© 2024 KUNR
Illustration of rolling hills with occasional trees and a radio tower.
Serving Northern Nevada and the Eastern Sierra
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
KUNR’s spring fund drive is happening now, and your gift to the station will go twice as far with a matching pledge from the KUNR Advisory Board!

Now is the time to act –
click here to make a gift to KUNR today or increase your sustaining membership and have it matched.

Banned Books List Highlights Debate Over LGBT Rights

http://www.susankuklin.net/

Recent religious freedom legislation in North Carolina and Mississippi has sparked a national discussion about gay and transgender rights. One surprising place the issue is showing up is in the latest banned books list.

The American Library Association’s Office of Intellectual Freedom released its top ten most challenged books for 2015, more commonly known as the Banned Books List.

James LaRue is the director of the office and he says this list represents a pulse of American society.

“It’s a snapshot of probably what people in America are worried about. As I look at the list this year," LaRue says, "it falls into what I think of as kind of a diversity category.”

Jeff Scott is the library director for Washoe County. He says often times book bans have the opposite effect.

“What ends up happening, like in the Harry Potter books, where they try to ban certain books, it makes it where they’re far more read. So the ban is actually counterintuitive, because when they try to ban something, more people want to get their hands on it.”

Three books on this year’s list highlight LGBT issues, including I Am Jazz, Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out and Two Boys Kissing.

Related Content