LGBTQ themes found in half of the past decade's 20 most-banned books

Books with LGBTQ themes — from popular children's book “And Tango Makes Three” to Pulitzer Prize-winner “The Color Purple” — are prominently featured on the American Library Association’s newly released list of the Top 100 Most Banned and Challenged Books of the past decade.

Titles with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer themes, including “George” by Alex Gino, “I Am Jazz” by Jazz Jennings and Jessica Herthel, and “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” by Stephen Chbosky, composed half of the list’s top 20 and about a quarter of the top 100.

The list was released earlier this week by the library association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom, which has been tracking efforts to ban books from libraries and schools for the past 30 years. The release of its latest list coincides with Banned Books Week, an annual event seeking to draw attention to literary censorship.