Central Bucks orders removal of ‘Gender Queer,’ ‘This Book is Gay’ from school library shelves

The Central Bucks School District has decided to remove Gender Queer and This Book is Gay from library shelves, following reviews initiated by district administrators to “guard against the sexualization of children.”

Three other books — Lawn Boy, Beyond Magenta, and Me and Earl and The Dying Girl — have also been reviewed and will remain in libraries, according to an email from district library coordinator Melissa Burger to librarians Thursday. A district employee shared a copy of the email with The Inquirer.

A district spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment Friday.

The book removals are the first since Central Bucks passed a policy last year targeting “sexualized content,” sparking outcry from advocacy groups and community members who argued it would pave the way for banning books.

“I don’t think this ought to come as a surprise,” said Katherine Semisch, a retired English teacher in the district and cofounder of Advocates for Inclusive Education, a group that has opposed the school board’s policies regarding library books and prohibiting staff “advocacy” in classrooms.

“This was the intent of the library policy ... to make it easier to remove books,” Semisch said Friday.

The policy didn’t immediately result in book challenges: The district was developing administrative regulations to carry out the new rules — including enlisting a law firm focused on religious liberty to help. But administrators disclosed in January that they already had initiated internal reviews of the five books named in Burger’s email.

“To pretend that we don’t know that graphic, illustrated, highly descriptive sexualized content is in some books, would be akin to looking the other way,” Superintendent Abram Lucabaugh said at the time.

More than 60 additional books have since been challenged through requests submitted to the district. Central Bucks has not disclosed who filed the challenges, which include objections to sexual content as well as “inflammatory racial commentary” and discussions of gender identity and abortion.

The district has also not commented on the status of any reviews of those books.

In her email, Burger told librarians they would have 24 hours to pull Gender Queer and This Book is Gay from library shelves and send the books to her.

Burger did not provide specific reasons for the book decisions, but said they were in line with the library policy. She said reports from the reconsideration committees that reviewed the books would be published on the district’s website “in the near future.” As of Friday afternoon, it did not appear any reports had been posted.

“If they’re banning a book, how come the only people who know it are the librarians?” Semisch said.

Both Gender Queer, by Maia Kobabe, and This Book is Gay, by Juno Dawson, were among the top-10 most challenged books of 2022, according to the American Library Association. In particular, Gender Queer — a graphic memoir about Kobabe’s experience growing up nonbinary and asexual — has been targeted for illustrations depicting a sexual act and masturbation. Critics have called the images pornographic, though supporters, including schools who have kept the book, say they aren’t when viewed in the broader context of the story.

This Book is Gay is a nonfiction book that aims to serve as a guide to LGBTQ relationships. Critics take issue with its descriptions of sexual acts and anatomical illustrations.

Central Bucks, which has been embroiled in allegations it has created a hostile environment for LGBTQ students — claims that were recently refuted by a district-commissioned review — has said its policies are not discriminatory. Under the library policy, any book that is removed is supposed to be replaced with another from the same genre.

Semisch said she didn’t know if there were other books that spoke to the particular experience described in Gender Queer.

“That book is unique,” she said.