Following the release of an executive order signed by President Donald Trump on January 20, which asserts that his administration will implement "language and policies that recognize women are biologically female, and men are biologically male," a large number of major organizations in the book business and literary world released a statement decrying the move. Among them are the American Booksellers Association, Audio Publishers Association, Comic Book Legal Defense fund, EveryLibrary, Independent Book Publishers Association, IngramSpark, National Book Critics Circle, PEN America, PubWest, Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, and many more.

The statement and signatories are reprinted below in full.

Statement on the Trump Administration’s January 20, 2025 Executive Order Targeting Transgender, Intersex, Nonbinary, and Gender-Nonconforming Americans

On January 20, the White House issued an executive order stating that the United States government will only recognize two sexes, male and female, as defined “at conception.” The ripple effect of this order will undoubtedly affect public schools, public libraries, and the literature that is shelved in both.

Among the many harms it causes, the order targeting transgender, intersex, nonbinary, and gender nonconforming Americans threatens unconstitutional censorship that could have a grave impact on literature for years to come. In dismissing trans, intersex, and nonbinary identities, the order blacklists LGBTQIA+ literature and invites the government to dictate the perspectives, beliefs, and identities that can exist in public forums receiving federal funding, amounting to financial coercion through the arbitrary withholding of funds. This censorship may begin with LGBTQIA+ perspectives, but it will not end there: allowing the government to censor one group erodes the First Amendment rights of all Americans, creating a precedent for silencing dissenting voices.

If allowed to stand, the order will create new funding requirements imposed not only on federal entities, but private citizens and institutions who contract with them. Those requirements can and will be manipulated to dictate speech. The broader chilling effect on literature could be even harder to undo. Writers rely on funding from sources like the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities, as well as the state-level institutions they fund.

Trans, nonbinary, and intersex experience is vastly underrepresented in literature but disproportionately targeted by bans. During the 2022-2023 school year, 30% of books banned included LGBTQIA+ characters or themes. Such censorship robs us of perspectives that enrich the American story. Though the executive order in question tries to paint LGBTQIA+ people and allies as bullies enforcing their perspective on others through “legal and other socially coercive means,” that’s exactly what the order itself does, just as book-banning pressure groups have done since 2020 in school boards and libraries around the country. The fate of trans, intersex, and nonbinary people is not a political ideology, it’s a matter of human rights, civil rights, and freedom of expression. Government erosion of those rights should concern all Americans, regardless of their investment in LGBTQIA+ literature specifically.

This executive order is censorship, pure and simple, and it has no place in a free society. It must be rescinded or stayed as soon as possible, and at the latest, before the earliest implementation deadline, February 19, 2025. Financially blacklisting trans, intersex, and non-binary perspectives will rob us of a vital literature yet to be written while insulting the dignity of LGBTQIA+ people everywhere. This return to McCarthyism by other means is a leap backwards to a grim chapter of American history.

Sincerely, the undersigned,

American Booksellers Association

American Booksellers for Free Expression

Andrews McMeel

Annie's Foundation

Audio Publishers Association

Authors Against Book Bans

Berry Powell Press

Cardinal Rule Press

Charlesbridge Publishing

Chestnut Publishing House

Comic Book Legal Defense Fund

Deborah Sloan and Company and Kidsbuzz

Developmental Texts

Empowering Latino Futures

EveryLibrary

Firewater Media Group

Florida Freedom to Read Project

Foreword Reviews

Freedom to Read Project

Gryphon Publishing Consulting, LLC

Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA)

IngramSpark

Judging by the Cover: A Bookstore

Lafayette Citizens Against Censorship

Lambda Literary

Latino 247 Media Group

Lee Wind, author

Levine Querido

Library Futures

Livingston Parish Library Alliance

Louisiana Citizens Against Censorship

Macmillan Children's Publishing Group

The National Book Critics Circle

National Coalition Against Censorship

NorthSouth Books

Nosy Crow

Patagonia

Publishers and Writers of San Diego and Orange County

PEN America

PFLAG Fresno

PubWest

Rattling Good Yarns Press

Read Freely Alabama

Red Comet Press LLC

Rutherford County Library Alliance

Sara Paretsky, Writer

Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators

SEAT

SparkPoint Studio

St Tammany Library Alliance

Stone Bridge Press

Texas Freedom to Read Project

Walker Books Group for Candlewick Press, Holiday House Books, and Peachtree Publishing

We Need Diverse Books