Newly filed legislation would allow North Carolina public school librarians to be criminally prosecuted on charges that they’re providing library books that are “harmful to minors.”

The legislation comes as groups such as the N.C. Values Coalition and Moms for Liberty have been seeking legislation to subject public schools to the state’s obscenity laws. In 2023, the Wake County chapter of Moms for Liberty unsuccessfully filed 189 challenges to have 20 books removed from Wake County school libraries.

“We’re talking ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ or word-by-word instructional manuals for every kind of fetish that you can imagine for kids in school,” Julie Page, the Wake County chapter chair of Moms for Liberty at the time, claimed in a 2023 interview.

If House Bill 595 becomes law, here are example of some of the books that schools could be forced to remove from their libraries, based on the Moms for Liberty challenges:

List of targeted books

—“All Boys Aren’t Blue” by George M. Johnson. It’s a memoir written by a queer, Black author who discusses growing up among a family with other queer members in it.

—“Blankets” by Craig Thompson. It’s an autobiographical story of a young man coming of age in a rigorously fundamentalist Christian family.

—“Breathless” by Jennifer Niven. It’s about an 18-year-old girl’s summer romance on a remote island.

—“Doing It! Let’s Talk About Sex” by Hannah Whitton. The book describes itself as a educational introduction to sex, as well as a guidebook for those who are already sexually active, with topics such as porn, contraception and sex shaming.

—“Flamer” by Mike Curato. It’s a semi-autobiographical graphic novel about a young man coming to terms with being gay.

—“Gender Queer: A Memoir” by Maia Kobabe. It’s a graphic novel autobiography that explores Kobabe’s path to identifying as nonbinary and asexual. It was cited by then-North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson because of some illustrations of people having sex.

—“Identical” by Ellen Hopkins. It’s a novel about 16-year-old twin sisters who’ve been the victims of sexual abuse and engage in drug abuse and self-harm because of the pain they’ve experienced.

—“It’s Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex, Gender, and Sexual Health”” by Robie H. Harris. The book is meant to teach children 10 and older about sexual health.

—“Jack of Hearts (and other parts)“ by L.C Rosen. The novel is about a queer high school student who is stalked after starting a teen sex-advice column for an online site.

—“Jesus Land” by Julia Scheeres. The book is about the author’s experiences of attending a strict religious reform school in the Dominican Republic with her adopted brother.

—“Lawn Boy” by Jonathan Evison. It’s a coming-of-age story about a 22-year-old man who is growing up in poverty. It’s been challenged for scenes such as describing how two young boys engaged in oral sex while at a youth group gathering at their church.

—“Life Is Funny” by E.R. Frank. The novel traces the lives of 11 teenagers growing up in a Brooklyn neighborhood over a seven-year period as they experience a series of challenges.

—“Me and Earl and the Dying Girl” by Jesse Andrews. It’s about a teen who makes a movie about a classmate he’s befriended who has been diagnosed with leukemia.

—“Push” by Sapphire. The novel tells the story of a 16-year-old pregnant teen living in Harlem who was raped by her father.

—“Sex Plus: Learning, Loving, and Enjoying Your Body” by Laci Green. The book covers issues and concerns that go along with sexuality: anatomy, consent, LGBTQ issues, pregnancy prevention, sexual empowerment, healthy relationships and more, according to Harper Collins Publishers.

—“Shine” by Lauren Myracle. The novel follows a teenager who is investigating a hate crime involving the beating and near-death of her gay best friend in Black Creek in Wilson County.

—“This Book Is Gay” by Juno Dawson. The nonfiction book is intended as an instruction manual for those not finding answers to questions about gender, sex and sexuality.

—“Tricks” by Ellen Hopkins. The novel follows the stories of five teenagers who fall into the world of prostitution.

—“What Girls Are Made Of” by Elana K. Arnold. The novel is described as an examination of what it means to be a girl and a woman as it follows the sexual experiences of a teenage girl.

Challenged books defended

These 20 books often make annual lists of most-banned books due to their content. Some speakers have regularly shown up at school board meetings to read excerpts from books they say are too sexually explicit to be in school libraries.

Wake County school librarians have spoken at multiple school board meetings saying that students need to see themselves represented in a diverse selection of library books.

The Wake County school system has rejected all 189 challenges from Moms for Liberty on the grounds that they were not filed by parents at those schools. But some challenges made their way to the school board.

In 2022, a Wake County school board panel upheld keeping “Lawn Boy” after saying people who focused on the sex scenes missed the main themes about striving for self-sufficiency and overcoming trauma.

In 2022, the Orange County school board voted to keep “Gender Queer” and “Lawn Boy” in high school libraries. Board members said people should “read them as a whole, not taking them out of context, highlighting a line or a paragraph here or there.”

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