Contesting Queer Books: Analyzing the Discourses in Public Comment Sections at School Board Meetings

Public comment sections at school board meetings have become a forum for parents and community members to passionately oppose books in school libraries. This study extends the work of scholars researching censorship and book banning attempts by locating the discourses circulating in their arguments against LGBTQ+ topics and themes in queer books. Critical discourse analysis, alongside queer theories of adolescence, is used to analyze the public comment section during school board meetings in 10 districts in the United States. We identified four themes contained in these discourses: challengers (1) positioning themselves as experts while discrediting the expertise of librarians, (2) overstating the harm that comes from reading queer books, (3) repurposing liberal discourse to support a conservative ideology, and (4) constructing queer books as antithetical to the goal of education to produce productive citizens. Ultimately we examine how these discourses undermine public education and disenfranchise LGBTQ+ youth in schools and then discuss the implications for those attempting to combat book challenges in public schools.