The LGBTQ+ book industry is struggling amid attacks by the Trump administration
The book industry is being impacted by Trump’s anti-DEI and anti-LGBTQ+ attacks (Canva)
The book industry is being impacted by Trump's anti-DEI and anti-LGBTQ+ attacks (Canva)
The Trump administration’s anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric is making it more difficult for authors and publishers to place queer stories on shelves, amid book bans sweeping across the US.
Since Trump returned to the White House for his second term in January 2025, he has signed several executive orders targeting the LGBTQ+ community – particularly the trans community – including proclaiming the official policy of the US is that there are “only two sexes”, banning transgender people from serving in the military, restricting gender-affirming healthcare for trans youngsters under the age 19 and barring trans women and girls from female sports. He has also moved to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programmes across the government and in the military.
The US government’s continued attacks on both the queer community and so-called ‘trans ideology’ and “the woke c***” has seen several big name US businesses – including Walmart, Target, Ford, Lowe’s, Harley-Davidson and Jack Daniel’s – drop their DEI policies, programmes and targets. It is a chilling effect that is impacting industries across the US, as well as business and the third sector in other countries such as the UK.
The publishing sector is no exception, with authors, literary agents and publishers all describing a climate in which it is more difficult to place queer stories, notably queer literature for young people, on shelves due to anti-DEI book bans.
Research carried out by PEN America, a not-for-profit organisation promoting freedom of expression, found book censorship in 2025 was “rampant and common”, with 6,870 book bans enacted during the 2024-25 school year, across 23 states and 87 public school districts.
“This is the first year in like a decade that I’ve had [rejection] responses from editors specifically citing that it’s difficult to place queer books in stores, and they’re being selective about acquiring queer stories,” Rebecca Podos, a senior literary agent at Neighborhood Literary and young adult and adult novelist, told The Hill in a lengthy feature on the topic.
In April 2025, the American Library Association (ALA) released its annual list of banned books and, unsurprisingly, LGBTQ+ focused literature topped the list.
Seven of 10 books banned last year had LGBTQ+ characters, while the top two – All Boys Aren’t Blue, by George M Johnson and Maia Kobabe’s Gender Queer – are memoirs by LGBTQ+ authors which have previously been banned or had their sale restricted in the US.
Both have featured on the list since 2021, with Gender Queer hitting the number-one spot three times since it was published in 2019.
Similarly Jim McCarthy, vice president of literary agency Dystel, Goderich & Bourret, cited an incident where a publisher passed on a project because they did not believe there would be enough of a market for the text amid book bans.
“This really feels like it’s been the first backwards step in terms of publishing worrying that they can’t access enough readers because of sort of broad cultural concerns about queer content,” McCarthy explained. “I can’t imagine that five or 10 years ago, I would have received a response like the one I received.”
Young adult novelist and creator of LGBTQ Reads, Dahlia Adler, also told the outlet that publishers “are safely going to go on shelves, that are not going to get banned, that are not going to have this kind of controversy”.
“I think queerness in big books is very largely being buried by publishers, not necessarily by authors,” she went on to say of changes she is seeing in the sector, particularly in how publishers announce new titles.
“I feel like that’s kind of my biggest takeaway of this round of the Trump administration.
“[Publishers] are not necessarily not buying them, but they’re not necessarily being loud about the fact that they did buy them, and they’re letting people find out they’re queer in other ways.”
Queer authors have previously spoken out about the negative impact that book bans have on LGBTQ+ young people.
“I know firsthand how vital education and support are for the LGBTQIA+ community,” author Owl Fisher, who grew up in the era of Section 28, told PinkNews.
“Growing up during a time when being different was deemed shameful and perverse, I struggled with a lack of understanding and vocabulary regarding my identity.
“If you don’t see anyone like you growing up, or only see negative depictions, you’re going to internalise that guilt and shame, and suppress who you are. That’s hugely damaging to people’s mental health.”
“Banning books with LGBTQIA+ themes echoes the actions of the Nazi book burners, who destroyed significant texts 90 years ago,” he added.
