LGBTQ+ manga banned in Florida county schools for being “inappropriate”

Sasaki and Miyano, a popular queer manga, has been banned in schools in Brevard County, Florida, because the contents have been deemed not appropriate for young readers.

Kicking off in 2016, Sasaki and Miyano has received 10 volumes so far, following the titular relationship between two teenage schoolboys. It comes from creator Shō Harusono, and has spawned one of the best LGBTQ+ anime ever.

In a vote conducted on August 27, 2024, the Brevard County School Board chose to ban Vol. 1 of the manga from school libraries, on the basis the core relationship is “inappropriate”, and the manga format causes issues for one of the board-members.

The book was tabled at the school board meeting for a discussion on its inclusion, starting at 47:40 in the above video, where District 1 representative and Board Chair Megan Wright voiced her opposition outright. “This book, it focuses on nothing other than a relationship that’s inappropriate,” she said.

“You start the book, you read it backwards. I mean, when you start reading a book, which we’ve been teaching our kids from day one, you start at the beginning and you read from left to right, bottom to top, not that book you don’t.”

She added that she believes this isn’t “the highest and best book that we can offer our kids”, then expressing concerns over where the plot goes after volume one.

Needless to say, Sasaki and Miyano isn’t in any way special in how it’s presented, manga and Japanese literature are simply written differently to the left-to-right, top-to-bottom format of European and American publishing. This is pointed out by District 5 representative, Katye Campbell.

“I don’t think there’s a problem with it being backwards because it’s Japanese, and it was a literal translation,” Campbell stated, after adding that she wouldn’t defend the manga either on the grounds that she thought it was “kinda stupid”.

It’s worth noting this was a split vote. Jennifer Jenkins, representative of District 5, disagreed with Wright’s comments. “I am not comfortable removing a book because we don’t understand why it’s being read in the opposite direction,” she said, pointing a risk of potential legal blowback.

In January of this year, a case was brought forward against Escambia County School Board, another part of Florida, for removing books in a way that violated First Amendment rights to free speech. PEN America, Penguin Random House, parents, and a selection of impacted authors are behind the legal action.

Campbell argues the context is different in this case, and the motion goes through three votes to two. Jenkins expressed her unhappiness on X/Twitter, writing: “Today in Brevard County we banned a book because our chair couldn’t understand why a Japanese translation was being read from right to left. Well that & she accidentally said the LGBTQ relationship was ‘inappropriate’.”