Queer YA books see record sales despite US book bans

emBooks & Magazines, News & Articles 9 Comments

When Phil Stamper was growing up in the early 2000s, he couldn’t go into a Barnes & Noble and find an LGBTQ+ section for young adults.

“There weren’t enough books to fill those shelves,” Stamper, a popular author of contemporary, queer young adult (YA) novels, told The 19th. His latest book, “Small Town Pride, released in May, is deeply rooted in his own lived experience of being gay in a rural community which now, thanks to books like his, might feel less isolating.

“Now, you can go into any bookstore or library in even the smallest and most conservative town, and you will find a section. It’s crazy to go home to rural Ohio, where I was raised, and find my book in any bookstore there.”

But Stamper recognizes that this meteoric rise in popularity, visibility and scope of representation for queer authors and characters in queer YA has also created a backlash, one evident in state governments and school boards across the United States.

“It’s not a coincidence that increases in queer visibility are going to be tied to more legislation against this kind of visibility and more opposition to it as well,” Stamper said.

Book bans and restrictions are going into effect across the country with school districts limiting the access of books with LGBTQ+ subject matter. An April report by the PEN America Foundation found there were 1,586 individual instances of books being removed from shelves between July 2021 and March 2022, and books that have a protagonist of color or LGBTQ+ themes were disproportionately banned.

Read on…

Comments 9

  1. None of these books are good. There are actual good gay books, like Boy Meets Boy or Will Grayson, Will Grayson.

    Not this garbage “i am special and fabulous and my life is perfect” bullshit.

  2. Despite book bans? Try BECAUSE of book bans.

    Banning media of any kind (or even just attempts to have it “banned”) is almost universally good for sales of it to the point that some publishers/distributers go out of their way to get games, music, or books banned. It gets the attention of all sorts of people that would never have heard of it otherwise and they all want to know what’s so bad about it.

    1. These books aren’t being banned for being LGBT or about POC. They’re being banned because they’re inappropriate for children in school.

      The graphic novel that that PEN site claims is the most banned book in schools? It isn’t banned because it’s called Gender Queer. It’s banned because it has pictures of children pissing among other things. Nothing to do with gender identity. Entirely to do with “this doesn’t belong in school.”

      The picture book It’s Perfectly Normal has images of people having sex. That is not appropriate for an elementary school.

      It’s fucking insane to claim these books are banned because they have POC characters or deal with LGBT issues. I bet if I looked up every fucking book on that PEN list, I could find the legitimate reason they are banned.

      1. “Book bans and restrictions are going into effect across the country with school districts limiting the access of books with LGBTQ+ subject matter,” says the article (it’s obviously referring to the USA, where I don’t live).

        It sounds very sad to me, because many of those books will portray LGBTQ+ subject matter in a positive, affirming, balanced way. But they get banned or restricted. Yet any of the kids they’re aimed at can look at gay porn, much of it extreme and involving BDSM and degradation and such like, for free, on their iPhones and Samsungs once they’re away from school as much as they want.

        Is that how we want young people to be introduced to the LGBTQ+ world? Wouldn’t it be better if they were able to easily access books which suggest that they too can lead happy, fulfilled, enriched lives if they just happen to be part of the LGBTQ+ community (or are not sure and are finding their way)?

        Book banning is one small step on the way to a totalitarian state and it makes me fearful for the future of the USA and freedom of choice in that country in all honesty.

        1. Except that kids looking at porn on their phone outside of school is not the school’s fucking responsibility.

          JESUS CHRIST WHY DO YOU PEOPLE KEEP ACTING LIKE THESE BOOKS ARE BANNED CUS THEY HAVE LGBT CHARACTERS.

          THEY ARE BANNED BECAUSE THEY HAVE LITERAL DEPICTIONS OF SEX OR NAKED CHILDREN IN THEM, OR EXPLICIT REFERENCES TO SEX OR PORN. THINGS THAT ARE NOT APPROPRIATE FOR SCHOOL, WHERE THE SCHOOL IS RESPONSIBLE.

          WHAT KIDS DO OUTSIDE OF SXHOOL IS IRRELEVANT TO WHAT THEY DO WHEN THEY ARE ON CAMPUS AND THE SCHOOL IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THEM. THEY CANNOT BE LOOKING AT SEXUALLY GRAPHIC IMAGES AT SCHOOL. THE END.

          1. Alright, you’ve made your point. Calm down. There’s no need to SHOUT, IS THERE? I think we’re all pretty much responsible adults on here who can engage in a debate without resorting to ranting.

      2. My comment made no mention of the reason the books were banned, nor was it a response to your previous comment. Whether there’s a legitimate reason or not doesn’t matter, just the fact that a book was banned will inspire curiosity and almost guarantee an increase sales.

  3. Banning books in a country that loves to falsely claim to be the “freest” in the world is ironic but just the tip of the iceberg. School boards across the country trying to ban teachers from even talking about transgender people existing, about racism, about any of the many events in America’s history that make the country “look bad” is a level of dystopia that people love to attribute to China while happily ignoring it at their own doorstep.

    1. These books aren’t banned for talking about trans people or racism.

      Read my reply instead of just blindly parroting biased headlines.

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