Joe Biden still hasn’t named a “book ban coordinator” despite Pride Month promise

President Joe Biden hasn’t named a “book ban coordinator” to help oppose anti-LGBTQ+ censorship nationwide despite promising to do so over three months ago.

During a Pride Month announcement, Biden said that the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights would appoint a new coordinator to address “the growing threat that book bans pose for the civil rights of students.” This coordinator would remind local stakeholders that book bans against LGBTQ+- and racially-inclusive books may violate federal civil rights law.

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However, over three months have passed since then, students have begun returning to school, and no such coordinator has been named. When recently asked about it, out White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre directed reporters to the Education Department.

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An Education Department spokesperson declined to tell Politico when they intended to fill the coordinator position. Instead, the spokesperson said that in the coming weeks a “senior official” in the department would help enforce federal civil rights laws against book bans while offering school districts information, “resources, and training” about countering the bans.

“Book banning erodes our democracy, removes vital resources for student learning, and can contribute to the stigma and isolation that LGBTQI+ people and other communities face,” the White House said in a June press release originally announcing the coordinator position.

School bans on LGBTQ+ books have been “escalating dramatically” over the past year, the free-speech organization PEN America has reported. In the first half of the 2022-2023 school year, PEN America recorded 1,477 instances of individual books banned, affecting 874 unique titles. About 26% of the banned titles had LGBTQ+ characters or themes, and 30% discussed race, racism, or had characters of color, the organization said.

The bans have largely come from Republican politicians, conservative school boards, and so-called “parents’ rights” groups that have opposed such content as “woke” “indoctrination” that’s “age-inappropriate” or “pornographic” for school children.

“Today, state legislators are introducing — and in some cases passing — educational gag orders to censor teachers, proposals to track and monitor teachers, and mechanisms to facilitate book banning in school districts,” PEN America wrote. “At the same time, the scale and force of book banning in local communities is escalating dramatically.”

In 98% of all instances of schools banning books from library and classroom shelves, PEN America added, the schools involved didn’t follow best practice guidelines outlined by the American Library Association (ALA) and the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) to ensure that the bans didn’t violate First Amendment protections for free speech which prohibit government officials from banning or punishing free expression.

Even when school districts don’t outright ban books, the political campaigns of hostility against queer- and race-inclusive education can discourage teachers from discussing any potentially taboo topics. PEN America believes that librarians or teachers in numerous states are likely preemptively removing books or not recommending them in order to skirt controversy.