Five more publishers join suit against Iowa’s book banning, anti-GLBQT law

Five more publishers join suit against Iowa’s book banning, anti-GLBQT law

Apr 16 2024

Five publishers have joined the lawsuit filed last November 30 against Iowa over its book banning and anti-GLBQT law, meaning that plaintiffs now include all the Big Five U.S. publishers. The Iowa law would forbid school libraries and classrooms from carrying books describing or showing a “sex act,” with the exception of religious texts like the Bible; prohibit educators from discussing “gender identity” and “sexual orientation” with students from kindergarten through sixth grade; and require school administrators to notify parents when students ask to change anything relating to their gender identity, such as their names or pronouns.

The five additional publishers are Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Simon & Schuster, and Sourcebooks. Plaintiffs who filed the original lawsuit were Penguin Random House, authors Laurie Halse Anderson, John Green, Malindo Lo, and Jodi Picoult, the Iowa State Education Association, a high school student, her parent, and three educators; that suit focused on the book-banning aspects of the law. Another suit focusing on the anti-GLBQT aspects of the law was filed by seven students and the GLBT Youth in Iowa Schools Task Force, supported by the ACLU and Lambda Legal.

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