A record-breaking 12,000 or more books have been banned or challenged in public schools across the U.S. in 2026 - up nearly 50 percent since 2025. However, the panelists for the “Get Your Bans Off Our Books” panel agree that it’s probably more.
Kicking off New York Comic Con in the Pride Lounge, a space sponsored by SPI Marketing with programming led by Geeks OUT, a panel of educators, legal experts and comics industry consultants speaking to an audience of composed of comics fans, educators and librarians discussed the rising threats of censorship to comics and books, specifically those with LGBTQIA+ content.
Ban off Our Books Panel
“Every ban that has made its way across my desk has been successful… every single one of those, except for one, has been LGBTQ,” said Melissa Jacobs, director of library services for the New York City school library system.
“The things that make me worry are the books that didn’t get to my desk. The administrators that said ok I’ll take that book off the shelves so that way we don’t have a problem. Or, that they’ll just close the library and now we don’t have issues”
Thomas Knowlton, school librarian at the New York High School of Fashion said that being able to curate and manage a library that reflects student requests and needs, and providing students books to read was a critical part of education.
“When I give a kid a book and maybe I don’t think anything of it, but then they come back to me and say ‘oh my gosh I’m going to read everything by them’, said Knowlton.
“And that’s why it’s so sad about comics and books being banned, those are the most accessible books as you know for students. And if they lose the one trans comic book that we have in the library, then there might not be another story that they can access with their particular reading level and life experience.”
Beyond the ongoing censorship and challenges to books in schools, the legal linguistic playing field also has its fair share of frustrations, according to Jeff Trexler, director of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.
“We talk about book bans and comic bans here in our panels all the time,” said Trexler. “But then if I go to court it’s a challenge. It’s a restriction. There are judges who will go off on a five page descriptions as to why its not a ‘ban’ and you lose the case in an argument about terminology rather than on the legal principle.”
Moderator Gina Gagliano said that only five to ten years ago, CBLDF was getting up to three cases a year, and now the caseload has exploded. According to Trexler, cases for bans, restrictions, blocks and censorship have expanded to include even aspects of distribution.
So what can librarians and educators do to keep books on shelves?
Have the conversation, says Stephanie Anderson, associate director of selection in book operations for the New York Public Library and Brooklyn Public Library.
Anderson said branch librarians are trained to have those kinds of sensitive conversations with individuals upset by book content or even removing books from display as a form of soft censorship.
“We’ve had significant challenges in New York City, in our schools and in our public libraries
And I think that being prepared for that and knowing how to navigate that first and foremost, if you have a challenge in your school you have to contact me. We are here to support you before it becomes a huge issue,” said Jacobs.
“You can say that you don’t want to read that book, but you can’t say that you want to take it off the shelves so nobody reads that book.”
