Challenges to materials in public libraries accounted for 49% of documented library materials challenges in 2023, compared to 16% in 2022 according to the ALA.

All Boys Aren’t Blue had been banned in 29 school districts across 8 states by mid 2023. While I can’t get an account of how often this has happened in public libraries, I can provide some anecdotal information.

First, a little about the author, George M. Johnson. They are an Emmy nominated, award winning Black non-binary journalist, author, and activist. Their book, All Boys Arent Blue: A Memoir Manifesto is a memoir of George’s adolescence growing up as a young Black queer child in New Jersey. Johnson’s story continues with We Are Not Broken. In discussing their work, Johnson explains that, “part of the work I do as a writer helps bridge that gap in Black communities by attempting to break the conditioning that taught us to be homophobic, misogynistic, and transphobic.”

In November 2021, Johnson became aware of a complaint from a member of the school board in Flager County FL alleging the book violated Florida’s obscenity law and its presence in high school libraries amounted to a crime. This was the first of many to follow.

A group in Glen Ridge, NJ asked to have the book, and five others with LGBTQIA+ content, removed from the public library from. The library’s Board of Trustees meeting  on this issue was filled with members of Glen Ridge United Against Book Bans, students, and Kaye Johnson, mother of the book’s author, George M. Johnson. The board voted unanimously to retain the books on the shelves.

Community members in Mobile AL used the library’s established process to challenge transgender and gender fluid and LGBTQ materials in the fall of 2023. Not a week after the initial charge was filed, it was rescinded because the book hadn’t even been read.

In August 2023, Daviess County KY Citizens for Decency found All Boys Aren’t Blue to be “inappropriate for developing minds”, explaining that they discovered over 200 books containing age-inappropriate and pornographic materials. The Daviess County Library then conducted an audit to address those concerns, ultimately costing tax payers around $35,000. In October 2023, the county library decided they would offer a library card that restricts minors access to the juvenile section. 

In 2023, the library board of the Hamilton East Public Library located in central Indiana adopted a collection development policy that required librarians to review all books in the teen section to determine whether they were appropriate for that age group. Those that weren’t were to be moved to the adult section. This isn’t so different from the decision made in Davies County because it still limits young adult’s access to books. Author John Green, who lives in Indiana, referred to the action that included his book, The Fault in Our Stars as an embarrassment to the library. Implementing the policy cost taxpayers over $300,000 because of the amount of time spent reading and reviewing the books, physically removing and moving them, relocating them online, and retagging the physical books.

The policy was removed in November, 2023.

In searching the Hamilton East Public library collection, I do see that The Fault in Our Stars was maintained in ‘HS Fic’, or High School Fiction. All Boys Aren’t Blue is located in ‘B Johnson’ [B for biography] in the general, or adult, collection. I’m not sure if the book was moved during the time this policy was practiced, or if it was always in the adult section. It does seem odd that it would have been.

All Boys Aren’t Blue was adapted into a short film in 2021and was also optioned to be developed as a TV series.

Contact
website: https://iamgmjohnson.com/
IG: https://www.instagram.com/iamgmjohnson
GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/19309237.George_M_Johnson

Books
Next: Flamboyants: The Queer Harlem Renaissance I Wish I’d Known (Macmillan, Sept, 2024)
Most Recent: We Are Not Broken; Little, Brown Books