The White House on Thursday announced a new effort to combat “book bans” as part of several actions designed to protect LGBTQI+ Americans unveiled during Pride month.
The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights will appoint a new coordinator to “address the growing threat that book bans pose for the civil rights of students,” the White House said Thursday.
The coordinator will train school districts on how attempts to remove certain books or materials from school libraries “may violate federal civil rights laws if they create a hostile work environment, hostile environment for students,” said White House domestic policy adviser Neera Tanden.
This move by the Biden administration is a counter to parents and activists who have complained about sexually explicit and graphic LGBTQI+ content in school and public libraries and sought to remove those materials.
NEARLY 1,500 BOOKS WERE BANNED IN FIRST HALF OF SCHOOL YEAR: REPORT
U.S. President Joe Biden signs an executive order on advancing equality for LGBTQI+ individuals as Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg (2nd L), Vice President Kamala Harris (3rd L), first lady Jill Biden (3rd R) and Javier Gomez (2nd R) of Florida and other LGBTQI+ advocates look on during a pride event at the East Room of the White House June 15, 2022, in Washington, D.C. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
A report from PEN America’s Index of School Book Ban lists released in April found there were 1,477 instances of individual books purportedly banned during the first half of the 2022-23 school year.
The American Library Association (ALA) published data in March showing that there were 1,269 demands to censor library books and resources in 2022, the highest number recorded by the group in more than 20 years. Of those reported book challenges, 58% targeted school libraries or classroom curriculums, according to ALA.
Seven of the top 13 most challenged books (four books tied for 10th place) tracked by the ALA in 2022 featured LGBTQI+ content claimed to be sexually explicit. The number-one book demanded to be removed from libraries was “Gender Queer,” by Maia Kobabe.
“Gender Queer” has courted major controversy among America’s parents for being in public school libraries throughout the U.S. and has been challenged for its depictions and descriptions of oral sex, as well as discussions of masturbation.
CONTROVERSIAL ‘GENDER QUEER’ TOPS LIBRARY GROUP’S LIST OF CHALLENGED BOOKS
“Gender Queer” a memoir by Maia Kobabe has been criticized for depicting what appears to be an older man with a younger boy. (Maia Kobabe/Oni Press)
The book also discusses Kobabe’s journey of self-discovery toward identifying outside the “gender binary.”
Fox News Digital previously reported on the book’s author Kobabe defending the sexually explicit graphic images in the memoir during an interview with NPR.
“Book banning erodes our democracy, removes vital resources for student learning and can contribute to stigma and isolation that many communities face,” Tanden said.
The book bans during the 2022-23 school year came amid lawmakers across the United States implementing rigorous book-review policies and other education-reform legislation that addresses progressive curricula like critical race theory and gender theory being taught in classrooms.
Republican elected officials in several states have sought to ban discussion of gender ideology and critical race theory in classrooms, particularly for younger students.
Most notably, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ Parental Rights in Education Law currently prevents school employees or third parties from giving classroom instruction on “sexual orientation” or “gender identity” in all grades in K-12.
DeSantis, who is seeking the Republican nomination for president, has called accusations that Florida is banning books a “hoax” perpetrated by “the mainstream media, unions and leftist activists.”
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The governor’s office has said that of 175 books removed from schools across the state based on legislation passed in 2022, 164 were removed from media centers, and 87% were identified as pornographic, violent or inappropriate for their grade level.
“Exposing the ‘book ban’ hoax is important, because it reveals that some are attempting to use our schools for indoctrination,” DeSantis said in March. “In Florida, pornographic and inappropriate materials that have been snuck into our classrooms and libraries to sexualize our students violate our state education standards. Florida is the education state, and that means providing students with a quality education free from sexualization and harmful materials that are not age-appropriate.”
Fox News’ Joshua Q. Nelson contributed to this report.
