Maia Kobabe’s ‘Gender Queer,’ about growing up in Sonoma County, tops library group’s list of challenged books for third year

Nearly five years after it was published, a memoir about growing up in Sonoma County continues to stir up controversy at libraries across the country.

For the third year in a row, Maia Kobabe’s “Gender Queer” topped the American Library Association’s annual list of the “Top 10 Most Challenged Books of 2023.”

The graphic novel, an autobiography about Kobabe’s journey to identifying as nonbinary and asexual, was targeted for censorship 106 times in 2023 for LGBTQIA+ content claimed to be sexually explicit, according to the ALA’s report out April 8.

In an email to The Press Democrat Tuesday, Kobabe said “The freedom to read, the freedom to access information, and the freedom to learn are some of the most vital rights in this country.

“Removing books from schools and public libraries cuts off people’s access to knowledge about the wider world and about their own lives within it. This is especially true when the books being removed are about minority identities, or topics less commonly portrayed in popular culture. A book that might seem pointless to one reader might be lifesaving to another.”

Having grown up mostly outside Petaluma, Kobabe — who uses nonbinary neopronouns “e,” “em,” and “eir” — told The Press Democrat in 2021 that e had “a very relaxed and natural childhood” until e got eir first period at age 11 and became unhappy and confused by societal expectations and norms. Kobabe withdrew and turned to reading and sketching to cope with feelings of depression and dysmorphia.

The book chronicles Kobabe’s transition from adolescence to adulthood, including coming out, crushes and how hard it was being nonbinary in a world that largely sees gender as limited to man and woman.

In September 2021, a school board in Fairfax County, Virginia, decided “Gender Queer” was “pornography,” and pulled it from school shelves. Over the subsequent weeks, more than a half-dozen other states’ districts followed suit.

Since then, Kobabe’s book has remained the No. 1 most challenged book in the country, according to the ALA. But it’s far from the only one.

In its report, the ALA said 4,240 unique titles were challenged last year, up from 2,571 targeted in 2022. It was the highest number of titles targeted for censorship since the organization began compiling data more than 20 years ago.

According to the ALA, 28% of attempts to censor a book came from library patrons, with 24% coming from parents and 21% from what the ALA calls pressure groups. These attempts to censor take place at public libraries and school libraries, the association said.

Matt Villano contributed reporting to this story.