LGBTQ+ book bans are hitting California schools. How teachers can fight back
The front lines of the culture war in public schools may be in Florida and Texas, but efforts to ban books have spread from coast to coast. According to the nonprofit PEN America advocacy group, school districts banned 1,477 books in the last half of 2022, raising the total to nearly 4,000 since July 2021.
The battle has come to California as well. For example, the Temecula Valley school board voted in May to reject a curriculum that included a social studies book because it mentioned slain San Francisco supervisor and LGBTQ+ activist Harvey Milk.
Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has railed , threatened to fine the district and directly to its students if the school board didn't implement the textbooks by the start shortly thereafter, agreeing to adopt the curriculum.
