Newspaper framing of attempts to ban LGTBQ books in the U.S., U.K., and Ireland

Recent book bans in America and the UK grew to record numbers in 2023, with most of the banned books focusing on LGBTQ issues and characters. Conservative groups have worked to frame their efforts as “parents’ rights,” common-sense restrictions on ideas and language not suitable for young audiences, starting with campaigns to keep books with sexual topics out of public school libraries. Opponents of the bans argue that eliminating access to books suppresses the voices of non-heteronormative groups. One of the most frequently banned books became an especial focus in the early 2020s, and its author’s voice featured in British stories but rarely American news. Juno Dawson and her work This Book Is Gay became a voice for other authors of banned books, but our analysis shows authors’ voices are rarely heard in these stories and news outlets tend to frame the debate in somewhat predictable ways, setting opponents and ban supporters against each other with librarians caught in the middle. Our thematic analysis of 178 news stories published from 2014 to 2023 in which “This Book is Gay” appeared used Chat GPT as an intermediary “coder” and found five common frames in the stories.