The banning of books has ‘expanded DRASTICALLY’, with 1,648 titles pulled across 5,000 schools

Efforts to ban books gained momentum in the past year, with hundreds of titles spread across thousands of schools — often schools tackling “culture wars” such as gender, sexuality and race, a study shows.

In the 2021-2022 school year, there were 2,532 individual book bans affecting 1,648 titles in some 5,000 schools with 4 million students. report on Monday.

The group described a push by politicians and newly formed parent organizations to pull texts from school libraries that it equates to the anti-communist McCarthy era and the “Moral Majority” purges of the early 1980s.

Commonly banned titles include Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe and The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, which was inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement and turned into a 2018 film.

“This rapidly accelerating movement has left more and more students without access to literature that equips them to face the challenges and complexities of democratic citizenship,” said Jonathan Friedman, author of the report.

The banned books were often fictional texts for young adults, often those about lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer themes or about queer protagonists, as well as those about race and identity.

PEN America, a nonprofit writing group, says books on LGBTQ and racial issues are most often targeted

Books banned in schools include Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe and The Hate U Give, by Angie Thomas

America’s 5 Most Banned Titles:

Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe was banned by 41 school districts. The illustrated text maps the author’s “journey of self-identity” and “what it means to be non-binary and asexual,” according to promotional material.

All boys are not blue, a series of personal essays by George M. Johnson, was banned in 29 counties. The ‘memoir manifesto’ chronicles the childhood, adolescence and college years of its black, queer author

Out of the darkness by Ashley Hope Pérez is a novel about teenage love between a Mexican-American girl and a black boy in 1930s Texas. It was banned in 24 districts.

The bluest eye was banned in 22 districts. The first novel by famous author Toni Morrison tells the story of a black girl growing up in the 1940s and her feeling of inferiority because of her skin color.

The hate you give by Angie Thomas was banned in 17 counties. It was inspired by the Black Lives Matter protest movement, deals with police brutality against minorities and was turned into a 2018 film.

Texas was responsible for most of the bans, with 801 in 22 counties. Campaigners have also been busy in Florida, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, South Carolina, Wisconsin and Georgia, the study said.

The most banned book was Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe, which was cut across 41 school districts. It charts the author’s “journey of self-identity” and “what it means to be non-binary and asexual.”

It was followed by George M. Johnson’s All Boys Are’t Blue, which was banned in 29 school districts, and Ashley Hope Pérez’s Out of Darkness, banned in 24 districts, researchers said.

Other often banned books include The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini and two titles, The Bluest Eye and Beloved, by Toni Morrison, a Nobel laureate whose works are largely about race.

PEN America highlighted some 50 groups active in pushing for book bans, including Moms for Liberty, US Parents Involved in Education and No Left Turn in Education. Most groups have been formed since 2021.

The group’s CEO, Suzanne Nossel, said the widespread ban was no longer an effort by “individual concerned citizens” but rather a coordinated campaign by “sophisticated, ideological and well-resourced advocacy groups.”

The banned books were often novels for young adults about lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer-themed or queer-themed characters.

Nobel laureate Toni Morrison’s novels about race are banned, as is Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner

Campaigners protest a book ban in late 2021 by the Central York school board at the school in southern Pennsylvania, which has blacklisted a children’s book about Rosa Parks and Malala Yousafzai’s autobiography

Their efforts have often been linked to Republican politicians, such as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who tried to ban class discussions about gender and sexual identity, and Texas Representative Matt Krause, who launched an investigation into school libraries.

“This censorship move is turning our public schools into political battlefields, driving wedges within communities, forcing teachers and librarians out of their jobs, and cooling the spirit of open inquiry,” Nossel said.

Proponents of cutting texts from the school curriculum say they are fighting the madness in education, championing the rights of parents and removing books that are too sexual or confuse teens about their gender.

They often focus on texts that they say promote critical race theory, which argues that generations of slavery, segregation, and Jim Crow laws have ingrained racial prejudice into current American laws and institutions.

Tina Descovich and Tiffany Justice, the co-founders of Moms for Liberty, told DailyMail.com that they are championing parents’ rights to have a say in children’s education.

“It’s time to end the stronghold of teachers’ unions on public education,” they said in a statement.

They called on candidates for the upcoming midterm elections to “stand with parents and expose those who instead choose to protect special interest groups over the best interests of children.”

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a Republican, has pushed boundaries on how race, gender, and sexual identity are taught in schools

Two Florida moms founded the Florida Freedom to Read Project, which fights censorship, with Stephane Ferrell, left, and Jen Cousins, second from left, joining Boone High students here in front of the Orange County Public Schools Administration Building in Orlando.