{"id":13387,"date":"2023-07-19T09:18:16","date_gmt":"2023-07-19T13:18:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/library\/?page_id=13387"},"modified":"2025-08-05T10:47:28","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T14:47:28","slug":"flamer","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/library\/bannedbooks\/flamer\/","title":{"rendered":"Banned Books 2025 &#8211; Flamer"},"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\/2023\/07\/flamer.jpg\" alt=\"flamer cover\" width=\"304\" height=\"475\" \/><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mulibiiidb.marshall.edu\/record=b2266576~S12\">Held at Marshall (Drinko &#8211; PZ7.7.C876 Fl 2020)<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/cabellcounty.ent.sirsi.net\/client\/en_US\/cabell\/search\/results?qu=flamer&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>The Mission Consolidated Independent School District (TX) removed 589 titles including <strong>Flamer<\/strong> from school libraries after an email from Christian nationalists characterized the books as \u201cfilthy and evil.\u201d The district did not review any of the titles prior to banning them. According to <strong>The Texas Tribune<\/strong>, superintendent Carol G. Perez replied to the email within five minutes, thanking Citizens Defending Freedom and the Remnant Alliance for identifying the books and promising to remove them.<\/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<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<h2>2024<\/h2>\n<p>Banned and challenged for LGBTQIA+ content and because it was considered sexually explicit.<\/p>\n<p>Set at a Boy Scout summer camp in 1995, Flamer tells the tale of a Filipino American navigating bullying and body image insecurities, as he reconciles his conservative religious upbringing with his homosexuality. On November 21, Take Back Our<br \/>\nSchools, in association with Advocates for D20 Kids, filed a criminal complaint against Academy School District 20 (CO), alleging that <strong>Flamer<\/strong> and six other library titles violated state and federal obscenity laws. Earlier in the year, Advocates for D20 Kids challenged<br \/>\nmore than 100 titles identified using a book rating site created by anti-government extremists. Following a comprehensive legal review, the Office of the District Attorney serving El Paso and Teller counties issued a statement that the claims made by Take Back Our Schools were not supported by evidence and that it would be unethical to prosecute over these books. The DA\u2019s Office wrote that, \u201cThe criminal justice system in the United States should not be weaponized against political or social opponents based simply on disagreements, and the misuse of the prosecution process only erodes trust in an essential function of our shared government.\u201d  Despite this determination, the district banned several titles from school libraries and now requires parental permission for others.<\/p>\n<h2>2023<\/h2>\n<p>Banned and challenged for LGBTQIA+ content and because it was considered sexually explicit.<\/p>\n<p>Starting on September 13, members of the group Let\u2019s Talk Hempfield began reading excerpts from <strong>Flamer<\/strong> and other titles during the public comments section of Hempfield School District board meetings in Landisville, PA. On November 22, they submitted seven police<br \/>\nreports against the Hempfield High School, claiming that <strong>Flamer<\/strong>, <strong>Push<\/strong> by Sapphire, and <strong>Beyond Magenta<\/strong> by Susan Kuklin were \u201cpornography\u201d and \u201cobscene material.\u201d  The district attorney investigated, determined the books were neither<br \/>\npornographic nor obscene, and did not file charges. While nine books were targeted during public comments and through police reports, no formal requests for reconsideration were ever submitted,<\/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-13387","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13387","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=13387"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13387\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15348,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13387\/revisions\/15348"}],"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=13387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}