Alice Oseman’s seminal graphic novel series Heartstopper has joined the growing list of LGBTQ+ books banned in certain parts of the US.
Heartstopper is one of many books US conservatives want banned because they mention that queer and black people exist. Because banning books is totally normal in a democracy and definitely not a fascist hallmark.
According to the Florida Freedom to Read Project, more than fifty books were banned in the Clay County school district in Florida last week (24 March), many of which are written by LGBTQ+ authors or discuss sexuality or gender identity.
The list of banned books includes the first three volumes of Heartstopper, as well as Oseman’s 2016 novel Radio Silence, which features a number of queer characters. Other books removed in the latest round of book bans in the district include LGBTQ+ young adult romance novel One Man Guy by Michael Barakiva, and comic A Quick & Easy Guide to They/Them Pronouns.
The Florida Freedom to Read Project shared that a total of 355 books have now been removed from the school district since July 2022. Along with LGBTQ+ books, the bans are impacting Black authors and books about and racism and racial justice.
Comments 3
Fascists.. Oh well, I will watch in Canada until Netflix cancels it…
I was intrigued by the title ‘My Life as an Ice Cream Sandwich’ so I looked the author up on Wikipedia. It says:
“My Life as an Ice Cream Sandwich, Zoboi’s 2019 middle-grade novel, is about Ebony-Grace, a girl who is sent from Alabama to help her grandfather in Harlem in the 1980s and is her first middle grade book. As a young black girl who enjoys the science-fiction worlds of Star Wars and Star Trek, Ebony-Grace is seen as an ‘ice cream sandwich’ by her peers; brown on the outside, but white on the inside.”
I can’t see why that could be described as contentious, subversive or corrupting in any way? Just how far is Clay County school district in Florida on the road to book burning, Nazi Germany-style? Not that far off, it would appear.
You are all misrepresenting these anti pornography laws to suit your own agendas. Shame on you.