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More than half of the books challenged in recent years have been banned due to portrayals of LGBTQIA people. The acronym stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, (or questioning), intersex, asexual or agender.

According to a report issued by the American Library Association in April 2022, five out of the 10 the most targeted books in 2022 were challenged or banned due to LGBTQIA material. These include Maia Kobabe’s graphic memoir about sexual identity, Gender Queer, and Jonathan Evison’s Lawn Boy, a coming-of-age novel narrated by a young gay man.

While some cite these books as problematic for sexually explicit material, illustrated children’s books such as Everywhere Babies by Susan Meyers have also been challenged. Everywhere Babies was targeted by an advocacy group called the Florida Citizens Alliance, which cited the picture book in a report identifying “extremely age-inappropriate and pornographic books … in the K-12 classroom” because it depicts a baby with two men, potentially gay fathers.