On February 24, in a federal attack on free expression in schools, the U.S. House of Representatives introduced H.R. 7661—the “Stop the Sexualization of Children Act”—which would, if enacted, curtail K-12 students’ access to books and violate the free speech rights of parents and students throughout the country. The bill would prohibit federal funds allocated under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 from being used to “promote any program or activity for, or to provide or promote literature or other materials to, children under the age of 18 that includes sexually oriented material.”

While the bill’s title may sound like a narrowly targeted measure, in practice its actual reach would be sweeping—and its broad definitions are designed to silence entire categories of books, including most of the books published in the last four decades that are often taught in high school.

This Bill Goes Far Beyond “Sexually Explicit” Content

The bill’s sponsors claim it only targets explicitly sexual material. That argument does not hold up. H.R. 7661 defines “sexually oriented material” not only to include works that include any depiction, description, or simulation of sexually explicit conduct, but also works that involve gender dysphoria or transgenderism—the latter meaning that books featuring transgender characters would be barred from federally funded school programs even if they contain no sexually explicit conduct whatsoever. Any coming-of-age story, memoir, or picture book that includes a character who is transgender or merely questions their gender would be off-limits.

This is not incidental. It is the point. The bill expressly bars an entire topic—and the stories of an entire group of people—from our nation’s public schools. Young people who are already marginalized, already targets of escalating political attacks from their own government, would be further erased from the books they have access to. That is not child protection. That is censorship.

The “Classic Works” Exemption Is a Fig Leaf—and a Trap

The bill’s drafters attempt to soften its impact by exempting “classic works of literature” from the ban. Many of the great works of literature that high schoolers read have some sex or allusion to sex in them, including, as many have pointed out, the Bible. But the exemption in the bill is limited in such a way that it reveals the bill’s true agenda. Rather than trusting educators, librarians, or local school boards to define what constitutes a classic, the bill outsources that judgment to three specific, fixed lists:

• The Great Books of the Western World (second edition, 1990), published by Encyclopedia Britannica. This is a single, 35-year-old collection built around a narrow Western canon. It contains almost exclusively works by white European and American men and was last revised before the internet existed. It is not a neutral standard—it is a particular, dated cultural vision of what “great” means. By definition it excludes the work of most living authors.
• “Classics Every Middle Schooler Should Read” by Thomas Purifoy, Jr., published by Compass Classroom. This is not a peer-reviewed scholarly resource or a consensus curriculum standard. It is a reading list published by a faith-based homeschool company with a stated mission “to offer explicitly Christian, Bible‑centered curricula for homeschool families.” Federal education funding would now be tied to a privately-produced religious reading list.
• “Classics Every High Schooler Should Read” by Mary Pierson Purifoy, also published by Compass Classroom, which carries the same ideological framework. Critically, both Compass Classroom lists would be frozen at the moment of the bill’s enactment—meaning no book published after that date, no matter how widely taught or critically acclaimed, could ever qualify as a “classic” under this law.

The combined effect of these three lists is dramatic: School districts would lose the discretion to select books based on the needs, backgrounds, and interests of their students. Teachers who want to assign a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel published after 1990, a celebrated work by an author of color, or any book outside these three outdated and privately curated collections would risk their school’s federal funding. This is not a carve-out for classics. It’s a straitjacket disguised as one.

To be clear, the Authors Guild respects the constitutional rights of every American, including the right to practice the religion of their choice, and even to opt their children out of reading books that are counter to their religious beliefs (within reason). For the very same reason, we cannot countenance denying families the right to read books of pedagogical value based on the beliefs and fears of only some. Christian schools have every right to limit books to the Compass Classroom lists, but public schools do not. A federal law insisting that public schools do so is a clear breach of the First Amendment’s right to free speech.  

Take Action: Contact Your Representatives Today

The Authors Guild represents more than 17,000 working writers, and we are asking every one of our members to contact their representatives in Congress and urge them to oppose H.R. 7661. Books are how young people find themselves, understand others, and grapple with the world—all of the world. Legislation that restricts access based on ideology, rather than educational judgment, has no place in a free society.

What to do:

• Find your representative using the free House.gov Member Finder tool or Five Calls and call or email their office directly.
• Tell them: “I am a constituent, and I oppose H.R. 7661. This bill restricts access to books based on ideology, outsources curriculum decisions to a faith-based homeschool company, and targets LGBTQIA+ students. Please vote no.”
• Share this statement with fellow authors, educators, librarians, and readers. The more voices Congress hears, the better.

The right to read—and the right to write—depends on our willingness to defend it. We hope you’ll join us.