Publishers fight bans on LGBTQ, race books

FRANKFURT, Germany (AFP) — Escalating attempts to remove works featuring themes such as LGBTQ lifestyles and race relations from United States (US) bookshelves are facing growing resistance from publishers and rights groups, a major topic at this year's Frankfurt Book Fair.

Spearheaded by right-wing conservative groups, there has been an explosion in efforts to get books that are viewed as overly progressive banned in US schools and public libraries in recent years.

In 2020 just under 300 titles faced "challenges" — demands to restrict access to them or remove them entirely — across the US, according to the American Library Association (ALA).

That number began surging the following year, and reached over 9,000 in 2023, said the non-government organization (NGO), whose office for intellectual freedom has been tracking challenges since 1990.

"It's an ideological mission from people on the right," Jon Yaged — CEO of Macmillan Publishers, whose books are among those that have been targeted in the US — told Agence France-Presse.

"This is just the most recent instance of hate demonstrating itself in culture," said Yaged this week at the Frankfurt event, the world's biggest book fair, where the subject was hotly debated.

It is part of what PEN International says is a growing global trend, with the literary freedom NGO reporting a "dramatic increase in book bans and censorship" in recent times, from Afghanistan to Russia.

In the US, conservative groups and politicians pushing to get certain books removed reject accusations of censorship, insisting their aim is to limit access to inappropriate material.

US conservatives have for some years been pushing back against what they view as a progressive agenda in education, a drive that has won support from President Donald Trump's administration.