“Taking Our Rights Away”: The Impact of Book Bans on Queer and Trans Students

• In Event: AER Roundtable Session Friday 1:45 pm - Gold 3
  In Roundtable Session: Pushing the Dialogue on Equity, Inclusion, and Justice in Educational Change

Abstract

This paper examines how book bans adversely affect queer and trans youth, with an emphasis on student perspectives—voices often overlooked in discourses dominated by political actors and parental concerns. Using critical ethnography conducted at a public high school in Utah, this study draws on in-depth interviews and immersive fieldwork with queer and trans students. Anchored in a theoretical framework of heteronormativity, the research reveals how book bans serve as systemic mechanisms of exclusion, undermining students’ identity, sense of belonging, and mental health. By foregrounding the narratives of youth participants, this paper demonstrates the power of qualitative inquiry to surface the lived realities of marginalized students and offers urgent insights for educators, researchers, and policymakers committed to educational change.

Authors

• Sonny Partola, University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point

• Nicole C. Wilson Steffes, University of Utah & Westminster University

• Rosie Ojeda, California Polytechnic State University - San Luis Obispo