{"id":11446,"date":"2022-08-08T11:04:22","date_gmt":"2022-08-08T15:04:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/library\/?page_id=11446"},"modified":"2025-08-05T10:13:22","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T14:13:22","slug":"all-boys-arent-blue","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/library\/bannedbooks\/all-boys-arent-blue\/","title":{"rendered":"Banned Books 2025 &#8211; All Boys Aren&#8217;t Blue"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div class=\"marsha-row mt-4 mb-4 flex flex-wrap -mx-2 lg:-mx-6  justify-start border-0 border-gray-100 first:mt-0\">\n\t\n<p><!-- *  START LEFT COLUMN  *--><div class=\"columns w-full lg:w-3\/12  lg:px-6    mt-6\">\n<div class=\"\">\n\n<h2>Links<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a id=\"current\" href=\"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/library\/bannedbooks\/bannedbooks-2025\/author\/\">2025 Author<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/library\/bannedbooks\/bannedbooks-2025\/title\/\">2025 Title<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/library\/bannedbooks\/\">Banned Books Home<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Cover<\/h2>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-3433\" src=\"http:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/library\/files\/2022\/08\/all-boys-arent-blue.jpg\" alt=\"all boys aren't blue cover\" width=\"304\" height=\"475\" \/><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mulibiiidb.marshall.edu\/record=b2266578~S12\">Held at Marshall (Drinko &#8211; HQ76.27.A37 J644 2020)<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/cabellcounty.ent.sirsi.net\/client\/en_US\/cabell\/search\/results?qu=all+boys+aren%27t+blue&amp;te=&amp;rt=false%7C%7C%7CTITLE%7C%7C%7CTitle\">Held at Cabell County Public Library.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><!-- *** ** END LEFT COLUMN ** ***-->\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n<\/p><p><!-- *** ** START RIGHT COLUMN ** **--><div class=\"columns w-full lg:w-9\/12  lg:px-6    mt-6\">\n<div class=\"\">\n\n<p><strong>Marshall University does not ban books!  The information is provided to let people know what has been banned\/challenged elsewhere.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2>2025<\/h2>\n<p>Banned and challenged for LGBTQIA+ content and because it was considered sexually explicit.<\/p>\n<p>A member of a parents\u2019 rights group created an online petition calling for the Platteville School District (WI) to ban five books and <strong>MAD<\/strong> magazine from the middle school library. Following district policy, a committee reviewed all challenged titles. Per their recommendations,  <strong>It\u2019s Perfectly Normal<\/strong>, <strong>Flamer<\/strong>, <strong>Me and Earl and the Dying Girl<\/strong>, <strong>Heartstopper<\/strong>, and <strong>MAD<\/strong> were retained. <strong>All Boys Aren\u2019t Blue<\/strong> was moved to the high school library.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Thirteen Reasons Why<\/strong> was one of 10 titles challenged at the St. Joseph School District (MO) by individuals associated with the Christian nationalist Herzog Foundation. 8 Other titles targeted include <strong>And Tango Makes Three<\/strong> and <strong>This Book Is Anti-Racist<\/strong>. The individuals alleged the books contain illegal obscenity and requested Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey to issue warrants for the arrest of all school librarians working for the district. The books went through the district\u2019s reconsideration process. The review committee recommended retaining eight titles without restriction. After a split vote by the committee, <strong>Tricks<\/strong> and <strong>All Boys Aren\u2019t Blue<\/strong> now require parental permission for checkout.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Looking for Alaska<\/strong> was one of eight titles at the Pickens County Public Library (SC) that were targeted for censorship in 2024. Individuals spoke out at board meetings and wrote letters to the editor of <strong>The Pickens County Courier<\/strong> falsely claiming that the books were illegal, \u201cobscene,\u201d and \u201cmaterials harmful to children.\u201d  <strong>Drama<\/strong>, <strong>Flamer<\/strong>, <strong>Gender Queer<\/strong>, <strong>Forever<\/strong>, and <strong>Fade<\/strong> were retained without restriction. <strong>All Boys Aren\u2019t Blue<\/strong> and <strong>Looking for Alaska<\/strong> were moved from the Young Adult section to Adult Biography and Adult Fiction, respectively.<\/p>\n<h2>2024<\/h2>\n<p>Banned and challenged for LGBTQIA+ content and because it was considered sexually explicit.<\/p>\n<p>In August, the pressure group Freedom Fathers demanded removal of four titles from Douglas County Public Libraries (CO). They claimed the books contained \u201cinaccurate gender information\u201d and exposed readers to \u201can unnatural homosexual lifestyle.\u201d The titles, including <strong>All Boys Aren\u2019t Blue<\/strong>, were retained without restriction.<\/p>\n<h2>2023<\/h2>\n<p>Banned and challenged for LGBTQIA+ content and because it was considered sexually explicit.<\/p>\n<p>The Frisco Independent School District (TX) received requests for the reconsideration of 28 titles from state representative Jared Patterson. When 23 of them were retained on recommendation from review committees, Patterson appealed the decision. <strong>All Boys Aren\u2019t Blue<\/strong> was among the titles removed on appeal.<\/p>\n<p>Parents challenged 5 titles in Shawnee Heights Unified School District 450 (KS) libraries, including <strong>The Hate U Give<\/strong>, <strong>Gender Queer<\/strong>, and <strong>All Boys Aren\u2019t Blue<\/strong>. State senator Rick Kloos publicly stated that he supported efforts to remove <strong>Gender Queer<\/strong> and held a meeting with school superintendent Tim Hallacy to discuss the matter. All five titles were retained<\/p>\n<h2>2022<\/h2>\n<p>Banned and challenged for LGBTQIA+ content, profanity, and because it was considered sexually explicit.<\/p>\n<p><strong>All Boys Aren\u2019t Blue<\/strong> by George M. Johnson was one of five LGBTQIA+ titles challenged by a parent at the North Hunterdon-Voorhees (NJ) Regional High School District. The other titles were <strong>Fun Home<\/strong> by Alison Bechdel, <strong>Gender Queer: A Memoir<\/strong> by Maia Kobabe, <strong>This Book Is Gay<\/strong> by Juno Dawson, and <strong>Lawn Boy<\/strong> by Jonathan Evison. The parent read some snippets, called for audits, and threatened criminal charges for those responsible for providing \u201cevil, wicked\u201d content in the school. The school board voted to retain all five challenged LGBTQIA+ titles.<\/p>\n<p>At the Flagler (FL) Palm Coast High School, a school board member filed an obscenity complaint with the Sheriff\u2019s Office, which issued a statement that \u201cno crime [was] committed\u201d by including the book in public school libraries. A district committee voted unanimously to retain the title. The superintendent removed it permanently anyhow, although other challenged titles were retained.<\/p>\n<p>Utah Parents United created a post highlighting some pages with sexual content and saying that the book was available at the Alta High School in The Canyons (UT) School District. Then one person wrote an email challenging eight other titles. The school\u2019s reconsideration process called for any challenged book to remain on the shelf during review. However, all nine were removed without any committee input or public discussion. In an interesting follow-up, the ACLU threatened to file suit, and Utah Governor Spencer Cox suggested, \u201clet\u2019s pump the brakes on the idea of getting rid of books.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Wentzville (MO) R-IV School District created a committee to review challenges to several books, including  <strong>The Bluest Eye<\/strong> by Toni Morrison; <strong>All Boys Aren\u2019t Blue<\/strong> by George M. Johnson; <strong>Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic<\/strong> by Alison Bechdel; <strong>Heavy: An American Memoir<\/strong> by Kiese Laymon; <strong>Gabi, A Girl in Pieces<\/strong> by Isabel Quintero; <strong>Modern Romance: An Investigation<\/strong> by Aziz Ansari and Eric Klinenberg; <strong>Invisible Girl: A Novel<\/strong> by Lisa Jewell; and <strong>Lawn Boy<\/strong> by Jonathan Evison. Ignoring the committee\u2019s recommendations, the all-white school board voted to ban the book. The ACLU of Missouri sued the school district on behalf of two students.<\/p>\n<p>At the Bedford County (VA) Public Schools, Moms for Liberty challenged <strong>The Bluest Eye<\/strong> along with <strong>Beloved<\/strong>, also by Toni Morrison, plus <strong>The Kite Runner<\/strong> by Khaled Hosseini, <strong>The Glass Castle<\/strong> by Jeannette Walls, <strong>#MurderTrending<\/strong> by Gretchen McNeil, <strong>Two Boys Kissing<\/strong> by David Levithan, <strong>All Boys Aren\u2019t Blue<\/strong> by George M. Johnson, <strong>What My Mother Doesn\u2019t Know<\/strong> by Sonya Sones, <strong>Rick<\/strong> by Alex Gino, <strong>Freakboy<\/strong> by Kristin Elizabeth Clark, <strong>Love Drugged<\/strong> by James Klise, and <strong>Beautiful Music for Ugly Children<\/strong> by Kristin Cronn-Mills. The group said it objected to graphic depictions of sexual acts, violence, substance use, and LGBTQIA+ representation. Board members cited policy, which limited challenges to one book at a time. BCPS administrators and book review committees made the decision not to remove any of the challenged titles from school libraries.<\/p>\n<p>A group of parents distributed flyers containing excerpts and illustrations from this and other books at a meeting of the Rockwood (MO) School District Board. After the meeting, they submitted requests for reconsideration of <strong>This One Summer<\/strong> by Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki, <strong>All Boys Aren\u2019t Blue<\/strong> by George M. Johnson, <strong>Crank<\/strong> by Ellen Hopkins, <strong>Gender Queer: A Memoir<\/strong> by Maia Kobabe, <strong>The Haters<\/strong> by Jesse Andrews, <strong>Looking for Alaska<\/strong> by John Green, <strong>Where I End and You Begin<\/strong> by Preston Norton, <strong>Heroine<\/strong> by Mindy McGinnis, and <strong>The Breakaways<\/strong> by Cathy G. Johnson, claiming the books were pornographic. A review committee of two teachers, two librarians, a curriculum coordinator, a school board member, four parents, and two high school students voted to retain all challenged titles. However, The Breakaways was restricted to students in fourth grade and up.<\/p>\n<h2>On These Pages<\/h2>\n<p>A <strong>Banned<\/strong> book has been removed from a library, classroom, etc.<br \/>\nA <strong>Challenged<\/strong> book has been requested to be removed from a library, classroom, etc.<\/p>\n<h2>For additional information contact<\/h2>\n<p>Ron Titus, <a href=\"mailto:titus@marshall.edu\">titus@marshall.edu<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"tel:304-696-6575\">304-696-6575<\/a><\/p>\n<h2>Last updated<\/h2>\n<p>August 5, 2025<\/p>\n<p><!-- ** ** END RIGHT COLUMN *** *-->\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n<p><!-- *** * END FULL PAGE DIV * *** --><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":784,"featured_media":0,"parent":2039,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-full-width.php","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-11446","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/784"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11446"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11446\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15336,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11446\/revisions\/15336"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}