Anti-LGBTQ+ right-wing activists are notorious for getting annoyed about almost anything, and the latest addition to the ever-growing list is the Gender Unicorn diagram.
Don’t believe that they’ll get annoyed about anything? Buckle up: we’ve got receipts.
A Christmas advert featuring Black actress Adjoa Andoh as Mrs. Claus, that saw her use they/them pronouns to refer to someone, also sparked the wrath of anti-LGBTQ+ figures, who called it out for being “woke”.
Countless brands, big and small, from Target to Tesco to Tampax, have also faced boycott calls from the right-wing community. But the latest outrage among the group is the realisation of the Gender Unicorn.
What is the Gender Unicorn diagram?
The Gender Unicorn (https://transstudent.org/gender/)
Simply put, the Gender Unicorn Diagram is a graphic that helps people understand the differences between gender identity, gender expression, sex, and attraction.
The graphic, created by Trans Student Educational Resources – a youth-led organisation dedicated to ensuring education is inclusive for all – shows a unicorn on the left-hand side with symbols on that are explained on the right-hand side.
Gender identity, shown on the unicorn through a rainbow-filled thought bubble, is explained as female/woman/girl, male/man/boy, or other gender(s). The diagram also breaks down gender expression, sex assigned at birth, physical attraction, and emotional attraction into distinct categories.
Underneath the definitions of each are further explained. Gender expression/presentation is explained as: “The physical manifestation of one’s gender identity through clothing, hairstyle, voice, body shape, etc. Many transgender people seek to make their gender expression (how they look) match their gender identity (who they are), rather than their sex assigned at birth.”
Why are so many right-wingers annoyed about it?
A quick search of the term “Gender Unicorn” on social media platforms such as X bring up various videos from right-wingers hitting out at the graphic.
Another commented of the graphic: “One person’s ‘innocuous teaching tool’ is many other people’s insidious grooming material.”
Right-wingers annoyance towards the graphic mimics political moves. The US government has demanded almost every state in the US remove sex education materials referencing trans and non-binary people.
Kevin is a mission-driven leader and innovative change agent with more than 20 years of experience advancing nonprofit organizations. He brings with him a proven track record of strengthening financial sustainability, building high-impact partnerships, and guiding organizations through pivotal moments of growth and change.
Most recently, Kevin served as Development Director at the California Council on Science and Technology, where he built the organization’s first comprehensive development infrastructure. Prior to that, he led Meals on Wheels Sacramento County, where he expanded the budget from $5 million to $12.5 million in under two years. Kevin has also held executive leadership roles at Rainbow Community Center, California Coalition for Youth, and other organizations serving vulnerable communities.
“We are thrilled to welcome Kevin to Face to Face,” said Andres Correa, Board President. “His depth of experience, proven leadership, and unwavering commitment to community health and equity will ensure we continue to deliver vital services while expanding our impact in HIV prevention, care, and harm reduction across Sonoma County.
Kevin’s community involvement includes serving on the board of Sonoma Family Meal and previously leading Meals on Wheels California as Board President. He is also the recipient of several distinguished honors, including Comstock’s Young Professionals 2022 Honoree, Sacramento Business Journal’s 40 Under 40, and the Sacramento LGBT Community Center’s Pride Award.
“I am honored to join Face to Face and continue its legacy of service and advocacy,” said Kevin McAllister. “This work is about saving lives, restoring hope, and standing alongside our community in the fight against overdose and health inequities. Each year, Sonoma County loses an average of 121 people to accidental overdose. These are not statistics. They are our children, parents, neighbors, and friends. At Face to Face, harm reduction is at the heart of our work, provided both in our offices and through mobile outreach across the county. In 2024, our efforts were tied to nearly 3,000 reported overdose reversals, a number that represents only a fraction of our true impact. Each reversal represents a life saved, a family spared unbearable loss, and a community strengthened by care and compassion.”
Immigration narratives in politics and media mostly focus on the southern border, with the current U.S. president evoking racist images of Mexican gang members invading, South American cartels smuggling drugs, and Black immigrants eating cats and dogs in the United States.
These narratives are, in a word, bullshit. At various times, majorities of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. didn’t cross the southern border, they overstayed their visas. Most fentanyl brought into the U.S. was smuggled in by U.S. citizens. Immigrants commit crimes at a much lower rate than U.S. citizens. And as for cats and dogs, the vice president and others have admitted that the story is BS.
Both mainstream political parties have long treated immigrants like pawns and bargaining chips in an endless game that leaves people’s lives and safety hanging in a confusing bureaucratic maze where legal residence and permanent citizenship remain uncertain and elusive, depending on whoever is president at any given time.
It’s a shame how thoroughly distorted our understanding of immigration has become as a result. A large majority of southern migrants are asylum-seekers fleeing persecution in their home countries, working undocumented immigrants pay an estimated $16 billion annually into Social Security and Medicare (and don’t collect any benefits), and studies show that immigrants increase jobs and housing, despite claims to the contrary.
Sacramento, CA, U.S.A. – Feb. 22, 2025: A woman holds up a sign about migration being a human right at the Pro-immigrant Protest in downtown at Cesar Chavez park. | Shutterstock
Often missing from all this rhetoric are the voices of actual immigrants, including LGBTQ+ people and people from non-American continents. We get the contemporary political framing without any nuanced historical context, and lots of xenophobic doomsaying with few words from advocates fighting for immigrants’ dignity and constitutionally protected legal rights.
While LGBTQ Nation has long reported on queer refugees and the administration’s anti-immigrant abuses, this month, we’re elevating marginalized voices and uncovering vital historical context to reveal “The Untold Stories of Queer Immigration.”
One of our earliest stories in this monthly edition is an interview with out U.S. Rep. Emily Randall (D-WA)) discussing her observations at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainment facility as well as why immigrant rights matter to non-immigrant citizens.
Our cover story talks to activists and refugees connected to Rainbow Railroad, a not-for-profit organization that helps relocate LGBTQ+ refugees. One article will revisit the historic 1975 case of Richard Adams and Tony Sullivan, a bi-national gay couple whose case was the first U.S. lawsuit to seek federal recognition of a same-sex marriage for immigration purposes.
We’ll share the experiences of African and Iraqi refugees to hear their stories of escape and relocation while navigating possible asylum in the United States. Our interview with the Black LGBTQIA+ Migrant Project will look at the unique needs and challenges in providing support to migrants from across the Black diaspora.
We’ll also take several glimpses into immigration’s cultural aspects by covering the trans and nonbinary celebrities who are fighting the Trump administration’s needlessly biased passport policies, documentaries that examine the queer immigrant experience in the United States, and a look at how migration forced by climate change uniquely impacts LGBTQ+ emigrants.
Many of these stories might otherwise go untold or underappreciated, so we’re proud to help elevate them. They help provide insight and the real human side of a complicated issue and reflect on overlooked aspects of our community’s resilience, resistance, and power in the U.S. and across the globe.
In 2025, book bans in schools are more common than ever. “Never before in the life of any living American have so many books been systematically removed from school libraries across the country,” says a new report from PEN America, “The Normalization of Book Banning: Banned in the USA, 2024-2025.” “Never before have so many states passed laws or regulations to facilitate the banning of books, including bans on specific titles statewide. Never before have so many politicians sought to bully school leaders into censoring according to their ideological preferences, even threatening public funding to exact compliance. Never before has access to so many stories been stolen from so many children.”
PEN America, which advocates for freedom of expression, defines a school book ban “as any action taken against a book based on its content and as a result of parent or community challenges, administrative decisions, or in response to direct or threatened action by governmental officials, that leads to a book being either completely removed from availability to students, or where access to a book is restricted or diminished.” These bans “infringe on the rights of students, professional educators, and authors,” the report says, noting that teachers and librarians have chosen books for their educational value.
The book-banning trend has been growing since 2021, PEN America reports. Over the last four school years, book bans occurred in 45 states and 451 public school districts.
Many of the banned books have LGBTQ+ content. “Since book challenges and removals exploded in 2021, books depicting same-sex and trans identities have been conflated as inherently ‘sexual,’” the report states. “In sexualizing LGBTQ+ people, swaths of literature have been removed under the premise of removing ‘inappropriate’ or ‘obscene’ books.” Some of these titles are children’s picture books such as And Tango Makes Three, Everywhere Babies, The Family Book, Uncle Bobby’s Wedding, and The Purim Superhero. Among the most banned titles in 2024-2025 were young adult books Last Night at the Telegraph Club, about a young Chinese American lesbian, and The Perks of Being a Wallflower, in which one of the straight protagonist’s best friends is a gay teen. And queer Black author George M. Johnson’s All Boys Aren’t Blue has become the most challenged book in the nation in the past few years.
In all, during the 2024-2025 school year, PEN America recorded 6,870 instances of book bans across 23 states and 87 public school districts, affecting 3,752 titles. They represented the work of 2,308 authors, 243 illustrators, and 38 translators.
Below, we look at the 10 states that had the most instances of book bans.
Florida
The state led by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis gets the dubious distinction of most book bans during the 2024-2025 school year. Florida saw 2,304 instances of book bans, with 33 school districts that banned at least one title.
Texas
Texas, not surprisingly, ranks high (low?) as well. The state had 1,781 instances of book bans and seven districts that banned a book.
Tennessee
Tennessee had 1,622 instances of book bans and eight districts that banned a book.
Idaho
Idaho had 150 instances of book bans, although just one district banned any book.
Iowa
Iowa had 113 instances of book bans and four districts that banned a book.
Virginia
Virginia saw 97 instances of book bans, with two districts banning at least one title.
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania had 73 book ban instances, and three districts banned a book.
Georgia
Georgia had 43 instances of book bans and three districts banning at least one book.
Utah
Utah saw 26 book ban instances but just one district banning a book.
Colorado
Colorado had 20 instances of book bans and two districts banning a book.
Department of Defense
It’s not just individual states that are affected, though. There were 590 books removed from Department of Defense Education Activity schools on military bases this year, affecting schools in seven states, two territories, and 11 countries. The department used Donald Trump’s anti-transgender and anti-diversity executive orders as justification for the removals, although none of the orders specifically targeted books. A lawsuit against the removal of books and other content is pending.
Statewide bans
South Carolina, Tennessee, and Utah have set up mechanisms to trigger statewide book bans. Tennessee’s has not been used yet, and because of the difficulty in quantifying the effects in South Carolina and Utah, the books affected there are not used in PEN America’s state totals. Still, this is a worrisome trend, according to the group.
Fighting back
Where there are attempts to ban books, there is resistance, PEN America notes. “Of the 87 districts impacted by book bans this year, 70 contained evidence of a public response against censorship, whether from individuals, organized groups, or whole communities,” the report says. To fight book bans, the group recommends contacting elected officials, speaking out on Freedom to Read Day (October 11), and then continuing to speak out and to reach out to organizations campaigning against bans.
A domestic flight in the US was forced to make an unscheduled landing after a passenger shouted out that LGBTQ+ people were giving him cancer and that “the plane is going down”.
The Sun Country Airlines plane left Minneapolis-St Paul International Airport at around at 7.15am on Friday (3 October) bound for Newark, New Jersey, but was forced to land in Chicago little more than an hour later – about halfway through the scheduled flight time.
Speaking to The Minnesota Star Tribune, passenger Seth Evans said the unruly man was sitting across the aisle from him and acted erratically throughout the flight. Between playing games of Candy Crush, the man reportedly shouted about being “gang chased,” “cooked” and “radiated” by the LGBTQ+ community, adding that this was causing him to develop cancer.
Evans said his fellow passenger was wearing “no less than 15″ face masks stacked one on top of the other and told others on the plane that “Trump is here”.
The man was handcuffed by police and escorted off the flight after the plane landed at O’Hare International airport. A spokesperson for Sun Country said the flight “landed without incident as a precaution, in response to a disruptive passenger”, adding: “The passenger in question was turned over to law enforcement and removed from the aircraft.”
Following the assassination of Turning Point USA (TPUSA) co-founder Charlie Kirk on Sept. 10, there’s been significant posthumous discussion about who he was and what he left behind. President Trump and the Republican Party have described him as a martyr, making his funeral into a 200,000-person event comparable to those of deceased presidents, while calling for retribution against the “radical left” and trans people, despite the fact that the man who killed him is cisgender and his political affiliation is unclear.
Some liberals have mourned Kirk, casting him as a champion of civil dialogue. Meanwhile, critics of his often hateful beliefs have faced repercussions, with retaliatory firings of educators, writers and reporters.
Given the volume of discussion about Kirk and his legacy surrounding LGBTQ issues, Uncloseted Media decided to assemble the receipts. Here’s a track record of Kirk and TPUSA’s actions and statements on the queer community.
Oct. 4, 2016
TPUSA co-founder Charlie Kirk publishes a manifesto that outlines the group’s vision and political strategy, where he complains that “personal and overall freedom” are being lost in “exchange for ‘micro’ freedoms like taxpayer-funded contraception and gay marriage.”
He writes that TPUSA’s strategy is inspired by what he describes as the LGBT movement:
“We are using the same message delivery methods and many of the same organizing tactics. They use social media, rallies, and pop-culture messaging, just like we do. Despite our very different agendas, there is no question we have adapted our movements into the times in which we live.”
Kirk also references Jonathan Haidt, a professor of ethical leadership at New York University Stern School of Business, who has likened being a conservative graduate student on campus today to being a closeted gay student in the 1980s.
Nov. 21, 2016
Screenshot of Professor Watchlist.
TPUSA launches the Professor Watchlist, a database cataloging “anti-conservative” college professors. Many targeted professors later face harassment. A gay professor says that when they were placed on the watchlist, they began receiving anti-LGBTQ emails on their work account. And a tenured professor at the University of Florida who was placed on the watchlist and tagged with sharing a “racial ideology” says that all four professors at her university who are on the watchlist are either a person of color or someone who identifies as LGBTQ.
TPUSA co-hosts an event with College Republicans at CU Boulder called “Why Ugly People Hate Me.” The event features far-right provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos, who was in the middle of his Dangerous Faggot Tour which challenged “political correctness” on college campuses. Yiannopoulos claims to be an “ex-gay,” born-again Christian who “demoted” his husband to “housemate.”
April 25, 2018
Kirk at the Conservative Political Action Conference in 2018. Photo by Gage Skidmore.
A Huffington Post report finds that Shialee Grooman, then TPUSA’s national field director, had a long history of racist and homophobic posts, including one that read, “Okay. All of you are f*ggots.” In a statement to HuffPost, Kirk says Grooman is a “former employee,” and TPUSA issues a company-wide memo announcing social media background checks and offers to assist employees in making their social media posts less public.
Nov. 22, 2019
At a TPUSA event called “Culture War” in Florida, Kirk addresses a heckler who accuses him of betraying conservatism by tolerating gay and transgender individuals and warns of a slippery slope to normalizing pedophilia. Kirk tweets, “I believe marriage is one man one woman biblically” but goes on to say that he doesn’t think gay people should be excluded from the conservative movement.
Sept. 14, 2020
TPUSA launches TPUSA LIVE, a new media hub that they say provides “daily conservative content” that includes “hot takes, opinions, and reactions to breaking news.”
Other articles include transphobic headlines inspired by conspiracy theories that trans women are actually male creeps trying to invade women’s spaces. Some headlines include:
TPUSA launches the School Board Watchlist, modeled after their Professor Watchlist, to monitor high school officials they deem too progressive. The watchlist now seems to be defunct.
Oct. 14, 2021
Kirk publishes an op-ed titled “On Sexual Anarchy” that is rife with anti-LGBTQ animus. He writes:
“The facts that there are only two genders; that transgenderism and gender ‘fluidity’ are lies that hurt people and abuse kids; and that God’s good, loving, and joyful ideal for our lives is for a man and woman to be joined in a lifelong marriage covenant—these are all under official opprobrium in 2021.”
Feb. 18, 2022
A University of South Carolina student posts screenshots of racist and homophobic messages from two group chats affiliated with the school’s TPUSA chapter. The president of the chapter later releases a video apology, saying that “these remarks have no place being made in our organization,” though this video would later be taken down.
On his podcast, Kirk says: “[Gay people] are not happy just having marriage. Instead, they now want to corrupt your children.”
In another episode the following week, Kirk falsely links trans people to inflation.
“There’s a direct connection to inflation and the trans issue. You say, ‘Charlie, come on. They couldn’t be further apart.’ No, they’re exactly the same. They’re the same in this aspect—when you believe that men can become women, why wouldn’t you also believe that you could print wealth?”
June 2022
Drew Hernandez, host of TPUSA FRONTLINE on YouTube, spends Pride Month calling LGBTQ people “mentally ill” and dubs it “groomer month.” Hernandez also says parents who bring their children to Pride events should be arrested. Months later, YouTube would remove the videos.
July 6, 2022
On his podcast, Kirk rejects a previous perspective he held: “There is no separation of church and state. It’s a fabrication. It’s a fiction. It’s not in the Constitution. It’s made up by secular humanists.”
Oct. 12, 2022
The Student Government Association at Maryland’s Towson University formally condemns the university’s TPUSA chapter after leaked messagesshow the group’s members allegedly using racist, homophobic and ableist slurs. Some of the messages refer to Pride Month as “f*ggot month” and the monkeypox outbreak as the “f*ggot virus.”
Feb. 17, 2023
Discussing trans women in women’s bathrooms, Kirk says, “These people are sick. … I blame the decline of American men. … Someone should’ve just took care of it the way we used to take care of things in the 1950s or 60s.” Journalist Erin Reed, whose reporting focuses on the trans community, responds to Kirk’s remarks by saying he is “openly calling for the lynching of transgender individuals.”
May 28, 2023
Kirk defends TPUSA’s partnership with Shawn Bergstrand, a registered sex offender who served time in federal prison for attempted “coercion and enticement” after trying to persuade “a minor female” to “engage in sexual activity.”
He defends Bergstrand on X and simultaneously attacks Target for selling Pride merchandise: “I’m told … that he’s a nice person who did something wrong over a decade ago, and unlike Target, he repented and the experience led him to his faith. Good for him. That’s the Gospel.”
Sept. 11, 2023
In a speech, Kirk describes transgender people as a “throbbing middle finger to God” and trans swimmer Lia Thomas as “an abomination to God.”
Oct. 11, 2023
David Boyles, an instructor at Arizona State University, posts a photo of his injuries on Instagram. Photo courtesy of David Boyles.
A TPUSA-affiliated crew assault David Boyles, a queer Arizona State University professor who teaches English and is a co-founder of Drag Story Hour Arizona. The crew shouts accusations about drag shows and sexuality, “accusing [him] personally of pedophilia and hating America,” and ultimately shove him to the ground after he tries to block their camera from recording. Campus police say they investigated the interaction as a “potential bias or prejudicially motivated incident.” Both suspects would plead guilty in court. The professor had been featured on TPUSA’s Professor Watchlist in part for teaching an LGBTQ-themed class on pop culture and politics.
In a debate, Kirk says, “I believe marriage is between one man and one woman, but if you ask me do I have hate in my heart for somebody that doesn’t choose the [heteronormative] lifestyle … of course not.”
April 1, 2024
Kirk calls for gender-affirming clinics to be banned: “We need to have a Nuremberg-style trial for every gender-affirming clinic doctor.”
Costa Rica‘s first out transgender elected official, Gerhard Phillip Hernández Padilla, is more than just a historic politician — he’s a member of Gen Z who loves Coldplay, art history, and tattoos.
The 25-year-old trans man was elected in February last year as second vice mayor of Moravia, a smaller municipality in the San José province in central Costa Rica with a population of more than 50,000. He will serve the district until the end of his four-year term in 2028, after which he plans to continue his career in politics.
“What I would like to do in politics is bring in opportunities for those who don’t have them yet … making the way a little bit easier for my brothers and sisters from the trans community that are planning to be part of this space as well in the future,” Hernández tells The Advocate.
Hernández was only 19 when he was elected to the Municipal Council of Moravia in 2020, making him the council’s youngest member and the first out trans man in Costa Rican politics. He ran for office in 2024 alongside mayor Diego Armando López López and first vice mayor Alejandra Hernández Novoa under the Partido Somos Moravia (We Are Moravia Party), emerging victorious with 45.36 percentof the vote.
Though he’s achieved success at a young age, it did not come easily. Hernández says he faces discrimination “on a daily basis” for all facets of his identity — even his tattoos, which he shows off proudly. One on his forearm features the words “Viva la Vida” next to a watermelon, a reference to both the Coldplay song and the Frida Kahlo painting of the same name.
“I have three challenges: of course being transgender, of course being young, and of course having my tattoos and piercings,” Hernández says. “In a very conservative society, that’s not well seen. When you are facing this kind of authority position or leadership position, most of the time, they don’t see you as an authority. They are always trying to challenge your authority.”
The trans community still isn’t widely accepted in Costa Rica, though progress has been made in recent years. Trans people were granted the right to legally change their gender on official documents without surgical or judicial intervention in 2018 through an executive decree, and some gender-affirming care is funded through the state health system.
However, Hernández says the treatments that are available — such as hormone therapy — are the “worst of the market,” and the majority of gender-affirming operations are not publicly funded. He explains that trans people must “have a lot of money to go outside [the country] — probably to the U.S. — to get a surgery.”
As trans people continue to face systemic discrimination, Hernández is particularly focused on creating opportunities for them through employment and education, with focuses in language, technology, and culture. He notes that “even being transgender, I know that I’m a white man, that I was able to access college, so I have an advantage that some of my brothers and sisters don’t have.”
“When I got into politics, I thought that I was able to change the world. I think that’s a thought that most of us have at the beginning,” Hernández says. “However, when you get in there, you see how things are for real. So, my thoughts right now are not changing the world, but changing from small things to bigger ones. I like to impact the youth because I think we’re the future. Actually, not the future — we’re the present.”
Until his time in office ends — or until Coldplay tours in San José — Hernández will be diligently serving his constituents, he says. He wants the world to know that “not only trans people, but people from Costa Rica in general, are people that are always trying to be resilient, to work, to educate ourselves.”
“We are more than transgender. We are human beings. We have families, we have jobs, and we are always trying to improve ourselves, to develop ourselves, and trying to learn,” Hernández says. “We have a lot to give to the world from Costa Rica and from the trans community. We have a lot to give to the world, a lot to learn as well, and a lot to teach to all of you.”
New street art in Walker’s Point commemorates the neighorhood’s rich LGBTQ history. Crosswalks at the intersection of 2nd Street and National Avenue are now painted rainbow, in a design by street artist Jeremy Novy. The project was led by the Wisconsin LGBTQ History Project, as a way to show the neighborhood’s pride and inclusiveness as a safe space for all.
The new artwork was unveiled at a dedication ceremony Oct. 6, with remarks from Milwaukee leaders including Mayor Cavalier Johnson.
“Today we’re here to celebrate legacy. For more than 80 years, the Walker’s Point neighborhood has been a safe haven for Milwaukee’s LGBTQ+ community,” Johnson said. “Now this place is where people could come as they find acceptance, as they find belonging, and where they really find joy in our city.”
Read the full article. The crosswalk was funded by private donations. Meanwhile, yesterday in Miami Beach a state crew jackhammered away the rainbow mosaic crosswalk leading to the city’s famed “gay beach.”
Banned Books Week takes place October 5-11, 2025. The annual event raises awareness of the harm and the rising trend of book challenges and bans, especially targeting books by and about LGBTQ people and books about race and racism.
Why are book bans happening?
Book bans are part of a sweeping crackdown aimed at censoring and limiting the rising visibility and acceptance of LGBTQ people and youth.
The book ban surge of the last few years coincided with a steady increase in LGBTQ visibility and acceptance over the past decade. LGBTQ people now make up 9.3% of the overall population, up from 3.5% in 2012. One in five GenZ adults, the youngest generation measured, is out as LGBTQ.
Book bans remain widely unpopular: 71% of voters, including 75% of Democrats and 70% of Republicans, oppose efforts to have books removed from their local public libraries and believe that librarians do a good job offering books with diverse viewpoints. Gallup found that 70% of U.S. parents of K-12 students are either completely or somewhat satisfied with the education that their oldest child is receiving.
What is being banned?
LGBTQ books and books about race and racism dominatethe list of most challenged titles as tracked by the American Library Association (ALA). “All Boys Aren’t Blue” by George M. Johnson and “Gender Queer” by Maia Kobabe remain at the top of most banned titles tracked by the ALA.
PEN America’s Most Banned Books of 2024-2025 includes titles that are more than two decades old, such as Crank (2004), Forever… (1975), and A Clockwork Orange (1962). Book Riot’s Kelly Jensen analyzed the challenged books on both lists, summarizing they show “how slapdash and nonsensical the push to ban books is. ”
“There’s nothing cohesive here except an interest in removing the stories, voices, and perspectives of people of color, of queer people, and of books that speak honestly to the issues of sex, sexuality, puberty, and adolescence,” Jensen wrote.
Who is instigating book bans?
The ALA has traced the origins of book bans, noting most (72%) start with extremist coordinated pressure groups and the elected officials they pressure, not local community or parent demand.
“The 120 titles most frequently targeted for censorship during 2024 are all identified on partisan book rating sites which provide tools for activists to demand the censorship of library books,” ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom noted.
What is new in book bans?
The fronts of attack continue to expand. A new PEN America report recorded 6,870 instances of book bans across 23 states and 87 public school districts during the 2024-25 school year.
Attacks on local, state, and federal levels risk a kind of “everyday banning,”PEN notes, “the normalization and routinization of censorship” fueled by capitulation from administrators, staff, and elected officials who find it easier to remove a book than fight for it.
Normalization is too-often encouraged through threats, harassment, and intimidation. GLAAD’s ALERT Desk is continually tracking anti-LGBTQ incidents nationwide, including the targeting of school board members. Read out board members’ first person stories on the importance of representation and safety.
Communities are fighting back and winning
GLAAD has updated itstoolkit: Banned Books: A Guide for Community Response and Action to include more success stories and strategies from communities who have fought bans and won.
“GLAAD created this guide with resources from professional library and free speech advocates. By using the power of storytelling and engaging media, communities can unite with their neighbors, send a powerful signal of welcome and acceptance, and strengthen all communities,” GLAAD President and CEO, and author Sarah Kate Ellis said.
“While book bans attempt to curb fundamental freedoms, they are far from the final chapter. Communities who care about each vulnerable reader and a future where all can be free should get the last word,” Ellis said.
EveryLibrary’sFight for the First is a key resource in the local success stories detailed in GLAAD’s toolkit for communities.
EveryLibrary has asimple tool to help supporters create and send messages in the media, including a Letter to the Editor in your local news outlets.
What You Can Do
Check out or buy a banned book.
Out author, actor, and social justice advocate George Takei is this year’s Honorary Chair of Banned Books Week.Learn about Takei’s advocacy for LGBTQ people and Japanese Americans including through his graphic memoirs, “They Called Us Enemy,” about Takei’s childhood spent in a prison camp created by the U.S. government during World War II to detain Japanese Americans, and “It Rhymes with Takei,” his memoir about coming out.
Call, write a letter, attend a meeting, and share your story.
Call a decision-maker, write a letter to the editor, find out about your local library’s materials and challenge policies, attend a library or school board meeting.
Banned Books Week concludes with Let Freedom Read Day, October 11th. Supporters are urged to take at least one action to help defend books from censorship and to use their voices for library staff, educators, writers, publishers, and booksellers who make books available.
Sign up to support or donate to a nonprofit group. The Banned Books Week coalition includes more than a dozen organizations working to ensure access to books and protection of vulnerable readers. GLAAD is a Banned Books Week coalition contributor.
Attend a Banned Books Weeks event. Find it via this searchable map for events in local bookstores, libraries, in-person and virtually.
EveryLibrary is hosting a weeklong online festival of panel discussions for Banned Books Week to include LGBTQ authors Clay Cane, Katherine Locke, Charlotte Sullivan Wild and Cadwell Turnbull.
Recognize and respond to censorship in your community. Little Free Library, the American Library Association, and PEN America released a new map to show hotspots for censorship around the country and how Little Free Library owners counter by including more titles in their book houses.
“This newly updated map empowers communities to protect intellectual freedom, champion diverse voices, and ensure that the joy of reading remains accessible to all,” said Daniel Gumnit, Chief Executive Officer of Little Free Library.
Organize. Create. Show solidarity. Show up. Book bans are an LGBTQ issue, but they’re an all-Americans issue too.
“Book bans harm public school systems and restrict education,” PEN America notes. They drain school resources and taxpayer funds. They distract and discourage teachers. They decrease student engagement in reading and critical thinking.
“The consequences of book bans extend to everyone in our country,” GLAAD’s Sarah Kate Ellis said.
“Every American needs stories about LGBTQ people, Black people, queer and transgender people of color, and all marginalized groups to better understand our shared history and to fight for a future where we can all belong and be safe.”
I am a firm believer in history stupidly repeating itself, particularly bad history, because for some reason men in power don’t think history applies to them. Or they think something that was universally agreed upon as bad is something good they want to bring back and shove down people’s throats.
After World War II and the horrific destruction caused by the Nazi Party, the world said never again, so much so that the party was banned in Germany. But now you have the AfD, which works around the edges in the country and is shockingly but not surprisingly endorsed by Elon Musk.
The Trump administration is the U.S. version of a quasi-Nazi Party that also works around the edges or goes right up to the line. That happened this week when Defense Secretary (I refuse to say “War”) Pete Hegseth and FBI Director Kash Patel made it abundantly clear that they want a redux of the Lavender Scare of the 1950s, returning to a time in history when queer workers were not welcomed in the federal government.
The original Lavender Scare was a twin to McCarthyism, when suspected communists were purged from government ranks. In parallel, queer men and women were hounded, questioned, and fired because they were deemed “security risks.” If you saw Fellow Travelers, that gives you an idea of what happened.
The rationale was appalling — that being gay made you weak, vulnerable to blackmail, and untrustworthy. The federal government destroyed thousands of careers and lives. Some of those targeted never recovered, and many didn’t live long enough to see things change. And only a few could fight back.
One of those was Frank Kameny, a World War II veteran and Harvard-trained astronomer. He was fired from the Army Map Service in 1957 simply for being gay. Rather than retreat into the shadows, Kameny fought back, becoming one of the fiercest pioneers of the LGBTQ+ rights movement.
“They told me I was a pervert. I told them they were the perverts for using government power to persecute people like me,” Kameny once said. He spent the rest of his life fighting so that the government acknowledged the dignity of LGBTQ+ people..
When I began working on Capitol Hill in 1987, the AIDS epidemic was ravaging the community while the Reagan administration turned its back. The Lavender Scare may not have been official policy anymore, but the effects of remaining hidden lingered.
To so many of us, being out was unthinkable. I’ve written before about how I snuck around to date men, meeting on street corners, slipping into movie theaters only after the lights dimmed, leaving before the credits rolled.
Life as a closeted gay man was interesting, to say the least. It was also suffocating, and worse, frightening. And the irony was that there were plenty of closeted gay men in the Reagan administration.
A couple of years ago, I spoke with James Kirchick, when his book Secret City: The Hidden History of Gay Washington was released. It chronicled being gay in different eras and administrations in Washington, D.C., and how being exposed could destroy a career.
In a nutshell, what Kirchick told me was that there was an unwritten rule in the 1980s federal workplace that was simple: “Don’t get caught.” Even then, people were still being fired. In 1988, for example, the General Accounting Office reported that employees at the National Security Agency could be denied clearances if they were suspected of being gay, and some were indeed dismissed on that basis. Queer life in government was still filled with fear, Lavender Scare or not.
That fear is back. Pete Hegseth’s speech this week to military generals was littered with patriotic babble befitting a Fox News weekend host. But it also included homophobic dog whistles.
He railed against “woke” culture, insisting the armed forces needed warriors and “no more dudes in dress.” What he was trying to say was that the military was for only straight white men. There will be no inclusion in Hegseth’s military since, to him, it is a weakness. LGBTQ+ service members will once again be the victims of paranoia.
Meanwhile, Kash Patel made the Lavender Scare literal. As FBI director, he personally fired a lowly trainee for displaying a Pride flag on their desk.
First of all, doesn’t he have anything better to do? Oh, yes, he does! Keeping America safe. Patel showing his leadership skills by firing a trainee is as bad as Hegseth preaching against “dudes in dresses.”
I’m sure our adversaries are paying attention to what the priorities are of America’s “war” secretary and FBI director.
Patel gets his knickers in a twist over a flag. A small symbol of identity and belonging was treated by Patel as an act of betrayal. Think about the message that sends across the workforce. It’s terrifying, and it’s wrong, and somehow I think most of the agents probably realize it’s wrong too. At least I hope they do.
This isn’t new under Trump, The administration is scrubbing LGBTQ+ content from government websites, erasing transgender protections, and enforcing a toxic culture of silence and fear.
But the actions this week feel like an escalation. .
The danger is not just for queer federal workers but for everyone. In the 1950s and even in the ‘80s, merely associating with a colleague who was known to be gay could draw suspicion. That logic can return in an instant.
If a Pride flag can cost you your job, what else will be forbidden tomorrow?
Here’s another worry. Trump is threatening to fire thousands of government workers during the current shutdown. It doesn’t take much imagination to see how his lieutenants and lackeys, men like Patel and Hegseth, might seize on that mandate to target queer employees in particular.
Are dark times returning? Will federal workers, gay, straight, or otherwise, be forced into closets or isolation? Once more, LGBTQ+ people are being cast as weak links. We’ve been here before, and we know how awful it can get.
I, for one, think federal employees can summon the courage of Frank Kameny and the countless others who refused to vanish. My guess is that strength is in numbers, and that courage will prevail.
And good luck to Patel and Hegseth if they try to push their LGBTQ+ employees too far.
