county that s banned books. i m joined now by suzanne nossel she s the ceo of pan america, who has two children in that district and is also plaintiff in the suit. good have you both here. let me start with you in terms of level setting on these bookends, and whether. happening in florida. there s a little bit of ambiguity here, they pass a law that essentially routinizes but then the state doesn t have to take credit for it happening? how does it actually happen, what s the contestation in your lawsuit? sure, there are two flaws in lawyer what we call the don t say gay law, the law that prohibits discussion of lgbtq topics in schools and then a law that does similarly, when it comes to discussions about race that are contentious, that could make somebody feel perhaps guilty about the race. and what those two laws have
essentially routinizes parental complaints as a means of getting books removed, but the states doesn t have to take credit for it happening? how does it actually happen, and what is the condensation of your lawsuit? sure, there are two laws and, florida what we call the don t say gay law, the law that prohibits discussion of lgbtq topics in schools and then a law that does similarly when it comes to discussions about race that are contentious, that could make somebody feel perhaps guilty about their race. and what those two laws have done is create an enabling environment for book banning. and in many districts, as you, say it takes only a single individual, because it wouldn t necessarily have to be apparent to launch an objection, and that objections of gorman s book is illustrative, it s a few lines scribbled out. the person is clearly not read the poem, they don t give any detail. and that is enough to get a book pulled from the shelves for a review process that can
started happening in back rooms behind closed doors. unfortunately there was a lawsuit filed and we know the result of that lawsuit. now and again. this is not unique to texas, right? i mean, the american library association reported more than 1200 book challenges nationwide, just in 2022. that is the most since the group started tracking them. what 20 years ago? why are we seeing this trend? yeah you know, i mean, this all started in texas. back in the fall of 2021. we became aware that there was a movement underfoot to really sort of ferret out titles and authors and content that had to do with l g b t q topics and , um so it pan america and ella have both reported that there are very organized groups sweeping across the country to try to get these titles removed. um from our library shelves and
think we are saying having a stilted view or tainted view of those race relations, we don t want that in there. compiled a list of about 850 books sent to texas school districts as a guideline for review. more than half dealing with lgbtq topics, also race and sex education. how did you come up with 150 or so books that are on that list? yeah, i appreciate that question, we ve been very consistent, ever since that come out with the nature of the investigative committee, we don t indulge the inner workings of how it came up with that. what percentage of those books, if you had ballpark, have you read yourself? not very many of those, again, you don t need to read them to know that they either have to deal with race or sexuality. they re trying to keep these kids locked in a box, like, i m part korean, so i ve had to deal with a lot of the different racial stuff that is in books like these. many students at this meeting belong to the leander