom in Birdville who complained that it "depicts the rape and sexual exploitation of minors."

34. "It's Perfectly Normal," by Robie H. Harris

Image: book cover for "It's Perfectly Normal"

A mom in Birdville asked school leaders to remove this book — an illustrated guide to puberty, sex and sexual health — after her child checked it out, writing that it wasn't appropriate for middle schoolers.

35. "Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out ," by Susan Kuklin

Image: book cover for "Beyond Magenta"

This book, a collection of interviews with transgender or gender-neutral young adults, was flagged for removal by a parent in Birdville who claimed that the book, which includes descriptions of sexual abuse of minors, encourages sexual activity among young children.

36. "Monday's Not Coming," by Tiffany D. Jackson

Image: book cover for "Monday's Not Coming"

This novel, which focuses on the unexplained disappearance of a Black teen, includes explicit language about sex, which was the basis for a Birdville parent's request to have it removed from school libraries.

37. "More Happy Than Not," by Adam Silvera

Image: book cover for "More Happy Than Not"

This novel, which includes LGBTQ storylines and explicit language, is one of dozens of library books that have been flagged for removal in the Fort Worth suburb of Keller. ( Most of the formal library challenges submitted to the Keller Independent School District were filled out on behalf of parents by a school administrator and don't specify why the parents sought to have the books removed. )

38. "George," by Alex Gino

Image: book cover for "George"

This book, lauded for its portrayal of a transgender child, is one of dozens of library books that have been flagged for removal in Keller.

39. "What Girls Are Made Of," by Elana K. Arnold

Image: book cover for "What Girls are Made Of"

This young adult novel, a National Book Award finalist, mentions abortion and includes multiple descriptions of sex. It's one of dozens of library books that have been flagged for removal in Keller.

40. "I Am Jazz," by Jessica Herthel and Jazz Jennings

Image: book cover for "I Am Jazz"

This illustrated children's book about a transgender child — based on the real-life experiences of one of the authors — is one of dozens of library books that have been flagged for removal in Keller.

41. "So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed," by Jon Ronson

Image: book cover for "So You've Been Publicly Shamed"

This book, in which the author interviews people who've been shamed on the internet, touches on sensitive subjects, including rape and suicide. It's one of dozens of library books that have been flagged for removal in Keller.

42. "King and the Dragonflies," by Kacen Callender

Image: book cover for King and the Dragonflies

Winner of the 2020 National Book Award for Young People's Literature, this novel deals with themes such as grief, love, family, friendship, racism and sexuality. It is one of dozens of library books that have been flagged for removal in Keller.

43. "Go With the Flow," by Lily Williams and Karen Schneemann

Image; book cover for "Go With the Flow"

This graphic novel, which the School Library Journal praised for its message "that periods need not be a dirty secret,” is one of dozens of library books that have been flagged for removal in Keller.

44. "Last Night at the Telegraph Club," by Malinda Lo

Image: book cover for "Last Night at the Telegraph Club"

This novel, about a lesbian romance set in 1954 between a Chinese American teen and a white classmate, is one of dozens of library books that have been flagged for removal in Keller.

45. "Weird Girl and What's His Name," by Meagan Brothers

Image: book cover for "Weird Girl and What's His Name"

Tracing the story of a 17-year-old girl who's beginning to question her sexual orientation, this is one of dozens of library books that have been flagged for removal in Keller.

46. "Flamer," by Mike Curato

Image: book cover for "Flamer"

The School Library Journal said this graphic novel, about a boy wrestling with his sexuality at summer camp, is "an essential book that shows readers that they are never alone in their struggles." It's one of dozens of library books that have been flagged for removal in Keller.

47. "Milk and Honey," by Rupi Kaur

Image: book cover for "Milk and Honey"

This collection of poetry and short stories about violence, abuse, love, loss and femininity is one of dozens of library books that have been flagged for removal in Keller.

48. "A Court of Mist and Fury," by Sarah J. Maas

Image: book cover for "A Court of Mist and Fury"

The second in a series of young adult fantasy novels, this is one of dozens of library books that have been flagged for removal in Keller.

49. "47," by Walter Mosley

Image: book cover for "47"

This novel, about a young slave boy who becomes swept up in a struggle for his own liberation, is one of dozens of library books that have been flagged for removal in Keller.

50. "Girls Like Us," by Gail Giles

Image: Book cover for "Girls Like Us"

This novel, which includes descriptions of sexual abuse, is one of dozens of library books that have been flagged for removal in Keller.

library books banned in texas

Mike Hixenbaugh is a senior investigative reporter for NBC News, based in Maryland. 

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A texas county that was ordered to return banned books to its shelves is set to consider shutting down its library system.

The Commissioners Court of Llano County is set to discuss ceasing operations of its library system.

A rural Texas county that was ordered by a federal judge to return banned books to its public library shelves is now considering shutting down its libraries entirely.

A meeting of the Commissioners Court of Llano County on Thursday will include discussion of whether to “continue or cease operations of the current physical Llano County library system pending further guidance from the Federal Courts,” according to the meeting agenda .

Robert L. Pitman, the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Texas, speaks during a news conference Wednesday, June 4, 2014, in Midland, Texas, about the dangers of designer drugs.

Judge orders books removed from Texas public libraries due to LGBTQ and racial content must be returned within 24 hours

The meeting comes after federal Judge Robert Pitman on March 30 ordered the Llano County Library System – which includes three branches – to return 12 children’s books to its shelves that had been removed, many because of their LGBTQ and racial content.

Books ordered to return to shelves included “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents” by Isabel Wilkerson, “They Called Themselves the K.K.K.: The Birth of an American Terrorist Group” by Susan Campbell Bartoletti and “Being Jazz: My Life as a (Transgender) Teen” by Jazz Jennings.

Seven residents had sued county officials in April 2022 , claiming their First and 14th Amendment rights were violated when books deemed inappropriate by some people in the community and Republican lawmakers were removed from public libraries or access was restricted.

According to the lawsuit, the county commissioners kicked out the members of the library board in 2021 and replaced them with a new board that demanded review of the content of all its books. That led to several books being removed from its catalog access being cut off to an e-book service that included some of the disputed titles.

The defendants argued the books were removed as part of a regular “weeding” process following the library’s existing policies.

HOUSTON, TEXAS - APRIL 26: Books line the shelves at the Rice University Library on April 26, 2022 in Houston, Texas. A group of local residents are suing Llano County in federal court for the County's removal and censorship of library books addressing racism and LGBTQ issues. The lawsuit addresses

Texas residents are suing their county after books were removed from public libraries

The judge later gave the library system 24 hours to place the books back onto shelves, saying “the First Amendment prohibits the removal of books from libraries based on either viewpoint or content discrimination.”

The Commissioners Court agenda item for the upcoming meeting does not include a reason for the possible closure of the library. What it does say is that the discussion is “regarding the continued employment and/or status of the Llano County Library System employees and the feasibility of the use of the library premises by the public.”

“It appears that the defendants would rather shut down the Library System entirely — depriving thousands of Llano county residents of access to books, learning resources, and meeting space — than make the banned books available to residents who want to read them,” Ellen Leonida, the attorney for plaintiffs in the case, said in a statement to CNN.

The Llano County commissioners and members of the Library Board have appealed the judge’s ruling. They did not respond to CNN’s request for comment.

The next hearing in the case is set for April 27 to consider possible sanctions against the defendants for failing to appear for depositions in the case.

The case comes amid ongoing fights across the country to protect access to books in response to a banning boom that has taken shape in the US – including in K-12 schools, universities and public libraries.

In 2022, the number of attempts to censor library books reached an unparalleled record high since the American Library Association began documenting data about book censorship over 20 years ago, the organization said in March .

It cataloged 1,269 demands to censor library books in 2022 – nearly double the number of challenges in 2021.

CNN’s Alaa Elassar and Taylor Romine contributed to this report.

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Texas county roiled by book ban considered closing libraries

Llano resident Emily Decker protests outside a Llano County Commissioner's Court meeting at the Llano County Law Enforcement Center on Thursday, April 13, 2023 in Llano, Texas. Leaders in a rural Texas county held a special meeting Thursday but drew back from considering shutting their public library system rather than follow a federal judge's order to return books to the shelves on themes ranging from teen sexuality to bigotry. (Aaron E. Martinez/Austin American-Statesman via AP)

Llano resident Emily Decker protests outside a Llano County Commissioner’s Court meeting at the Llano County Law Enforcement Center on Thursday, April 13, 2023 in Llano, Texas. Leaders in a rural Texas county held a special meeting Thursday but drew back from considering shutting their public library system rather than follow a federal judge’s order to return books to the shelves on themes ranging from teen sexuality to bigotry. (Aaron E. Martinez/Austin American-Statesman via AP)

Llano Assistant Chief of Police Matt Lincoln calls names of community members to testify at a Llano County Commissioner’s Court meeting at the Llano County Law Enforcement Center, Thursday, April 13, 2023 in Llano, Texas. Leaders in a rural Texas county held a special meeting Thursday but drew back from considering shutting their public library system rather than follow a federal judge’s order to return books to the shelves on themes ranging from teen sexuality to bigotry. (Aaron E. Martinez/Austin American-Statesman via AP)

Llano, Texas resident, Emily Decker, right, and Llano County resident Michael McDavid, left, protest outside a Llano County Commissioner’s Court meeting at the Llano County Law Enforcement Center on Thursday, April 13, 2023 in Llano, Texas. Leaders in a rural Texas county held a special meeting Thursday but drew back from considering shutting their public library system rather than follow a federal judge’s order to return books to the shelves on themes ranging from teen sexuality to bigotry. (Aaron E. Martinez/Austin American-Statesman via AP)

Diane Moster, left, and Katherine Chiarello, right, listen to a live stream of a Llano County Commissioner’s Court meeting at the Llano County Law Enforcement Center Thursday, April 13, 2023 in Llano, Texas. Leaders in a rural Texas county held a special meeting Thursday but drew back from considering shutting their public library system rather than follow a federal judge’s order to return books to the shelves on themes ranging from teen sexuality to bigotry. (Aaron E. Martinez/Austin American-Statesman via AP)

Jil Dillard, a Llano High School librarian, right, and Terrie Smarr, a Llano resident, left, listen to a live stream of a Llano County Commissioner’s Court meeting at the Llano County Law Enforcement Center Thursday, April 13, 2023 in Llano, Texas. Leaders in a rural Texas county held a special meeting Thursday but drew back from considering shutting their public library system rather than follow a federal judge’s order to return books to the shelves on themes ranging from teen sexuality to bigotry. (Aaron E. Martinez/Austin American-Statesman via AP)

Diane Moster, left, and Katherine Chiarello, right, celebrate as a Llano County Commissioner’s Court meeting comes to an end at the Llano County Law Enforcement Center Thursday, April 13, 2023 in Llano, Texas. Leaders in a rural Texas county held a special meeting Thursday but drew back from considering shutting their public library system rather than follow a federal judge’s order to return books to the shelves on themes ranging from teen sexuality to bigotry. (Aaron E. Martinez/Austin American-Statesman via AP)

Diane Moster celebrates as a Llano County Commissioner’s Court meeting comes to an end at the Llano County Law Enforcement Center Thursday, April 13, 2023 in Llano, Texas. Leaders in a rural Texas county held a special meeting Thursday but drew back from considering shutting their public library system rather than follow a federal judge’s order to return books to the shelves on themes ranging from teen sexuality to bigotry. (Aaron E. Martinez/Austin American-Statesman via AP)

Llano resident Worth Green holds a written statement he wanted to deliver at a Llano County Commissioner’s Court meeting at the Llano County Law Enforcement Center Thursday, April 13, 2023 in Llano, Texas. Leaders in a rural Texas county held a special meeting Thursday but drew back from considering shutting their public library system rather than follow a federal judge’s order to return books to the shelves on themes ranging from teen sexuality to bigotry. (Aaron E. Martinez/Austin American-Statesman via AP)

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Leaders in a rural Texas county held a special meeting Thursday but drew back from the drastic option of shutting their public library system rather than heeding a federal judge’s order to return books to the shelves on themes ranging from teen sexuality and gender to bigotry and race.

Following public comments both for and against a possible shutdown, the Llano County Commissioners Court decided to remove consideration of a possible closure from the agenda, assuring its three libraries remain open.

“We will try this in the courts, not through social media or through news media,” said Llano County Judge Ron Cunningham, who presides over the commissioners court and is one of the defendants in a lawsuit filed a year ago by library patrons.

The struggle in Llano County, home to about 20,000 people in the Texas hill country outside of Austin, reflects an explosion of attempts in recent years to ban books around the U.S. amid escalating cultural wars.

New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu waves while being introduced prior to his State of the State address at the State House, Thursday, Feb. 15, 2024, in Concord, N.H. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

The special meeting was called after U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman granted a temporary injunction last month that ordered almost 20 books be returned to library shelves.

Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom, said this was the first incidence she was aware of in which officials moved to consider closing a system altogether.

Beginning in 2021, the lawsuit says, the defendants began using various tactics to keep certain books out of the hands of patrons, from moving children’s books they objected to into the adult section to temporarily suspending use of their digital library. The suit also said steps involved dissolving a previous library board and then packing it with appointees, including many of those who had been pressuring the system to ban books.

The other defendants include the four county commissioners, the library system’s current director and some new members of the library board.

One of the new library board members is Bonnie Wallace, who was among those speaking at Thursday’s meeting. Wallace, who said there were over 200 additional books she thinks should be banned, was among those who read aloud explicit sex scenes from books they said were currently on the shelves.

“I am in favor of closing the libraries temporarily until we find a solution to the pornographic filth we do have,” Wallace said.

Resident James Arno, who supported keeping the libraries open, said parents can monitor what their children are reading without denying access to others.

“It’s not our job to burn this thing to the ground to prevent kids from reading what these people are reading,” said Arno, referring to explicit material read aloud at the meeting. “It’s the parents’ job to know what their kids are into.”

Caldwell-Stone said the books targeted in Llano County fit into trends they are seeing nationwide. “The demands that we’re seeing are to remove books that reflect the lives and experiences of LGBTQIA persons or reflect the lives and experiences of persons of color, in particular Black persons,” she said.

The books that were being kept off the shelf include “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontent” by Isabel Wilkerson, “They Called Themselves the K.K.K: The Birth of an American Terrorist Group,” by Susan Campbell Bartoletti, “In the Night Kitchen” by Maurice Sendak, “It’s Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex and Sexual Health” by Robie H. Harris and “Being Jazz: My Life as a (Transgender) Teen” by Jazz Jennings.

Others were picture books for children including “Larry the Farting Leprechaun” by Jane Bexley and “My Butt is So Noisy!” by Dawn McMillan.

“These are books that we have found over the years appeal particularly to young male readers and are really great tools for encouraging early literacy and a love of reading,” Caldwell-Stone said.

Over 1,200 challenges were compiled by the ALA last year, by far the most since the association began keeping data over 20 years ago. The 2022 number was nearly double the then-record total for 2021.

The uproar in Llano County has drawn interest from notable conservatives. The attorney representing the county is Jonathan Mitchell, an architect of a Texas anti-abortion law in 2021 that was briefly the strictest in the country before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

Mitchell, who has appealed the judge’s order in the library case, argued in a recent filing that the plaintiffs’ claims that their First Amendment rights were violated “cannot get off the ground” because the books were currently available to check out through the library’s “in-house” system.

But the judge wrote in his order that books hidden in a back room and absent from the catalog wouldn’t be within reach of the public.

“This is, of course, an obvious and intentional effort by Defendants to make it difficult if not impossible to access the materials Plaintiffs seek,” Pitman wrote.

library books banned in texas

library books banned in texas

Texas had the most book challenges of any state last year, according to the American Library Association

A person browses for books at the Austin Central Library.

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Last year saw more requests to ban books in public schools and libraries in the U.S. than any other year in the previous two decades, according to new data from the American Library Association .

The ALA recorded just over 1,000 requests to censor library books, a 70% increase over 2021. Texas led the nation with 93 attempts to restrict access to 2,349 book titles – nearly double the number of attempts as the next state on the list, Pennsylvania.

Nicole Cobler, who covers Austin for Axios, said these numbers represent a wide array of book challenges.

“The American Library Association is actually tracking both attempts to ban books and attempts to relocate them to less accessible places,” she said. “They rely on media reports and they rely on library staff and the public to gather this list. It’s just a snapshot. They’ve been tracking censorship for three decades.”

Cobler said other reports tracking book bans have also found Texas sees the most in the nation. According to the ALA’s dataset, Florida had 35 challenges last year. California, another big state, had 32 attempts, and New York saw 33.

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The data also found that book bans looked different last year than they had in previous years.

“The association has called this increase [in bans] evidence of a ‘well-organized conservative movement’ that’s broadly distributing lists to supporters to file mass challenges,” Cobler said. “Of the over 1,200 attempts nationwide to ban 2,500 books last year, 40% sought to remove or restrict more than 100 books at once. So it’s not just like an individual book challenge from a parent. This is really like mass challenges on lists of books.”

The most challenged book in Texas last year was Toni Morrison’s Nobel Prize-winning novel The Bluest Eye , which was the third most challenged book nationwide.

“I think overwhelmingly, the country’s top books challenged are over LGBTQ content themes of race and or content that is claimed to be sexually explicit,” Cobler said.

She said these book challenges are part of a broader movement by conservative Texas parents to assert more control over what their children are exposed to in public schools – and are happening alongside state laws that aim to restrict access to some books.

The Texas Legislature passed House Bill 900 this year, which would require vendors selling books to schools to rate them based on sexual content.

“This was a bill that lawmakers passed to keep sexually explicit materials off school library shelves,” Cobler said. “On the eve of that law going into effect, a federal judge stopped that from [happening]. So it’ll be battled out in the courts, and we’ll see what happens.”

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library books banned in texas

Book ban battle threatens Texas library system's fate

Local officials are considering closing the library system's doors.

A Texas county's library system is being threatened amid an ongoing battle over banned books.

On Thursday, the Llano County Commissioners Court discussed whether to "continue or cease operations" of the library system after previously removed books discussing race , health, gender and sexuality were returned to shelves under a court order.

The county commissioners voted to remove the library system’s possible closure from the agenda and said that the libraries will remain open during the course of the lawsuit, ABC affiliate KVUE reported .

The debate seemingly began in July 2021, when a community group began pushing for the removal of children's books that they deemed "inappropriate," according to court documents.

These books included two children series, dubbed the "Butt and Fart books" in the court order. The books "depict bodily functions in a humorous manner in cartoon format, because [critics] believed these books were obscene and promoted 'grooming' behavior."

As months went on, the removal of books continued, targeting books that discussed race, discrimination, gender, sexuality or sexual health, court documents show.

PHOTO: Stock photo of books.

MORE: What's in some of the most challenged books in America?

In December 2021, the Llano County Commissioners Court, an elected governing body of the county, voted to close the library for three days to check the shelves for "inappropriate" books, however "inappropriate" was not defined, court documents show.

The Commissioners Court also voted to suspend access to the library's online resources and dissolve the existing library advisory board, according to court documents.

Instead, a new advisory board was created and members of the community group that advocated for the book removals were appointed to it, according to the court order.

In April 2022, several Llano County residents sued county officials and the library over the book bans, calling the efforts to restrict books "censorship."

"Book banning offends basic First Amendment principles and strikes at the core of our democracy," read the lawsuit.

On March 31, a federal judge ordered the previously banned books to be put back on the shelves and allowed to be checked out and looked up in the library's catalog. Now, the county Commissioners Court partially behind the move to remove books will decide the fate of the library system.

MORE: How conservative and liberal book bans differ amid rise in literary restrictions

A representative for the Commissioners Court's public information office declined ABC News' request for comment regarding the reasoning behind the Thursday special meeting on the library's potential closure, citing the pending litigation.

Book bans have been seen across the country in record-breaking numbers: Roughly 1,269 demands were made to censor library books and resources in 2022, according to the American Library Association . The organization says it is the highest number of attempted book bans since it began collecting data over 20 years ago.

The vast majority of book banning attempts were made against literature written by or about members of the LGBTQIA+ community and people of color, according to the ALA.

Leila Green Little, one of the residents involved in the lawsuit to bring back the books, called herself a "third generation patron of the Llano County Library System."

Little said when she decided Llano County was where she wanted to raise her kids, she got them Llano County Library cards.

"My grandmother used to come to this library, my mother used to come to this library system, and they've both now passed so I feel a real connection to them when it comes to the library system," she told ABC News. "My public library is where I have cried, where I have laughed, where. I've watched my children grow and learn, where I've studied."

Little is also a member of the Llano County Library System Foundation, which offers support to the libraries through advocacy and grants, according to the foundation's website.

She called the attempt to close the library system a "tantrum" by the local government.

"Libraries are extremely important to me," she said. "I got involved in this preliminary injunction because I love my public library system and I must ensure that it serves the public."

Little's counsel, Emily Munoz, called the removal of books "censorship."

"There's nobody in Llano county that benefits from shutting the library," said Munoz. "People are gonna lose their jobs. People are going to lose places where they meet. They're going to lose the opportunity to read books, the opportunity to read books for free, a place to take their children."

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Texas county weighs shutting down libraries to circumvent judge's order overturning book ban

Bookshelf in public library, front view, horizontal

Llano County commissioners in the Texas Hill Country considered whether or not they would shut down their library system instead of complying with a federal judge’s order that they must return 17 banned books to the library shelves.

Officials scheduled a special meeting on Thursday during which they discussed shutting down the three library branches. Their notice said that pending further guidance from the courts, “This action item will include discussion and action regarding the continued employment and/or status of the Llano County Library System employees and the feasibility of the use of the library premises by the public.”

The banned books, which include themes of LGBTQ+ identity and race, were removed last year without public input after Llano County officials declared them pornographic and sexually explicit.

The 17 books are:

  • Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson
  • They Called Themselves the K.K.K.: The Birth of an American Terrorist Group by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
  • Being Jazz: My Life as a (Transgender) Teen by Jazz Jennings
  • Spinning by Tillie Walden
  • In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak
  • It’s Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex and Sexual Health by Robbie H. Harris
  • My Butt is So Noisy! I Broke My Butt! and I Need a New Butt! by Dawn McMillan
  • Larry the Farting Leprechaun , Gary the Goose and His Gas on the Loose , Freddie the Farting Snowman and Harvey the Heart Has Too Many Farts by Jane Bexley
  • Shine by Lauren Myracle
  • Under the Moon: A Catwoman Tale by Lauren Myracle
  • Gabi, a Girl in Pieces by Isabel Quintero
  • Freakboy by Kristin Elizabeth Clark

Seven parents sued the county last year for removing access to the books. Federal Judge Robert Pitman ordered the 17 books to be returned to the shelves on March 30 because officials had targeted them for the ideas they contain. Supreme Court precedent bars book removal based on viewpoint discrimination.

So the county appealed, and on Thursday, Llano County commissioners met to consider closing its libraries entirely rather than comply with the judge's order.

Shirley Robinson, the executive director of the Texas Library Association, said this should be a wake-up call for the 21,000 residents of Llano.

“The impact of costing employees their jobs there at the Llano County Library is going to really deprive residents of all sorts of services — not just access to books, but things like how to write a will, how to get a divorce, how to take care of a baby, or get a license, or learn English,” Robinson said.

She added that it should also be a wake-up call to people across the country, as this is part of a right-wing trend nationwide challenging and banning books, and harassing librarians

“What’s happened over the last couple of years has really shaken them to their core. We know that this really is an agenda that’s being propagated by a small vocal minority for political purposes. The very confidence of librarians has been called into question,” Robinson said.

Book bans and attempts to defund public libraries are taking place across the United States. Republican lawmakers in Missouri just passed a budget that doesn’t include funding for the state’s public libraries. Republican State Rep. Dirk Deaton said that these attempts are not book bans — rather they are “protecting innocent children.”

In 2022, the American Library Association reported 1,269 book challenges nationwide, the most since it started tracking them 20 years ago.

"Public libraries are not meant to serve particular ideological factions; they are meant to serve diverse communities, providing access to a wide range of knowledge and ideas. Closing the library system would be a violation of the core tenets of a free and open society," said Kasey Meehan, program director for the Freedom to Read project at Pen America.

“The proposal to close the Llano library system is not only an end-run to avoid complying with the District Court’s decision; it’s a vindictive response to the situation that is deeply undemocratic," Meehan said. “It would send an alarming message that county officials should have the power to pick and choose what books people can read, and to shutter a public institution if they get any pushback."

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A line of bookshelves in a library.

Cast as Criminals, America’s Librarians Rally to Their Own Defense

As libraries become battlegrounds in the nation’s culture wars, their allies are fighting to preserve access to their collections and keep themselves out of jail, or worse.

America’s libraries have become noisy and sometimes dangerous battlegrounds. Credit... Maansi Srivastava/The New York Times

Supported by

Elizabeth Williamson

By Elizabeth Williamson

Reporting from Post Falls, Idaho, and Pella, Iowa

  • Published Feb. 3, 2024 Updated Feb. 6, 2024

During 12 years as a youth librarian in northern Idaho, Denise Neujahr read to and befriended children of many backgrounds. Devout or atheist, gay or straight, all were welcome until a November evening in 2021, when about two dozen teens arriving at the Post Falls library for a meeting of the “Rainbow Squad” encountered a commotion at the entrance.

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Members of a local church waved signs with images of hellfire and used a bullhorn to shout Bible verses and accusations about sin and pedophile “groomers” in the library. Parents had to escort the teens inside that night, and the library beefed up security. But the next month police arrested a protester outside the doors who was carrying a knife and a loaded gun.

In May, religious conservatives won a majority on the library board and named as its chair a member who had called the Rainbow Squad a “sex club.” Ms. Neujahr, who created the group as a program of crafts, snacks and conversation for L.G.B.T.Q. youth and their parents, said she was told the group’s funding was in danger. But she refused to disband it.

“They’re really good kids,” Ms. Neujahr said. “It just makes me so sad that they have to go through all this hate. This is not what libraries stand for.”

Denise Neujahr holding books near a window. She is a wearing a black jacket and a multicolored shirt.

As America’s libraries have become noisy and sometimes dangerous new battlegrounds in the nation’s culture wars, librarians like Ms. Neujahr and their allies have moved from the stacks to the front lines. People who normally preside over hushed sanctuaries are now battling groups that demand the mass removal of books and seek to control library governance. Last year, more than 150 bills in 35 states aimed to restrict access to library materials, and to punish library workers who do not comply.

“We’re no longer seeing a parent have a conversation with a teacher or librarian about a book their child is reading,” said Deborah Caldwell-Stone, the director of the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom. “We’re seeing partisan groups demand the removal of books that they’re told are bad books, that they are not even reading, because they don’t meet the political or moral agenda.”

Activists say they are protecting children from sexually explicit material and exploitation, while conservative politicians seek to harden the bans into policy. Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation’s 900-page ideological blueprint for a potential second Trump administration, declares in its opening pages that “pornography, manifested today in the omnipresent propagation of transgender ideology and sexualization of children,” should be stripped of First Amendment protection and outlawed.

“The people who produce and distribute it should be imprisoned. Educators and public librarians who purvey it should be classed as registered sex offenders,” the document says.

The battles are being waged in places like Clinton, Tenn., where a reluctant library ally, the local sheriff, spoke out against censorship. In Pella, Iowa, two women organized a successful campaign against a proposal to force the town library under city control. And in Idaho, after Ms. Neujahr received an award for her work with the Rainbow Squad, people threatened her life and posted her family members’ personal information online.

‘What is explicit is subjective’

Sheriff Russell Barker had a problem. As the chief law enforcement officer for Anderson County in the mountains of eastern Tennessee, he had handled narcotics, assault and other criminal investigations — not the review of children’s books about sex and gender identity.

But this past year, after residents found what they said were more than a dozen pornographic titles in the county’s four libraries, local officials asked the sheriff to determine whether two of the targeted titles violated Tennessee’s obscenity law. If so, librarians, staff or board members — the sheriff told officials he didn’t know who — might be subject to arrest.

Every one of the books appeared on lists posted by BookLooks.org, a Florida-based organization that reviews books for descriptions of sex, violence or other content it deems unacceptable for children. Its conclusions have become a resource for people challenging books in public schools and libraries. Ms. Caldwell-Stone calls BookLooks part of “a well-coordinated, well-funded campaign.” Emily Maikisch, the Florida parent who founded BookLooks, said it is a volunteer group that accepts no outside money.

“Ultimately our ratings are our opinions,” she wrote in an email. “We encourage folks using our material to make their own determination.”

The two books given the sheriff for review were “Let’s Talk About It: A Teen’s Guide to Sex, Relationships and Being a Human” by Erika Moen and Matthew Nolan, and “Gender Queer,” a 2019 graphic-novel-style memoir by Maia Kobabe that is the most-banned book in the United States . The author, who is nonbinary, explores puberty and sexual identity in the book, which includes some drawings of nudity and sexual scenarios.

“These books were brought to the county commission, and we had an obligation to act,” a county commissioner, Denise Palmer, said in a commission meeting last spring in the county seat, Clinton, a town of 10,000 about 15 miles from Knoxville. “I felt like that they may teeter on the law.”

Controversy was not new to Clinton, the site of the first high school in the South to be integrated by court order , in 1956, in compliance with the Supreme Court’s decision two years earlier in Brown v. Board of Education . In 1958, up to 100 sticks of dynamite planted in the high school reduced it to rubble. No one was injured. No one was ever arrested.

While Anderson County is still mostly white, residents say it is different now, with liberal transplants attracted by a growing tech sector encompassing the former Manhattan Project site of Oak Ridge. But change has again brought backlash, including from some Christian conservatives.

In late March, more than 250 people packed the Clinton Community Center for a charged public meeting, recorded on video . It happened to be on the same day that three children and three adults died in a mass shooting at the Covenant School in Nashville. Police said the shooter identified as transgender. Some who spoke at the meeting were further upset by the tragedy.

“We just had a young man who has fooled himself to believing he was a woman kill six people and himself was killed today,” Jill Brown, a county resident, said when she came to the microphone. “If that is not a testimony of how messed up this whole transgender strategy is, agenda is, then I don’t know what is.”

Jack Mansfield, a retired Oak Ridge police officer, shook his finger in fury at four county librarians at the front of the room. “You librarians, you’re providing this material, you can be arrested too!” he shouted. (Children under 11 cannot visit Anderson County libraries without an adult, and those under 18 need parental permission to get a library card.)

Miria Webb, the Clinton library director, felt under siege. “I’ve served this community for more than a decade, and I was born and raised in East Tennessee,” she said in an interview. “Those words hurt. They kind of strike to your core.”

Three weeks later, the county commissioners met to hear Sheriff Barker’s findings. Tommy Mariner, a retired Navy pilot and former schoolteacher who serves on the library board, spoke first.

“What is happening today, the threats being made toward people’s liberty, toward people’s jobs, is wrong,” he said. “We saw in 1958 how simmering hatreds within the community blew up the high school across the street. This is not something that might just happen here. This is something that has happened here.”

Then it was Sheriff Barker’s turn. He told the commissioners that he planned to follow library policy and file a request that the library restrict children’s access to the two books he had reviewed. He said that some of their content personally offended him, but neither violated state or federal law.

“For me, again, this is about freedom in the United States,” he added. “My caution would be if we start removing those books, we could start an avalanche of everyone questioning anything that they disagree with. And we get into some censorship issues that would be really outside the bounds of what our country is about.”

A county commissioner, Anthony Allen, disagreed. “When we try to segregate books that are so explicit that we want them segregated, they should not be in the library,” he told the sheriff. “Can you address that?”

“That’s a fair argument,” the sheriff replied. But, he said, “what is explicit is subjective,” and “it is not government’s call to decide.”

Afterward, the library board moved the two books that offended the sheriff behind the circulation desk, dismaying Ms. Webb as well as conservatives who wanted the books out of the library entirely. In a recent interview, Ms. Webb said the library system still receives several challenges a month, but most are turned away by a library review committee. The library system has also fended off challenges to its acquisition plans, budget and independence.

“So far, we’re doing OK,” and the library has more supporters than detractors, Ms. Webb said.

The battle blew up, she noted, several months after she came out as a lesbian. She sometimes wonders: Was it about books, or people?

“I try to tell myself that people are afraid of change,” she said. “Because part of me is afraid it’s hate, and that is the part of me that wants to leave here.”

A two-year battle over a book

The controversy in Pella, Iowa, began in the summer of 2021 when a youth identifying as male arrived at the aquatic center in trunks and a small covering over his torso, described as a chest binder by some and Band-Aids by others. A rumor spread that the teen was swimming topless around children, stirring local alarm and angry posts to a Facebook page.

Two women stunned by the vitriol stepped in.

Anne Petrie, a retired music professor at Central College in Pella, and her neighbor Anne McCullough Kelly, a local mental health counselor, formed a Facebook group called “Coalition for an Inclusive Pella” as a countermessage. The two women were heavily outnumbered at City Council meetings, including one in which Michael Shover, the pastor of Christ the Redeemer Church in Pella, said that “the corrupting effects of sexual immorality are now descending upon our town.”

The fracas spawned a new group, Protect My Innocence, which in late 2021 began objecting to about 100 books from the municipal public library that it said contained pornographic and sexually explicit content, including “Gender Queer.” In Pella, the book is shelved in the library’s adult section.

In 2022, the library board denied Protect My Innocence’s request to remove “Gender Queer” from the adult section and make it available only if patrons asked for it. The group complained to the City Council, then turned to collecting signatures for a 2023 ballot referendum to place the library under the control of the City Council. That prompted Ms. Petrie and Ms. McCullough Kelly to create Vote NO to Save Our Library, a political action committee, with the help of EveryLibrary, a national advocacy group that fights censorship.

Heading into the Nov. 7 election, the competing groups published dueling opinion columns in local papers. Each side accused the other of pursuing a political agenda and of influence by outside interests. Vote NO spent several thousand dollars on yard signs, direct mail, and online and newspaper advertisements. It drew plenty of insults on social media, “My favorite was ‘Satanist, pervert, peddler of porn,’” Ms. McCullough Kelly said. Protect My Innocence urged residents to “vote for the virtuous.”

On Nov. 7, the vote to strip the Pella Public Library of its independence was 1,954 in favor, and 2,041 against. Just 87 voters defeated the resolution, ending a two-year battle over a book.

“Would I have liked the margin to be a little bigger? Yeah,” Ms. Petrie said. “But I was really, really gratified that the people of Pella said, ‘No, we don’t need this.’”

‘I just want them to get through high school’

For her work on behalf of the Rainbow Squad, last March Denise Neujahr won the American Library Association’s Lemony Snicket Prize for Noble Librarians Faced with Adversity. The prize included a trip to Chicago to receive a $10,000 prize from Daniel Handler, a.k.a. Lemony Snicket, author of the popular “A Series of Unfortunate Events” children’s books.

The award, publicized in the local media, made Ms. Neujahr a target. The Idaho Tribune, an outlet that describes itself as “ conservative journalism that supports and defends the Christian values that Idaho loves and cherishes,” called the prize a “groomer award.”

Personal contacts for Ms. Neujahr’s family members appeared on websites attacking her. One online commenter threatened “to gut me like a fish,” she recalled. She offered to buy a security system for her in-laws.

In May, after two religious conservatives who had sought to remove books from the libraries won seats on the library board, its members began overhauling the library’s policies on collections. A draft, viewed by The New York Times, seeks to ban materials containing “any description, exhibition, presentation or representation, in whatever form, of nudity, sexual conduct, sexual excitement or sadomasochistic abuse,” including “buttocks with less than a fully opaque covering.” The language echoes the BookLooks rating system.

In January, the new library chairwoman, Rachelle Ottosen, traveled to Boise to testify in favor of a proposed state bill that would empower parents to collect $250 in damages from a school or public library if their child gains access to materials “harmful to minors.” But more people testified against the bill, and a previous version of it was vetoed by the governor last year. Ms. Ottosen declined to be interviewed, or to answer emailed questions.

Ms. Neujahr left the Community Library Network in Idaho in the fall, and now leads youth services for the library system in Spokane, Wash., a half-hour drive away. The job is a promotion, but she acknowledges her disappointment with Ms. Ottosen, who made clear that the Rainbow Squad was no longer welcome at the library. She still runs the group, but it now meets at Calvary Lutheran Church in Post Falls. The congregation invited the teens to meet there, and has given them snacks and art supplies.

“ This is a rough time for any teenager to grow up and experience life, no matter what their identity is,” Ms. Neujahr said. “I just want them to get through high school, and know that things will be better.”

“Once they can vote, they can make a difference,” she added. “I’m excited to see that kind of world.”

Audio produced by Sarah Diamond .

Elizabeth Williamson is a feature writer for The Times, based in Washington. She has been a journalist for three decades, on three continents. More about Elizabeth Williamson

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Pride gets canceled: UNT Libraries can't plan LGBTQ+ events and comply with DEI ban

library books banned in texas

University of North Texas legal counsel recently advised the campus libraries to suspend planned events for Pride Week, according to an email sent to library staff last week. The events are the latest casualty of a ban Texas lawmakers handed down to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, programs and recruiting documents in Texas public colleges.

UNT administration complied with the new law, Senate Bill 17 , by reorganizing the longstanding Multicultural Center and Pride Alliance into the UNT Center for Belonging and Engagement for the entirety of the student body.

The Denton Record-Chronicle received a tip about the decision in the form of an email that appears to be sent to UNT Libraries employees on Feb. 9.

"Last week the university's legal counsel informed us that using staff and faculty time on the activities we were planning around Pride Week would be in violation of SB17," the email said. "As a result, we have canceled all of our planned activity for the week to remain in compliance with the new law."

The email didn't specify what the planned events were. Last year, the UNT Libraries hosted Pride Week events from March 27-29. It offered information about the system's LGBTQ content and materials, including the substantial Phil Johnson Historic Archives and Research Library, which was transferred to UNT from Dallas in 2012. The Johnson library, now called the Resource Center Dallas LGBT Collection of the UNT Libraries , is considered a comprehensive history of the North Texas LGBT community. The collection spans six decades.

During last year's Pride Week , UNT Libraries also hosted a zine-making workshop, a film screening, an LGBTQ-themed bingo game and a reading of LGBTQ-themed children's books.

Melisa Brown, senior director of UNT Relations, told the Record-Chronicle that UNT will continue to observe the Civil Rights milestones commemorated in national observances, such as Black History Month, Pride Month, International Women's Month, Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, Disability Pride Month and the like.

"The recognition of commemorative months is something the university has celebrated for years, and UNT plans to continue this," Brown said. "What is changing in the university’s recognitions is that any event the university funds must focus on the history of the culture being celebrated in order to be compliant with the law."

The university can create library displays highlighting official commemorations of Civil Rights achievements by historically marginalized groups, but faculty and staff can't lead activities that were once defined as DEI office activities.

The new law defines DEI offices broadly. It includes "any unit" of a public higher education institution that conducts "trainings, programs, or activities that advocate for or give preferential treatment on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, gender identity, or sexual orientation... " Under the law, the university's libraries qualifies as a unit of the institution.

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The book ban fight is intensifying in Llano, Texas

Linah Mohammad

Christopher Intagliata

Christopher Intagliata

Andrew Limbong headshot

Andrew Limbong

NPR's Andrew Limbong talks with Tina Castelan, a former librarian for the Llano County Library System in Texas, about the continuing fight over certain titles on the library's shelves.

ANDREW LIMBONG, HOST:

The book ban fight is intensifying in Llano, Texas. County commissioners there held a meeting yesterday to decide whether to close their public library system entirely rather than restore 17 banned titles to their shelves as a federal judge had ordered. The commissioners decided to keep the libraries open for now. But this is all part of a longer battle that started in 2021, when library officials began removing titles from the shelves. Many dealt with themes of LGBTQ identity or race. Others included children's titles about farting. Tina Castelan was a librarian there at the time. She resigned under duress in 2022 and joins me now. Welcome. Hi, Tina.

TINA CASTELAN: Hello. Thank you for having me.

LIMBONG: So what's your reaction to this decision by the commissioners to keep the libraries open for now at least?

CASTELAN: So I think it's definitely a small win for us, but there is a long road ahead of us. And it's going to take a lot of work in the community coming together to explain to the commissioners just how important this library system is for all of us.

LIMBONG: For people who aren't familiar with, like, the list of books that are being disputed, can you tell me about a few of the titles?

CASTELAN: Yes. So most of them are actually young adult, in the teen section. So they include books like "Caste," books like "My Life As A Transgender Teen," "Gabi, A Girl In Pieces," the butt and fart books, as they're - they've been known as.

LIMBONG: Well, when you say butt and fart books, you mean like that book, like, "I Need A New Butt" - right? - pretty innocent children's book stuff.

CASTELAN: Yes. So...

LIMBONG: Yeah.

CASTELAN: Yes. So all three - I think there's the three butt books, and then there's a couple of fart books. There's, like, "Larry The Farting Leprechaun," I think, like, a heart - something about a heart that farts and a snowman and something else.

LIMBONG: Who farts, right?

CASTELAN: Yes, who farts. Yes.

LIMBONG: I understand you've been going to the library in Llano since you were 6 - right? - before going on to work there. But then you - eventually you resigned. What led to that?

CASTELAN: Yes. So the library itself was receiving phone calls from people calling us Nazis, saying that we're burning books, calling us, like, pedophiles, groomers, just all of this really negative attention. And the county had pretty much said, like, yeah, we hear it. We see it. But just ignore it. Deal with it. And so I just didn't feel very supported, and I didn't feel like it was worth me staying and losing my sanity over.

LIMBONG: But you're still in the community. You still go to the library, right?

CASTELAN: Oh, yeah.

LIMBONG: What does Llano stand to lose if the libraries do, in fact, close down?

CASTELAN: Oh, we stand to lose so much. I mean, the Llano library is kind of the center point, and it's where you can learn how to, like, homestead and kind of survival skills, how to can things. There was a whole seed library where you could check out seeds, and you weren't required to, like, bring anything back. You just could check them out and go plant them in your garden. They've got crafternoons (ph), Wi-Fi, I mean, even just a place that - if it's too hot or your kid is bored and they don't know what to do, there are games. There's puzzles. There's movies. It's a place where you could just sit there - no worries, no questions asked.

LIMBONG: Tina Castelan is a former librarian with the Llano County Library System in Texas. Tina, thanks so much.

CASTELAN: Thank you so much. Y'all have a great day.

LIMBONG: You, too.

(SOUNDBITE OF MORGAN WALLEN SONG, "LAST NIGHT")

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Book ban lawsuit moves forward as Florida district removes over 1,000 titles

A federal judge has ruled that a lawsuit challenging book bans in Escambia County, Florida, can move forward on the same day the county released an updated list of more than 2,800 individual books that have been pulled from shelves for review.

U.S. District Judge T. Kent Wetherell II ruled on Wednesday that book publisher Penguin Random House, free expression PEN America, authors, and families of Escambia County had standing to pursue their claims under the First Amendment because those protections are implicated when officials remove books based on ideology or viewpoint. However, they were denied to pursue the claims under the 14th Amendment's Equal Protection Clause.

"We are gratified that the Judge recognized that books cannot be removed from school library shelves simply because of the views they espouse, and are looking forward to moving forward with this case to protect the constitutional rights of the plaintiffs," Lynn Oberlander of Ballard Spahr, who is representing the plaintiffs, said in a statement.

Escambia County has released a list of 2,812 books -- totaling more than 1,500 titles -- that have been pulled from shelves for "further review" of their compliance under House Bill 1069 which limits discussion of gender and sexual orientation in grade school as of Jan. 10. These books include "The World Book encyclopedia," "100 Women Who Made History: Remarkable Women Who Shaped Our World," "Africa (Cultural Atlas for Young People)" and more.

The previously released round-up of books to be reviewed included Merriam-Webster's dictionary and Webster's dictionary and thesaurus.

The lawsuit was brought forward in May 2023 by Penguin Random House, PEN America, authors and families of Escambia County who argue that the school board's removal and restriction of books violates the First Amendment.

The lawsuit claims the county violated the First Amendment rights of the students, authors, and publishers by "removing books 'based on ideological objections to their contents or disagreement with their messages or themes.'"

Several authors whose books have been impacted by book bans across the country, including David Levithan, George M. Johnson and Ashley Hope Pérez, are backing the lawsuit.

The lawsuit also alleges, that in every decision to remove a book, "the removals have disproportionately targeted books by or about people of color and/or LGBTQ people, and have prescribed an orthodoxy of opinion that violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments."

The Board argued in its motion to dismiss the case that it has not banned any books, rather it "'removed from its own school libraries [books] that the Board had purchased for those libraries with Board funds. It [has] not prohibit[ed] anyone else from owning, possessing, or reading the book[s].'"

The school board claims it "has the ultimate authority to decide what books will be purchased and kept on the shelves of the schools in the district," according to the motion to dismiss the lawsuit.

House Bill 1069 expanded the Parental Rights in Education law, dubbed the "Don't Say Gay" law by critics from prekindergarten through grade 8. It was passed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in May 2023.

From grades 9 through 12, such content must be "age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards."

Recent legislation in Florida, including the Parental Rights in Education Bill and the Stop WOKE Act, have led to restrictions and removals of books across the state.

The Stop WOKE Act restricts lessons and training on race and diversity in schools and in the workplace, particularly anything that discusses privilege or oppression based on race. WOKE in the bill stands for "Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees."

Between January 1 and August 31, 2023, the American Library Association recorded 695 attempts to ban library materials and services, affecting 1,915 different book titles. The organization said this marked a 20% increase from the same reporting period in 2022, which saw the highest number of book challenges since ALA began compiling the data more than 20 years ago.

Most of the book challenges in 2023 were against books written by or about a person of color or a member of the LGBTQ community, according to the ALA.

To comply with HB 1069, Escambia County has subject books in school and classroom libraries to be reviewed by district book review committees and the school board.

In several cases, the books approved for use by the district book review committees have been rejected and removed or restricted by the school board. This includes the titles of "All Boys Aren't Blue," by George M. Johnson, "Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison, "Lucky" by Alice Sebold, "And Tango Makes Three," by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell, "Push" by Sapphire, and others.

Dozens of books that were challenged by community members were requested by one person, an English teacher at a high school in Escambia County. She cites "indoctrination," "sexual content," "violent language," and "LGBTQ content" among her objections in the more than 100 complaints.

"Ensuring that students have access to books on a wide range of topics and that express a diversity of viewpoints is a core function of public education — preparing students to be thoughtful and engaged citizens," said PEN America in a statement on the lawsuit.

Escambia County officials did not immediately respond to ABC News requests for comment.

Book ban lawsuit moves forward as Florida district removes over 1,000 titles

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  1. Texas Banned Books List

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  2. Here are 50 books Texas parents want banned from school libraries

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  3. Which Books Have Texas ISDs Banned?

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  4. Austin Public Library condemns Texas book bans, censorship

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  5. In a lawsuit, a group of Texas library patrons says a book ban amounts

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  6. The push to ban books in Texas schools spreads to public libraries

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COMMENTS

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