traverse390 asks:

Are we at risk of censorship of LGBTQ+/adult material re: U.S. 2025 federal policies?

The short answer to your question is yes. Of course, there is a risk of increased censorship of LGBQT+ and "adult material" in 2025 and beyond for those of you living in the United States.

The worrying trend of banning books in schools and public libraries across the United States will worsen before it gets better. The Comic Book Journal reported in September that:

"The American Library Association's Office of Intellectual Freedom, which tracks book challenges and bans around the U.S., recorded that 378 different graphic novels were threatened with bans or challenges in 2023, with a total of 1,020 total censorship attempts. In the last three years, the numbers have seen a huge jump – 2023's total censorship attempts are twenty times what they were just three years ago in 2020."

In March last year, The Guardian reported on the recent American Libraries Association report covering all of 2023's known book bans. Amongst other things, the report detailed "Seventeen states [that] saw attempts to ban more than 100 books: Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and Wisconsin."

Why is the banning of books so prevalent across American public schools and libraries?

Sadly! The banning of books and the occasional outright burning of them has been a regular occurrence throughout American history. Despite its relatively young age as a country, the USA has been banning books pretty much from the get-go. Think about it this way. The first white Europeans arrived in the country and settled in Jamestown, Virginia in 1607 and these same "Founders" banned their first book in 1637.

The first book ever to be banned in the United States was New English Canaan by Thomas Morton, who established an early colony in Massachusetts where settlers and native people co-existed fairly harmoniously. Morton espoused a more pragmatic approach to colonization with the land's original inhabitants. This was seen as a threat by the Puritan settlers, and Morton was subsequently twice exiled back to England, where he wrote New English Canaan. He was not a white savior of any kind. He was a fur trader and businessman, and most of the book describes the "opportunities" the New World presented to entrepreneurial readers. Nonetheless, his pragmatic views on peaceful co-existence with native people were seen as a threat to the fabric of the new society the Puritans were attempting to build, and he was punished for it.

It is the fear that certain types of ideas, practices, and beliefs can "undermine" the cultural fabric of America that drives book bans. So! It comes as no surprise that graphic novels that depict "non-traditional" romantic and erotic relationships and/or characters who are non-conformist to the hetero-dominant culture will be targeted by censorious organizations and individuals.

While I wish to focus specifically on the type of material that matters to you in your question, I would like to remind everyone that it isn't just LGBTQ+ material that is being banned. Far from it…

The most recent high-profile case of statewide book banning, including comics and manga, happened last year in Tennessee when the state legislature brought in the HB843 mandate. Books in school libraries must be suitable for the age and maturity levels of the students. Some of the types of content deemed inappropriate for school-age children include any type of nudity, "descriptions or depictions of sexual excitement," excessive violence, and of course, LGBTQ-related subjects.

ANN reported on the mandate at the time that includes the first eight volumes of Assassination Classroom, Jujutsu Kaisen, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, My Hero Academia: Vigilantes (volumes 1 and 3), all of Attack on Titan, and Akira, which really pisses me off. Rumiko Takahashi's Inuyasha is also on the banned books list in Tennessee, which is a perennial favorite of many younger readers. It contains some sexually suggestive moments, and some of the key characters, including the protagonist, possess an element of what one could argue is gender fluidity, but it is incredibly subtle, and I am genuinely surprised it made it onto this list.

The depiction of LGBTQ characters in manga is not uncommon, and so you have every right to worry about whether more works could be banned in the future. Manga like Sailor Moon, Claudine, Hunter X Hunter, and Rose of Versailles vary in their depictions of same-s*x couples and/or openly trans characters. Some depictions are more overt, others are more subtle, coded even. Some are serious and core to the story. Other characters provide light relief. Nonetheless! They exist and they are featured in some of the most popular and important works of the past forty years, which I find surprising because Japan is also a socially conservative country. For these works and for these characters to exist, and be known and popular with readers is remarkable and a testament to the fact that the majority don't have major issues with depictions of "alternative lifestyles" in literature, contrary to what much of the media and some politicians tell us.

ScreenRant reported in November that Richmond County School District in North Carolina recently banned (pending a review) Unico: Awakening Volume 1, the new reimaging of Osama Tezuka's classic manga by Samuel Sattin and illustrator, Gurihiru following a complaint from a "concerned parent." The parent's six-year-old son purchased a copy of the manga at a local Scholastic Book Fair, and she was "shocked to discover depictions of animal cruelty (I hope they never read Tezuka's Buddha Volume 1. That poor bunny!) and gun violence".

The book ban movement in the USA over recent years has most definitely grown, and as The Guardian reports it is "particularly prevalent in Republican-led states, as religious-political activism gains strength," but the canceling, boycotting, and banning of pop culture in your country is something that unfortunately is a "both sides" issue, and it cuts to the bone of your First Amendment rights. The more organized book banners know this, and while many of us may wonder whether your federal law-makers might seek to increase the scope of these bans, it isn't necessary to achieve the ultimate goal of reducing access to what they may consider to be "dangerous" and/or "unsuitable" reading material for children and young adults. The market will ultimately decide what reading material you can have access to, and unfortunately, book banners know this.

The Unico manga is a case in point. School libraries never used to hold graphic novels or manga in them. Public libraries barely did either. Unico is a flagship manga title for Scholastic's Graphix imprint, which is dedicated to publishing creator-owned graphic novels for early, middle-grade, and young adult readers. Graphix launched in 2005 with Jeff Smith's epic series, BONE #1: Out From Boneville. This imprint came about in part because of the huge shift in boy's reading habits starting in the late 90s. This is when I, as a 15-year-old, first discovered "edgier" books like Alan Moore's V for Vendetta and The Killing Joke in my local library.

This recent ban, "pending review," of Unico is noteworthy because Scholastic is the world's largest publisher and distributor of children's books and a major supplier of books to school libraries. They have a better understanding of what is and isn't acceptable when it comes to age-appropriate literature for school-age children than almost any other publisher. Censorship is a slippery slope, and what one parent may find unacceptable for their six-year-old to read is not necessarily the same as another parent who also monitors what content their kids are consuming. I wanted to use Unico as an example of censorship that isn't driven by an organization, and which doesn't seem politically or religiously motivated.

America's moral majority has been at war with comics as a corrupting influence since the early 1950s and what is now commonly referred to as the "Moral Panic," which was a reaction by the press, religious groups, and politicians against what many considered to be the gradual decline in standards of decency and morality in the media and the arts. Especially film-making and comic books. This moral panic also coincided with a rise in reporting around juvenile delinquency. Senate hearings were held, and miles of column inches were printed, resulting in the voluntary implementation of the Comics Code Authority, which was a self-policing and self-censoring program committed to by all of the major comics magazine publishers at the time. Unbelievably, "The Code" continued well into the 2000s with the final holdouts, DC and Bongo Comics, discontinuing their carrying of the unmistakable CCA badge on every comic cover they printed.

What concerns me is that with your country's rightwards political momentum when it comes to issues of identity and culture, alongside its anti-globalization economic policies, increasing downward pressure on manga and comics publishing will impact readers well beyond the USA's borders. If America sneezes, the rest of the world catches a cold. Less than 21% of comics, manga, and graphic novels are currently printed within the USA. If aggressive tariffs are brought in against the majority of America's major international trading partners, including China, where 24% of domestic publishers print their books, the price of the average tankoban is likely to increase considerably. This will mean lower print sales. Combine this with potentially more states banning more manga, and it isn't out of the question that some books may be discontinued and others not printed at all. And sorry, Canadians, Aussies, and Brits, but if fewer books are published in the USA, that means fewer titles for you, too.

I abhor the idea that a book can be dangerous, and I find it ridiculous to believe that a comic or a book can fundamentally change the reader's sexual or gender identity. I've read a lot of books in my lifetime, and none of them caused me to become a straight, cis-hetero male. I am just one, and that identity has, in all likelihood, influenced what types of comics, books, novels, etc. I like to read, as well as what types of movies, series, animation, etc. I like to watch the types of video games I like to play. I feel seen all day long by the culture I inhabit. Erasing what little pop culture is available that recognizes those of us who are not part of "the norm" seems unnecessarily cruel to me.

Based on the strength of some of the aforementioned LGBTQ-friendly manga brands, it could be commercially damaging for some of the biggest names in manga publishing, too. I believe that a change is coming, and it may well impact the print publishing of manga and comics in a significant way. With English-language digital manga and comic sales barely representing 20% of all graphic novel sales currently, perhaps these changes will signal a significant increase in digital manga sales.

References:

Deb Aoki report re: impact of tariffs on manga imports… "In The Comics Journal, Gina Gagliano explains how new tariffs will likely affect comics/manga publishing in 2025 (spoiler: it's not good for readers or publishers)."

"What will potential tariffs mean for comic publishers in 2025? "We'll likely have less customers." - The Comics Journal

"The state of comics and censorship during Banned Books Week" - The Comics Journal, September 2024 [Source: The Comic Book Journal "The state of comics and censorship during Banned Books Week", Gina Gagliana, September 23, 2024

"Books bans in US schools and libraries surged to record highs in 2023 - Though the list is broad, many of the 4,240 books were targeted because they related to issues of LGBTQ+ communities or race " - The Guardian, March 14, 2024

Choice quotes from the forums:

Well, censorship of adult or controversial content is already happening.Whether it's Japan doing this to itself or due to social changes around the world.

This is absolutely drop dead terrifying.

The focus on library bans seems geared toward the all-ages LGBTQ+ side of the question, but don't forget that the same forces are pushing for blanket criminalization of pornography. There are already multiple states that companies releasing adult manga/anime won't ship to.

Mod note: don't conflate libertarianism with LGBT. This is your only warning.

Also, I mentioned that if the book ban goes beyond anime/manga, is that going to escalate to targeting Asian-American/AAPI communities. I asked because a few days ago, I read an article from KQED (a local PBS in San Francisco) about the local Japanese-American communities are going to protect undocumented immigrants and come to the defense of the larger immigrants communities due to their experience of the Japanese internment during WWII. So that is my biggest worries as a anime/manga fan, if Japanese-Americans are building a big resistance toward Trump's treatment to the immigrant communities and the wider AAPI communities, is this going to lead to Trump and MAGA attacking not only the Japanese-American communities, will the MAGA/Trumper dare go after anime/manga and the fandom as an act of retaliation, is that going to lead to more manga ban in the school and public libraries? Is that going to lead to the FCC going after companies like Crunchyroll, Netflix, and other streaming companies that stream and license anime, what about manga publishers like Viz Media, Kodansha USA, etc...

The only thing really saving us from censorship and the other crazy things that these Christo-fascists want to do are the judges and courts blocking the orders and lawsuits being made and present right now which will only increase as time goes on at this pace and will be an astronomical amount.

literally not a single judge will defend queer cartoon kiddie porn sweetie

As a straight person, I feel like the opposite has been in effect on Reddit for a few years now. Unless you're towing water for Left leaning causes, you'll get downmarseyd or your comment will be deleted by a mod. If platforms would stop censoring opposing viewpoints, that would be great. This applies to both Left (Reddit) and Right (X) dominated platforms.

chud whining about chuds being censored on reddit in unrelated topic award

Getting surgery this week. Flying to 90210 for it. I can't find any women in nyc who find me physically attractive. I'm gonna be injecting about 8 peptides a day after this as well. Been taking a couple for about a month and I haven't noticed significant improvement but here's to hoping somehow taking a frickload more will do something.

I'm just feeling like nothing works. I deleted another dating app tonight because I spent 3+ weeks on it without a single match. This one didn't even have a chat feature and is new to the US. You just match and go on a date. No excuses of "you've got bad game" or something in the texts. Still not even one match after swiping every single day.

I'm going to be 35 sooner than later and I'm one of my surgeon's oldest patients for this particular surgery I'm getting. He says he doesn't get "older" men very often. Talk about being a fricking loser. I'm not supposed to be getting cosmetic facial surgery at this age - I'm supposed to be a dad but here we are.

Grim fricking world we live in.

$349K to the University of Washington for "DEVELOPING A SPANISH-LANGUAGE HOMOSAURUS." pic.twitter.com/bxpilj6Gzy

— Christian Heiens 🏛 (@ChristianHeiens) February 7, 2025

3D printable tentacle robots are here 🐙 https://t.co/CvAahG7mLg pic.twitter.com/G5qdOSBAjY

— AI Notkilleveryoneism Memes ⏸️ (@AISafetyMemes) January 27, 2025

I'm convinced at this point Big Foid is assasinating researchers and suppressing investment in robofus.

!crossword

LA Times, Sun, Jan 26, 2025 - "Quality Time"

https://downforacross.com/beta/game/6898590-swug

SOLVED

NY Times, Sun, Jan 26, 2025 - "Letter Openers"

https://downforacross.com/beta/game/6898597-vosk

SOLVED

LA Times, Sat, Jan 25, 2025

https://downforacross.com/beta/game/6898606-glaff

SOLVED

NY Times, Sat, Jan 25, 2025

https://downforacross.com/beta/game/6898604-glemp

SOLVED

rDrama themed crossword

https://downforacross.com/beta/game/6793417-jisk

SOLVED

NY Times, Sun, Jan 3, 2010 - "Antique Finish"

https://downforacross.com/beta/game/6898609-plusk

SOLVED

NY Times, Sun, July 4, 2024 CRYPTIC

https://downforacross.com/beta/game/6898623-vosk

SOLVED

THANKS FOR PLAYING EVERYONE

As you can see, this week we will do the usual Sat & Sun crosswords, then our special drama-themed crossword made by @ShriekingGeek , then we will do a Sunday NY Times crossword from 2010 which was uploaded this week, and then we will finally end on a cryptic crossword printed last year in The NY Times and uploaded this week, which was fortunate for us since we are going to start adding some cryptic crosswords to line up.

If you are not familiar with cryptic crosswords, I highly recommend you familiarize yourself with how they work if you want to help us solve them. Otherwise, the clues will look like gibberish. Here is a guide from The New Yorker:

https://www.newyorker.com/puzzles-and-games-dept/articles/a-starter-pack-for-the-cryptic-crossword-curious

1. "this is Phite Wower , he's still in training" "you alright Tyrone"

2. "Nite Biggers walked so these good boys could run" "your Mom forgot to swallow"

3. "y'all racist as F..."

4. "they are so cute!" "read their names real hard" "oh wow... they still cute though"

5. "what happened to Jynce Lews? He's adorable?"

6. "they had to retire Will Khitey"

7. "BITE WHO"

8. "The Father of Nite Biggers can't be found" "you ugly" "you ain't though" "I know but ugly as F"

9. "This is racist as heck! Too many POCs in here laughing and shit..." "you deserve it"

Lmfao Joy Taylor was whoring around with a Fox exec and Acho at the same time and had plans to accuse the exec of sexual assault lmfaoooo believe all women get the fuck out of here pic.twitter.com/F0sNF2A8Us

— Krispen Wah (@SirSnaxAlot5015) January 5, 2025

Fricking psycho

Bro... https://t.co/PeTp3Kkcd1 pic.twitter.com/up1VW0mDHL

— Ahmed/The Ears/IG: BigBizTheGod 🇸🇴 (@big_business_) January 5, 2025

Two side dudes (both at the same job), all while married. Crazy work. She was one of the ones that's been mouthing off about how women analysts are just as qualified as their male counterparts.

This is all coming from that hairdresser that is accusing skip Bayless of propositioning her for s*x. Dafuq is going on over there lmao.

You're the goat, skip. I don't care what anyone says about you.

They had a coke runner on the show who was also groping women. Spectacular.

Just remembered Joy Taylor and Shannon Sharpe went to a Dodgers game in 2016 and the next day Skip Bayless called it a “date” live on air

👀👀👀👀👀 pic.twitter.com/0uEeYaKbsB

— Foernix (@_foernix) January 5, 2025

Poor guy fell in love.

Joy Taylor was a victim of domestic violence. She can remember everything about the first time it happened, & it was the worst night of her life… until it happened again & then again. As she attempted to heal she learned how gruesome these horrific stories could be. It was a… pic.twitter.com/82cTCaSD5c

— Ryan Clark (@Realrclark25) March 17, 2024

I’m sick after watching the rest of that Senate hearing. The lengths that women have to go to, to be heard and believed, is DISGUSTING. These are our Olympic heroes. Imagine what it’s like for someone with no voice and no power.

— Joy Taylor (@JoyTaylorTalks) September 15, 2021

This is the biggest L women have taking in sports broadcasting history. All this weeks after all the shit they were talking.

HIGHLY

EDUCATED

Honestly, if you went back about 2 weeks ago it was quite rare to see posts like this as I mainly saw normie crap and coomer bait as most people did... But that's all changed now... it's a whole new Boomerbook world!

I mean, seriously, why show me the AVAROSA 2024 Esports thing? There's some fishy Chud antics afoot here

They have broken the law. https://t.co/KupH9lTOv9

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 3, 2025

It appears that two X accounts of Reddit's CEO have been suspended. pic.twitter.com/HDZSw5w9dr

— Reddit Lies (@reddit_lies) January 30, 2025

https://x.com/stevephuffman

https://x.com/redditspez

In 2023 I was training to run a marathon but then injured my leg and didn't do anything for a month and even after I recovered I got lazy and gave up

one time I was playing Mario Kart and came in 8th place when half the players were CPU

What are some times you have failed races?

"The Apple hasnt fallen far from the tree."

"They must also be charged with neglecting to maintain his grandfather's house. Their punishment should be to paint and landscape the house."

"Fake News 😡😡 allow those innocent children to go"

"Innocent like Zuumi?"

"Oh my goodness....you need to catch a serious wake up. They would even steal from innocent people like you!!!!!!!"

are a dramatic bunch.

https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/national/2025-01-09-mandelas-grandson-arrested-on-hijacking-charge-at-houghton-home/

====(from businesslive)

The property previously owned by former president Nelson Mandela in Houghton, where his grandson Mbuso was arrested with four hijacking suspects on Wednesday, was in use by Mbuso, the family has confirmed.

Mbuso Mandela's older brother, Ndaba, said his younger brother had lived on the property for years and had neglected it.

Mbuso is expected to appear in the Johannesburg magistrate's court on Friday with four other suspects.

The arrests followed information from a vehicle tracking company on the location of a white Toyota Corolla that was hijacked on Wednesday on Louis Botha Avenue in Oaklands, said Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department (JMPD) spokesperson Xolani Fihla.

Fihla said the police had recovered the vehicle and arrested four men and a woman.

====(end quote)

https://www.iol.co.za/the-star/news/nelson-mandelas-grandson-among-four-arrested-in-hijacking-incident-6e30657f-2394-4fc4-87f0-0fde8e2186b1

https://9gag.com/gag/aYQVABx#comment

Chuds of 9strag weight in

Has anyone noticed this phenomenon? These barely legal girls put on silicone drag queen breasts, film low effort videos that get hundreds of thousands of views, men embarrass themselves in the comments. How do they not see they're fake? Most of the videos will have a high cut shirt on, then they'll use ai on photos with cleavage. Some even use ai on videos, pretty well actually, but now I've been looking a lot I can tell.

Of course these girls have onlyfans, I respect the grift. The crazy thing is they all use the same breast plate which has the left tit slightly higher than the right, like wonky hentai style. I've found at least 15 of these profiles. Idk I just want to talk to someone about this and figured rs people would be offended by stolen big natural valor.

I love finding out about weird corners of the internet I didn't know about. People gooning over literal fake tits smh my head.

Video is not necessary to watch at all and there are others, but I'm too lazy.

The comments however are fricking great

Elon has lost complete and total street cred with the most important demographic on the internet - !g*mers

Oh hey look it's Darkmatter2525, haven't seen that guy in like 10 years

wo

I'm working on my magnum opus of foid hating. I'm going to be a little light on the rightoid patrolling until the work is finished. my days consist of getting wasted and finishing my work.

Part 1

17 Nov 2018

r/ambien: It this for real help

Edit: I really dont like this medicine.
I guess 20mg is too much, I mean I'm suppose to take 5mg. And my wife, a really wonderful woman, counted my pills for me. I took 4 5mg accused my wife of Loving our dog more. Then asked her what concrete was made out of then got angry and sat in the pantry until she would tell me. I slept on the couch. She's really upset, but understands it was the influence of the medicine. I made this post last night seeking help more than likely while I was in the pantry.

18 Nov 2018

r/ambien: I accused my wife of knowing what concrete is made out of than accused her of loving our dog more than me.

She's in a bad mood. I need to sleep but i really don't like this medicine.

Part 2

22 Nov 2018

r/ambien: mywife is soft nd ilikeher

05 Dec 2018

r/ambien: my wiwwwfie wife is visting her mom and i miss her

she smells nice and is reall soft

Im wish she washere

09 Dec 2018

r/ambien: MY EWFIE IS HOME MY WIFE8

yes i lovd her you have to bewilling to love her and shelllove you

Part 3

19 Nov 2019

r/ambien: It's been a long time since I've posted here, but I want you all to know my wife is still soft and I still like her.

I completely forgot about these posts, and I got a message today that reminded me of them I went through and couldn't stop smiling. I got in a fight with her recently and after reading these I went into our kitchen and held her. I told her I loved her and showed her the posts. She said she loves you guys.

Part 4

19 Feb 2022

r/ambien: diforce

form zelda driforce AAA g

Epilogue

20 Sep 2022

r/ambien: Not on Ambien today, but my Wife calls you all my "Reddit fans." She told her coworkers I'm famous on this subreddit because of how often I gush about her

Bonus Material

r/TheLastAirbender: [No spoilers] just a world building question in general. but be warned NSFW. Do you think water benders can be their own contraceptive?

Why're they pretending war in Yemen is something new lmao. Also splendid choice of protag for the script, they could've interviewed someone neutral but no they interviewed someone who got arrested by Ethio army in counter terror ops lmao

Based r*pe the islamists

In 10 years BTW. Sounds like a very oppressed person to me

I moved to Yemen and there's a war?

How could this be happening to me??!!

There's no way a boat that left hours before yours and sunk midway will have the corpses wash up at your specific landing point before you get there lmao.