LGBTQ+ Content

Books Banned for LGBTQ+ Content

33 books · 296 total challenges

BANNED 15 challenges

All Boys Aren't Blue

by George M. Johnson

George M. Johnson's #1 ALA 2024 banned book and memoir-manifesto became key in contemporary censorship conversations....

LGBTQ+ ContentSexual Content
BANNED 15 challenges

Drama: A Graphic Novel

by Raina Telgemeier

Raina Telgemeier's Stonewall Honor graphic novel has 57 documented bans....

LGBTQ+ ContentStonewall Honor
BANNED 15 challenges

Flamer

by Mike Curato

Mike Curato's Lambda Award-winning graphic novel ranked #5 ALA 2023 and #10 ALA 2024....

LGBTQ+ ContentSexual Orientation
BANNED 15 challenges

Lawn Boy

by Jonathan Evison

Jonathan Evison's Alex Award winner became a major political controversy and ban target....

LGBTQ+ ContentSexual Content
BANNED 15 challenges

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

by Taylor Jenkins Reid

A novel about an aging Hollywood icon who finally tells the truth about her glamorous, scandal-filled life and the great...

Sexual ContentLGBTQ+ ContentProfanity
BANNED 15 challenges

This Book Is Gay

by Juno Dawson

Juno Dawson's #3 ALA 2023 banned book is a sex education guide for LGBTQ+ teens being aggressively challenged....

LGBTQ+ ContentSex Education
BANNED 13 challenges

Girls of Paper and Fire

by Natasha Ngan

A Malaysian-inspired fantasy about Lei, a girl chosen as one of the Demon King's Paper Girls, who falls in love with ano...

Sexual ContentLGBTQ+ ContentViolence
BANNED 12 challenges

Everything, Everything

by Nicola Yoon

Nicola Yoon's YA novel about Madeline Whittier, a teenager with severe combined immunodeficiency who has never left her ...

Sexual ContentLGBTQ+ Content
BANNED 11 challenges

The Song of Achilles

by Madeline Miller

A retelling of Homer's Iliad from the perspective of Patroclus, exploring his love affair with Achilles from boyhood to ...

Sexual ContentLGBTQ+ ContentViolence
BANNED 10 challenges

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe

by Benjamin Alire Saenz

Benjamin Alire Saenz's acclaimed YA novel about two boys discovering love became a beloved classic....

LGBTQ+ ContentGay Romance
BANNED 10 challenges

Darius the Great Is Not Okay

by Adib Khorram

Adib Khorram's debut YA novel about a gay Persian teen became an instant classic....

LGBTQ+ ContentGay Teen Protagonist
BANNED 10 challenges

Define Normal

by Julie Anne Peters

Julie Anne Peters' YA novel about a gay teen and his friendship became a groundbreaking work of representation....

LGBTQ+ ContentMental Health
BANNED 10 challenges

Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic

by Alison Bechdel

Alison Bechdel's award-winning graphic memoir became a Tony Award-winning musical....

LGBTQ+ ContentSexual Content
BANNED 10 challenges

Heather Has Two Mommies

by Lesléa Newman

The pioneering 1989 picture book that first represented gay families to children became an instant ban target....

Gay Family RepresentationLGBTQ+ Content
BANNED 10 challenges

The Vanishing Half

by Brit Bennett

A multigenerational saga about identical twin sisters from a small Southern Black community, one of whom secretly passes...

Sexual ContentRacial ThemesLGBTQ+ Content
BANNED 10 challenges

Two Boys Kissing

by David Levithan

David Levithan's ALA-ranked YA novel about gay relationships was #10 ALA 2024....

LGBTQ+ ContentGay Kiss Depiction
BANNED 9 challenges

Iron Widow

by Xiran Jay Zhao

A sci-fi reimagining of Chinese history where Zetian, a girl from a patriarchal society, pilots giant mechs to fight ali...

Sexual ContentViolenceLGBTQ+ Content
BANNED 9 challenges

Without Merit

by Colleen Hoover

Colleen Hoover's novel about Merit Voss, whose family keeps so many secrets that she decides to expose them all, only to...

Sexual ContentLGBTQ+ ContentSensitive Topics
BANNED 8 challenges

Blackout

by Dhonielle Clayton, Tiffany D. Jackson, Nic Stone, Angie Thomas, Ashley Woodfolk, and Nicola Yoon

A YA anthology of six interconnected love stories set during a New York City blackout, all featuring Black teen characte...

Sexual ContentProfanityLGBTQ+ Content
BANNED 8 challenges

The House in the Cerulean Sea

by TJ Klune

A cozy fantasy about Linus Baker, a caseworker for magical children, who is sent to a mysterious orphanage on an island ...

LGBTQ+ Content
BANNED 8 challenges

The Miseducation of Cameron Post

by Emily M. Danforth

Emily M. Danforth's novel about Cameron Post, a teenager in rural Montana sent to a conversion therapy camp after being ...

LGBTQ+ ContentSexual Content
BANNED 6 challenges

A Separate Peace

by John Knowles

John Knowles' classic novel about the intense friendship between Gene and Phineas at a New England boarding school durin...

ViolenceLGBTQ+ ContentLanguage
BANNED 6 challenges

Ace of Spades

by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé

Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé's debut thriller about two Black students at an elite prep school who become targets of an anonymo...

LGBTQ+ ContentRacial ContentViolence
BANNED 6 challenges

Every Body Looking

by Candice Iloh

A novel-in-verse about a Nigerian American college freshman navigating her mother's addiction, her father's strict expec...

Sexual ContentLGBTQ+ ContentDrug Use
BANNED 6 challenges

Little and Lion

by Brandy Colbert

Brandy Colbert's novel about Suzette, a bisexual teen who returns home from boarding school to help her stepbrother Lion...

LGBTQ+ ContentSexual ContentDrug/Alcohol Use
BANNED 6 challenges

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Taylor Jenkins Reid's novel about aging Hollywood icon Evelyn Hugo, who finally reveals the truth about her glamorous an...

Sexual ContentLGBTQ+ Content
BANNED 5 challenges

Beauty Queens

by Libba Bray

Libba Bray's satirical novel about teen beauty pageant contestants who survive a plane crash on a deserted island and mu...

Sexual ContentLGBTQ+ ContentLanguage
BANNED 5 challenges

Razorblade Tears

by S. A. Cosby

A crime thriller about two ex-convict fathers, one Black and one white, who team up to avenge the murders of their gay s...

ViolenceLGBTQ+ ContentProfanity
BANNED 4 challenges

A River of Royal Blood

by Amanda Joy

A North African-inspired fantasy about a princess who must kill her older sister to claim the throne, but discovers a co...

ViolenceSexual ContentLGBTQ+ Content
BANNED 4 challenges

Rural Voices

by Nora Shalaway Carpenter

An anthology of stories, poems, and comics by YA authors set in rural America, featuring diverse characters including LG...

LGBTQ+ ContentSexual ContentRacial Themes
BANNED 4 challenges

The Fascinators

by Andrew Eliopulos

A YA novel about three teen witches in the American South, one of whom is gay and navigating his first love while their ...

LGBTQ+ ContentOccult/Witchcraft
BANNED 4 challenges

The Hand on the Wall

by Maureen Johnson

The conclusion of the Truly Devious trilogy, where Stevie Bell solves both a modern murder and a 1930s kidnapping at an ...

ViolenceLGBTQ+ ContentDrug Use
BANNED 2 challenges

10 Things I Can See from Here

by Carrie Mac

A YA novel about Maeve, a teen with severe anxiety who falls for a girl named Salix while spending the summer with her p...

Sexual ContentLGBTQ+ Content