"A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo", "George" and "Two Boys Kissing" made the banned books list"A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo", "George" and "Two Boys Kissing" made the banned books list

Nearly half of this year’s most-banned books list have LGBT themes, signalling a worrying trend.

Banned Books Week aims to challenge censorship in schools and libraries across America by raising the profile of books that have most frequently been objected to and removed from collections.

The American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) receives reports from libraries, schools, and the media on attempts to ban books in communities across the country.

2016’s list of most-banned books features, as usual, a number of LGBT-related books that homophobic and transphobic bigots have demanded removed.

Ranking at number three on the most-banned list is I Am Jazz by transgender teen author Jazz Jennings – which recounts her real-life experience of living as a trans kid, and educates and helps others.

Number four on the list is Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out, by Susan Kuklin, another book featuring young transgender people discussing their own identities.

Out feminist Alison Bechdel’s award-winning autobiographic comic Fun Home ranks in at 7 for purported “graphic images”, presumably referring to the depiction of her early sexual experiences with women.

Republicans in South Carolina previously tried to strip funding from a university because its library contained ‘gay themed’ content including a copy of Fun Home.

Rounding out the list at number 10 is young adult novel Two Boys Kissing by David Levithan, for obvious reasons.

The ALA said: “This list is a snapshot of the reports we receive every day.

“Our goal is not to focus on the numbers, but to educate the community that censorship is still a very serious problem.

“Even with all of our efforts to follow up and provide support, surveys indicate that up to 85% of book challenges receive no media attention and remain unreported.”

The full list is below: