Book Banning's Effect on Today's Youth & the LGBTQ+ Community

I remember the first time I heard the word gay. I was about six years old.

 “Mom, I’m going to ask you a question,” I blurted out to my mother. “I don’t know what this means, so don’t be mad if it’s a curse word. Okay?”

“Okay…” she replied. I could sense her nervousness.

“What is gay?” I questioned.

“Oh.” I could instantly hear the relief in her voice. Casually, she said, “It’s when a man loves another man or when a woman loves another woman in a romantic way.”

I didn’t understand. Why was this such a big deal? Why did it feel like this was a secret that society had kept from me?

As I got older, I started to feel like true social progress was being made, and LGBTQ+ people and topics were finally given the recognition they deserved. In recent years, however, this progress has been disrupted.

Towns and cities across the nation have worked to ban “contentious” books from public schools and libraries, which has severely limited children’s exposure to important topics like world events, American history, gender, race, and most of all, LGBTQ+ identities.

Emily Neilson, author and illustrator of the children’s book, The Rainbow Parade, zeroed in on this problem in a recent interview and offered some insight as to why these books have earned their place on library shelves. Neilson’s book is a reflective piece written about their personal experiences at Pride with their moms.

“I remember when there weren’t books like this. I grew up without books like this,” Neilson recalled—and that is exactly what inspired them to write this story. “I made this book for kids like me. I put them first. We were the priority, and I stayed as true as I could to my own experience,” they stated.

Most of this backlash is coming from straight men and women who believe they should get to decide when and how their children learn about homosexuality. This is very dangerous territory. By prohibiting LGBTQ+ content from public elementary schools, we are sending the message that being queer is bad.

These parents claim that they are simply protecting their children. However, others argue that they are sheltering their kids from the real world. People are gay, just as people are straight, or asexual. People are transgender, just as people are cisgender, or non-binary. By censoring books, we are rejecting any type of relationship dynamic that strays from the stereotypical, nuclear American family structure.

“What is so painful about this book banning issue is that it’s a lot of folks who are saying your childhood, your happy childhood, is not appropriate for my child,” Neilson stated. “It’s not okay for them to see that you had a happy childhood and that these were your memories.”

This past September, parents in Coronado, San Diego challenged The Rainbow Parade, claiming it was too sexual. This matter was discussed at a city council meeting, and residents ultimately decided to keep the book in libraries—so long as parental approval was given before storytime.

“I think these stories exist whether books are banned or not. And I don’t mean that in a sense that the books will persevere,” Neilson responded powerfully to the dissension over their story. “I mean that in the sense that, I exist, whether or not my book ever sells again. My story perseveres, whether or not my book ever sells again.”

Amidst all this debate, parents have seemingly overlooked a very important segment of the population—the queer kids. What is best for the children whose every day lives may look different from the “socially acceptable?”

Neilson described how rewarding it was to see the impact their book has had on these children.

“My mom was teaching art for a 2nd grade class, so I read to them. There was one kid in the class who had dads, and he was ecstatic to see me,” Neilson reminisced. “When I finished the story, his hand shot in the air. He had a personal connection to the story because he had two dads. He was stoked.”

Schuyler Bailar, the author of Obie Is Man Enough, shared his take on book banning in an interview with The Harvard Gazette. “These book bans absolutely affect authors, but I think they affect the children more,” he said. “Our stories are not getting out to the kids who need to be reading them.”

When you are young, all you want to do is fit in, whether that means relating to a classmate, a fictional character in a children’s book, or someone who has had a similar upbringing as you. There is no harm in representation, and clearly, we need more of it.

At the end of the day, the appropriateness of these stories is left to the discretion of parents. Nonetheless, it is important to remember the weight of our actions as a society. In a world where homophobia is still prevalent, we must rise against it­—rather than contribute to it.

Children are easily influenced by the decisions adults make. So, to ensure a better, safer, more accepting tomorrow, we must face the mistakes of our past and make sure we do not repeat them in the future.