Gender Queer: A Memoir

Gender Queer was the most banned book in the United States in 2021. Most young adults and adolescents who encounter Gender Queer experience the book with this controversy in the background. Gender Queer is part of a tradition of LGBTQ+ memoirs (often focused on coming-of-age stories) including Fun Home by Alison Bechdel and Super Late Bloomer by Julia Kaye. While LGBTQ+ memoirs are challenged disproportionately by parents in school districts, the unusually high number of proposed bans levied against Gender Queer is notable.

The book is frequently targeted due to the graphic sexual depictions in its illustrations. The illustration on Page 140 is cited most frequently in these proposed bans, which depicts an older man touching a youth’s erect penis while the two figures are naked. Importantly, this image is a replica of a famous, red-figure pottery painting, the red-on-black style of pottery artwork most typically associated with classical Greece. The panels where Z sends Kobabe sexually explicit texts and performs oral sex on em are also often cited.

It is critical to view this controversy through the social context of LGBTQ+ rights and representation in the United States, especially the representation of transgender people. Anti-transgender biases and backlash have been on the rise since 2015. In 2019, when Gender Queer was published, 25 anti-trans bills were proposed in various states (Branigin, Anne, and N. Kirkpatrick. “Anti-Trans Laws Are on the Rise. Here’s a Look at Where—and What Kind.” The Washington Post, 14 Oct. 2022). Since then, this number has risen drastically; as of October 2022, lawmakers proposed 155 anti-trans bills in 2022. Gender Queer did not enter the domain of public debate until it won the Alex Award in 2020. It was first challenged in September 2021, a year that saw 131 anti-trans bills in 34 states, according to The Washington Post.

While Gender Queer is undeniably sexually explicit at times, efforts to ban the book and others like it (for example, George M. Johnson’s All Boys Aren’t Blue, the third most banned book in 2021) often stem from the books’ LGBTQ+ themes. In 2021, an Iowa school board candidate proposed investigating both students who checked out LGBTQ+ books from libraries as well as the librarians who offered LGBTQ+ books. Governors of states such as Texas and South Carolina established task forces to investigate the presence of LGBTQ+ media within libraries for possible removal and censorship. Charges of obscenity are the easiest way to challenge books before a school board in states such as Florida, New Jersey, and Utah, and obscenity claims are often weaponized against LGBTQ+ books regardless of whether explicit content is actually present (O’Hara, Mary Emily. “Media Guide: Reporting on Book Bannings and School Censorship.” GLAAD, 8 Aug. 2022).

Five of 2010’s top 10 most banned books of 2021 were challenged specifically due to their LGBTQ+ content (“Top 10 Most Challenged Books Lists.” American Library Association), and the top three were all cited for their LGBTQ+ content. Four of the remaining five books were banned for sexually explicit, non-LGBTQ+ content, while the remaining novel was banned due to anti-police sentiments and violence. The focus on LGBTQ+ content reflects a concern about teens and young adults being exposed to LGBTQ+ identities. LGBTQ+ people comprise a small percentage of the population, and yet their literature is overrepresented in banned book lists. Most recent lists cited by the American Library Association reflect this trend.