Industry & Advocacy News
April 21, 2020
The Authors Guild has co-signed a statement issued on April 21 condemning the increase in attacks on LGBTQ books included in school curricula and circulated in public libraries. We have joined a coalition of national groups to fight this particularly insidious form of censorship in which school boards, librarians, and other administrators and officials are asked to eliminate an entire group of people from their bookshelves. As the statement says, “when LGBTQ stories are silenced in this way, LGBTQ youth and children from LGBTQ families get the message that their own stories—their very lives—do not have value, that they are shameful.” LGBTQ youth are already bullied and attempt suicide at higher rates than their peers, and knowing that they are not alone, that their lives and stories have value, can literally help save lives. If parents object to having their children read books dealing with LGBTQ characters or subject matter, they can ask for alternate assignments for their own children; what they must not be allowed to do is to violate the First Amendment rights of others by censoring what they can read.
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