Book censorship news, April 25, 2025
Censorship stories came and fast this week. The most important is the Supreme Court to deliberate on a Maryland case which would allow parents to opt for their children courses which mention the existence of LGBTQ +people. Judge Neil Gorsuch claimed the Image Book PUPPY PRIDE! Readers have prompted readers to look for bondage images in illustrations – because apparently a leather jacket is now. Right away, The Supreme Court seems ready to rally to these parents.
But this is not the only story. We also have the results of a study on the impacts of books on the circulation of libraries, a documentary on students who fought for books and won, censorship at the Naval Academy, prohibited books returned to the shelves, and more.
While Kelly Jensen left this week, the rest of the editorial team is filming to cover the news of censorship! The first story is of S. Zainab Williams, the following two are from Rebecca Joines Schinsky, and the last two are from Erica Ezeifedi.
An association of parents and teachers under the children of children’s nicknames (the names of name these groups is something else, but I get lost) continues the largest school system in Maryland to allow them to opt for students from days when books with characters and queer themes are discussed. They argue that books violate their right to the free exercise of religion under the first amendment. A member of Kids first decided that she should help find a private school that “was not washing children’s brains with these ideas”. This person apparently does not know what brainwashes is because the incorporation of books on LGBTQ + people in a broader study program is it.
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People are looking at this affair and have real concerns about the implications of a vote in favor of children first. “Some legal researchers have declared that the acceptance of the logic of the arguments of Maryland’s parents would have general consequences on the ability of public schools to manage their programs, quoting cases in which parents have challenged courses on the evolution and theory of Big Bang and books on Wizards and Giants”, ” Adam Liptak writes in the New York Times piece (It brings me back to season 4, episode 16 of Abbott ElementaryBut I get lost).
A new study explores the impact of books on the circulation of libraries
Researchers from Carnegie Mellon and George Mason have published a new study on The impact of books on the consumption of prohibited booksAnd the results could surprise you. The use of book circulation data from a “large library content and services for large public and university libraries in the United States” out of the 25 main most distinguished titles, revealed that:
- To forbid increase The circulation of books prohibited by 12% Compared to a control group. That is to say, the prohibitions of books lead to a Streisand effect Rather than having a scary effect on readership.
- The effect pours towards states without prohibitions and is only slightly lower (increase of 11.2%).
- The increase in readership focuses on books related to breed, gender and LGTBQ + problems.
- Book prohibitions expose new readers to inclusive content; On average, children read prohibited books 19% more than control titles after a ban book.
- The circulation of prohibited books increases in red states which have books of books and in blue states, whatever the status of prohibition of books.
(It looks like a good time to remind you that, regardless of traffic and readership numbers, books are not good for authors. If you work on a “good, in fact” with a positive spin on books, stop.)
The above results could lead you to ask yourself: if the prohibitions of books stimulate an increased commitment with the even content militants claim to try to protect children, why do they continue to pursue books of books? Follow the money. The study also examined political messaging and donations and found that Republican politicians of red states have increased estimated at 30% of donations of less than $ 500 After the prohibition events of the book.
Once again for people on the back: these are not books. As Kelly Jensen of Book Riot reminds us, “Books are an easy tangible target, on the ground” that far -right groups have used as a thin thinner in their quest for deleting representations and information on breed and LGBTQ +problems. Is it important for conservative politicians that children really read more prohibited books? Not if their chests are full and their voters occur.
These students fought for books … and won
Elizabeth Foster is one of the three student activists presented in the new documentary ProhibitedWho captures the consequences of a book ban in 2022 in Beaufort, SC and the greatest context of the efforts to ban books on a national scale. In a great new room for Teenage vogueFoster tells How she fought censorship in her hometown and won. She and her militant colleagues understand them.
The banking movement concerns something much larger than books. The same movement began by attacking Critical theory of race As a proxy to target black and brown students. Queer and transgender students – like my own brother – were added to the list of demonized identities as extremists from the far right came after Their stories in schools and libraries. And now, the Trump administration comes after higher education using tactics of unconstitutional fear to Demarate the Dei programs And expel international students who dispute its political positions.
I had the chance to see Prohibited Recently, before interviewing producers of the Podcast Book Riot, and I cannot recommend it enough. That the efforts of these daring young people succeed.
Jinny Amundson, co -owner of Old Fox Books in Annapolis, Maryland and CMDR retired. William Marks is working together to provide a selection of nearly 400 pounds that have been removed from the nimitz Naval Academy Library shelves. Marks launched a gofundme intended to cover the cost of purchasing books and ship them to the Librairie d’Amundson, where they can be recovered by the aspirants from the Naval Academy.
“These are some of the most intelligent and most devoted students from around the world. Many of them, in a month, will be officers ordered at the head of our navy and marine body. Although in the same breath, we tell them that they cannot read a book in the library,” said Marks.
THE Gofundme has already received more than 700 donations and has collected more than $ 48,000. Amundson and Marks both commented on the way in which the region of DC, Maryland and Virginia supported their project so much that they nicknamed “Operation Caged Bird”.
Ryan Holiday, a writer and philosopher who gave conferences to the US Naval Academy several times since 2019, had to present a presentation to the Academy, but was arrested an hour before being planned due to the slides which referenced the abolition of 381 pounds from the Nimitz library.
“I said I couldn’t do that,” recalls Holiday. “I could not have spoken in front of these aspirants for service of courage and to do the right thing, then to delete, I think, a very reasonable objection to a very blatant concept.”
The presentation of Holiday was centered on the graduate of the American naval academy James Stockdale, a recipient of the medal of honor which was stationed in Vietnam and who studied Marxist theory to better understand the opposition (at the time).
“The biggest point I was trying to underline is that you should be able to think critically if you want to be a leader,” added Holiday. “Because if you don’t think about yourself, you don’t direct by definition.”
Holiday continued: “If you cannot trust yourself around the memories of Stacey Abrams or Maya Angelou, you probably have nothing to do to be a Navy seal or keep an assault rifle or pilot a hunting jet.”
Rejoice! For two books that have been disputed in Alabama, were voted by the Library Council to stay in their appropriate section. Interesting thing, the two books in question –Cultivated by Tiffany Jackson and Sold By Patricia McCormick – Deans with young girls exploited.
The Alabama Public Library Service said that the Fairhope library should move the books of the young adult section to the adult section because they were “sexually explicit”, but on Monday, the board of directors of the Fairhope public library voted to keep the books in which they are, even if it could mean a reduction in financing. Fortunately, due to the budget of $ 1 million in the library and the $ 46,000 collected in one week for the library by the anti-book prohibition group Lu freely in Alabama, the library is not as vulnerable to state cuts.
The following comes to you from the reimbursement.
This week, we highlight an article that made our type of editor -in -chief Vanessa Diaz feel. Now, even five years after her publication, Vanessa is still salty American dirt. Read the rest for an extract and become an All Access member to unlock the full message.
Imagine it: The United States, January 2020. A book with a pretty blue and white blanket made the rounds on the Internet Bookish. Blue ink forms a beautiful hummingbird pattern on a creamy background, a bird associated with the solar god Huitzilopochtli in Aztec mythology. Black barbed wire, both delicate and threatening, cuts the motif into a grid resembling an arrangement of the Talavera tiles. The whole is catchy, ostensibly Mexican in sensation and evocative of the borders and the experience of migrants.
The book tells the story of a bookstore owner in Acapulco, Mexico, who is forced to flee his house when a cartel of drugs assassinates everyone in his family, with the exception of his young son in a quinceañera. She and the boy are forced to become migrants and embark on a treacherous journey north towards the American border, to escape the cartel and to befriend the other migrants along the way. The book is praised not only as the “IT” book of the season, but as THE History of immigration. He obtains the treatment of Oprah and is rented by everyone from Salma Hayek to the Grande Sandra Cisneros, who called him “The great novel by Las American.“”
It’s been more than five years, and this book is always the scourge of my existence.
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