“Shame is their weapon. People who feel shame remain hidden, and that’s exactly how they want us.”

This line, from my novel Like a Love Story , perfectly sums up why the book is banned. The novel is about three teenagers experiencing the joy and angst of their senior year in a New York City high school as the AIDS crisis devastates their community. Inspired by my own emotional journey as a young Iranian immigrant moving to New York in the 1980s, Like a Love Story has been banned statewide in Utah public schools, and in districts across Florida, Texas and Virginia. Utah’s criteria states that the book includes “pornographic or otherwise indecent content, as defined by Utah code.”

In defending against these accusations, I’ve heard some deny that banned books are in any way sexually e

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