Newspaper Framing of Attempts to Ban LGBTQ Books
View the research summary as a pdf.
Overview:
This research investigates how newspapers in the U.S., U.K., and Ireland have framed the growing movement to ban LGBTQ-themed books, focusing on the frequently challenged title This Book is Gay by Juno Dawson. The researchers analyzed narratives and themes embedded in media coverage of book bans, comparing the differing perspectives of conservative groups, book ban opponents, librarians, and authors. Media framing of attempts to ban LGBTQ books often emphasized parental rights versus the suppression of voices. This put librarians in a difficult middle ground.
Methodology:
Researchers collected 178 items using the Nexis Uni database, including briefs, features, standard articles, and columns. Researchers used the search term 'This Book is Gay' and limited findings to mainstream news outlets from the U.S., U.K., and Ireland, covering content from the year of the book’s publication (2014) through 2023. Eighty-nine news items from the U.S. and 89 from the U.K. and Ireland were used for analysis.
Using thematic analysis, researchers followed Braun and Clarke’s six-step coding process¹: reading the data, identifying patterns, grouping similar ideas, refining those groups, naming the themes, and writing up their findings. They used ChatGPT as a third coder to spot common themes in the articles. It helped confirm what the researchers had found and refined some prevalent themes. The authors identified three common themes: Explicit Content, Political/Ideological, and Victims and Villains.
Findings:
Three dominant themes highlight how media narratives shape public understanding of book censorship and LGBTQ representation.
Explicit Content
The publication of Dawson’s book and similar titles was perceived as mainly humorous and educational in the U.K. and Irish media in the 2010s. However, opposition increased after 2020, coinciding with the American Library Association’s busiest year tracking book bans in the U.S.
By 2023, U.S. media coverage increasingly highlighted and quoted specific language from Dawson’s book. In Idaho, a group of legislators wanted the state’s Commission for Libraries to withdraw from the national American Library Association because it had approved This Book is Gay and others with sexual, especially LGBTQ themes. Concerns about explicit content in Dawson’s book also led to bans in some Florida schools, with opponents arguing that objections stemmed from sexual content rather than LGBTQ themes.
Victims and Villains
Media coverage across the U.K., Ireland, and the U.S. frequently framed book ban activists as concerned primarily with protecting children from victimization, and librarians and educators as promoters of premature sexualization or “liberal” ideas. At the same time, articles that presented the bans as undesirable inverted the victim versus villain frame by describing how librarians in schools and public libraries were victimized, facing harassment and intimidation from some opponents of what they considered objectionable books.
Political and Ideological Motivations
Political and ideological arguments surrounding book banning in the U.S. have intensified with growing pressures for book bans in various states. A 2023 article in The Independent highlighted how conservative supporters in states like Wyoming, Montana, Missouri, and Texas have pressured libraries to sever ties with the American Library Association due to its opposition to book bans. The critics argue the ALA has become ideologically driven, while the ALA defends its mission to protect access to diverse literature and uphold the public’s right to read.
Coverage from Irish and U.K. media also explores U.S. book bans, with one Mail on Sunday opinion piece calling censorship cowardly but urging deeper discussion about how certain books are recommended for children. Another U.K. story focused on Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law and its impact on school libraries, noting that titles such as Paradise Lost, Catch-22, The Fault in Our Stars, and some Shakespeare have been removed. The debate reflects a broader ideological struggle over education, public institutions, and the boundaries of free expression.
Key Takeaways:
The debate on book bans originated in the U.S. and has now spread internationally in a shift to more conservative portrayals. Recent news coverage in the U.S., the U.K., and Ireland has framed book banning primarily as an issue of parental rights and social suitability, rather than a censorship issue affecting librarians and teachers. In media discussions, children are rarely visible, reflecting the idea that teenagers need protection and can’t speak for themselves. Also rarely depicted were the harms the children faced. Often, the objections were to the presence of the books, not specific class assignments or required readings.
Books that challenge traditional gender norms and heteronormativity are being removed from school settings, but not from public access overall, aligning with prior studies on modern book bans. This push seems to coincide with a societal shift toward reinforcing Western gender norms during the pandemic. It may also be a reaction to policies granting more rights to non-heterosexual people in the U.S., Ireland, and the U.K.
Media coverage of book bans tends to amplify the viewpoints of activists and school officials, citing concerns about sexually explicit material and often lacking objective standards, while leaving out perspectives from authors, publishers, and LGBTQ+ individuals. This reflects dominant groups shaping marginalized communities' narrative. Book-banning activists are turning education and children’s books into major political issues. By repeating the language and ideas of these activists, news outlets help set the public agenda, not just by reporting conflict, but by shaping when and how it appears in the news.
Authors:
Steve Bien-Aimé, Ph. D., assistant professor in the William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications, University of Kansas, adjunct professor with The Poynter Institute, bienaime@ku.edu
Laura H Marshall, Ph. D., assistant professor in the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, lhmarshall@ncat.edu
Reference:
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2014). What can “thematic analysis” offer health and wellbeing researchers? International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well-Being, 9(1). https://doi.org/10.3402/qhw.v9.26152
Learn More:
The full version of this paper was published in Media, Culture, and Society. https://doi.org/10.1177/01634437251331901
Institute for Policy & Social Research, University of Kansas, ipsr.ku.edu