Congratulations, we did it: 1,200 book bans in 2022.

The American Library Association (ALA) tracked 1,269 demands to censor library books and other resources last year, double that of 2021 and the highest in over 20 years; the highest since the ALA began tracking such things.

Of the titles reported for whatever supposed thought crimes, the vast majority were “written by or about members of the LGBTQIA+ community and people of color.” Slow clap.

Not unrelated, five schools in the Hilton Central School District in Rochester, NY, were evacuated on Wednesday after someone called in a poorly worded bomb threat (“replete with spelling and grammatical errors”). The culprit wished to express, via threats of violence, their concern that the book This Book Is Gay would harm children, while pipe bombs would save them, I suppose. How? Well, I read the note and it’s not entirely clear:

We will ensure all of you degenerates are killed which is why we placed a bobm (sic) in those people’s houses, they are responsible for the grooming of our children.

This has been today’s dispatch from BookBanHub.