Challenged and banned books go against First Amendment rights

When students go to the library, they are met with shelves upon shelves of books about an extremely wide variety of topics. But what few people know is that some of these books are prone to being challenged by parents, businesses, organizations, and others, and possibly never be seen on that shelf again. Books are frequently challenged and banned, with very popular titles being challenged without most of the public realizing it. The main reasons for books being challenged include obscenity of any kind, racism, violence, homosexuality, and conflicting values with the community that challenged the book.  

Sometimes, the books that are frequently banned are because the people who challenged those books do not agree with those values. For example, homosexuality has become the subject of the challenging of two of the top ten most frequently challenged books of 1990-1999, according to the American Library Association (ALA). The second most challenged book on this list—Daddy‘s Roommate—tells the story of a young boy whose father who started to live with his male partner. The ninth most challenged book—Heather Has Two Mommies—deals with a young girl named Heather and her two mothers and shows their life as a family. Both books were quickly pulled off shelves as people were worried that their children would be influenced to be homosexual. In doing this, they put the LGBTQ+ community in a negative light and shut down people’s ability to love who they love and live a life free of hate.  

Other challenges go as far as to interfering people’s First Amendment rights. According to the Legal Information Institute (law.cornell.edu), the First Amendment is stated in the Constitution as, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” Many of the books that were banned, according to libguides.com, include the encouragement of “damaging” lifestyles (e.g. homosexuality), religious affiliations, and political bias. These three reasons alone go against freedom of speech, freedom to petition the government, freedom of press, and freedom of religion.  

Most books are challenged or banned because the people banning the books don’t agree with their themes and/or morals. It is important for students and even adults to read books that contradict their beliefs so they can learn about a new perspective on life and see situations in a different lens. The only thing more educational than reading is learning about the perspective of everyone else.