Stop Banning Books About Racism and LGBTQ Characters

Book bans in America’s public schools just hit a record high — and students are paying the price.

PEN America reports that nearly 12,000 books were banned in public schools during the 2025–2026 school year, the highest number since the organization began tracking school book bans. Many of the books being removed tell the truth about racism, feature LGBTQ+ characters, or reflect the lives of students of color.

This is not about protecting children. It is about censoring history, erasing marginalized communities, and teaching students that some stories are too dangerous to be heard.

Tell Congress: Stop the book bans. Protect students’ right to read books about racism, LGBTQ+ people, and the full diversity of American life.

Texas and Florida have become blueprints for this censorship crisis, with politicians, state laws, and organized pressure campaigns pushing school districts to remove books from shelves. When schools are intimidated into banning books, students lose access to ideas that help them understand themselves, their classmates, and the world around them.

Books about racism help students understand the country they live in. Books with LGBTQ+ characters help young people know they are not alone. Books by and about people of color give students the chance to see lives and histories too often excluded from classrooms.

Removing those stories does real harm. It tells Black, brown, LGBTQ+, and questioning students that their lives are controversial. It tells all students that uncomfortable truths should be hidden instead of confronted.

Add your name now and demand Congress defend the freedom to read before even more books disappear from school shelves.

The petition to Congress reads:

"Stop the wave of school book bans targeting books about racism, LGBTQ+ people, people of color, and marginalized communities. Investigate the political pressure campaigns and state laws driving censorship, and pass federal protections to defend every student’s freedom to read."