Scholastic admits to allowing schools to opt out of LGBTQ+ & BIPOC books

The publisher Scholastic recently sent a letter to children’s book authors and illustrators defending its policy allowing schools to opt out of offering “diverse” books on racial and LGBTQ+ issues at school book fairs.

One queer author is among those speaking out against the policy, accusing the billion-dollar bookseller of giving into “fascist” anti-LGBTQ+ book bans that particularly threaten the well-being of young transgender and nonbinary students.

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In a letter sent last Friday — and published by the feminist pop-culture and news site The Mary Sue — Scholastic Trade Publishing President Ellie Berger confirmed reports that the company has been segregating “diverse” books about LGBTQ+ and racial issues into a separate book fair case, giving schools the option of excluding the case from their book fairs.

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She clarified that these books are placed into a case called “Share Every Story, Celebrate Every Voice” and elementary schools are allowed to opt out of receiving this case. However, she noted that “not all diverse books” are located inside of one case in middle school fairs, writing, “There are many, many diverse titles throughout all cases.”

The 64 titles in the diverse case include “a children’s biography of Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson; a fantasy novel about a Lakota girl; a graphic novel featuring the Black Panther superhero; and a book about different family types, such as adoptive families and families with same-sex parents,” according to The New York Times.

She referred to this policy as part of “the difficult decisions made by our leadership… as schools and educators navigate” state laws forbidding LGBTQ+ and racial content in schools.

“These laws created an almost impossible dilemma,” Berger wrote. “We do not want to back away from these titles, but at the same time, we have to acknowledge that because of these devices of laws, teachers, librarians, and volunteers might be at risk of serious penalties if we ship these books to them without their knowledge and agreement.”

“The presence of these books would make individuals vulnerable to being fired, sued, or criminally prosecuted,” her letter continued. “Not to mention the verbal and physical attacks we’ve seen around this issue.”

Berger said that Scholastic continues to offer its book fairs with school censorship laws because “without this partnership, kids could be deprived of the opportunity to select their own reading material, which as research has shown plays a significant role in creating lifelong readers.”

She added that Scholastic leaders are “working overtime” with partners in the library, educational communities, and local bookstores to make diverse books available in places where laws restrict them. Berger also mentioned that Scholastic is working with PEN America, the American Association of Publishers, and other groups to fight such legislation.

“We are not and will not be complacent in the face of such attacks and the freedom to read,” she wrote.

NBC News reporter Mike Hixenbaugh called Scholastic’s statement “a striking illustration of how public education is being reshaped in America via pressure campaigns and legislation,” adding, “Take this mindset of fear, and imagine the potential impacts on curriculum, textbook development, and daily classroom instruction.”

One queer author is also among the growing number of voices opposing the policy.

Lesbian author and cartoonist Molly Knox Ostertag — a writer of the queer-inclusive Disney animated series The Owl House and several fantasy graphic novels and webcomics — said via Twitter that the policy “seems to be a good faith effort to protect teachers and librarians,” but called it “a grave miscalculation [that] doesn’t come across as anything but an attempt to compromise with, frankly, fascist laws.”

I've been sitting with the news that Scholastic is self-censoring their Book Fairs since Tuesday. On Thursday I was invited to speak at a Scholastic Graphix party, and this is what I said. It's an earnest plea for the company with whom I have made so many books to do better. https://t.co/ivwzfSR0zd pic.twitter.com/Kv5aJcNw1A

— Molly Knox Ostertag – Updates (@MollyOstertag) October 15, 2023

“Trans and nonbinary children have an elevated suicide risk – with 50% attempting, according to the [Human Rights Campaign] – for the simple reason that they can’t imagine a future for themselves,” Ostertag wrote. “When we send books that depict that future, we are sending a lifeline. I know. I’ve gotten the emails…. When you allow a single school official to make a choice, whether out of bigotry or fear, and sever that lifeline – when you make it easy for them to do — it is literally a matter of life and death.”

“A battle is being fought over the content of children’s books in America. It is not a battle we have started or chosen,” Ostertag continued. “It is being waged by a very small, very loud group of bigots who understand a truth we all know too — books and the ideas they contain are powerful.”

The Mary Sue writer Joan Zahra Dark asked, “Why is Scholastic caving to the whims of a few bigots in a very vocal minority? With record profits from 2022 onward in the hundreds of millions to billions worldwide, Scholastic is not exactly a small independent publisher that can’t afford these challenges. Marginalized authors are dealing with plenty of challenges to LGBTQ+ material and to books that address systemic racism as-is without publishers pre-emptively banning their books for them.”

Publishers Weekly noted that Scholastic is the largest operator of school book fairs in the U.S. The company is valued at $1.15 billion. In 2017, Vox reported that the publisher operated 120,000 fairs at schools across the country each year, though 2023’s number was still down about 15% from pre-pandemic levels.