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Librarians at Department of Defense-run schools, which educate 67,000 children of American military members, have been instructed to remove books that reference “gender ideology” or “discriminatory equity ideology topics.”
Among the titles flagged for review is Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by Vice President JD Vance, a controversial book widely criticized by Appalachian scholars and writers.
“The recent removal of books from DoDEA schools, especially those addressing topics like gender identity and equity, is nothing but censorship,” West Virginian transgender activist Ash Lazarus Orr told Truthout. “This doesn’t just limit what students can read — it actively suppresses voices and stories that challenge white-washed dominant narratives, particularly those from marginalized communities.”
A February 6 memo to administrators, librarians, and teachers, signed by then-acting chief academic officer Lori Pickel of the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA), outlines broad criteria for book removals but does not provide a specific list of banned titles. As a result, officials are enforcing the policy without clear guidance on which books to pull, Task & Purpose reports.
“[B]ook banning is fundamentally un-American,” Beck Banks, an assistant professor of communications at Warren Wilson College, told Truthout. “As an act, it opposes education, intellectual curiosity, and democracy, and that’s just the start of its issue.”
Initially, librarians were given until February 18 to complete the book review, but the deadline was later extended to March 3.
“By pulling books without clear guidelines, government officials create an environment where anything deemed controversial or uncomfortable can be erased from the curriculum,” Orr said. “Banning books with vague, swapping policies isn’t about protecting students, it’s about controlling what they can learn and whose voices they get to hear.”
In addition to Vance’s book, other removals include An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States and various instructional materials, such as Black History Month resources for sixth graders, an Advanced Placement psychology chapter on sexuality and gender, and an elementary school publication on immigration.
“Schools should be places that encourage critical thinking and diverse perspectives, not institutions that silence them,” Orr said.
The restrictions are tied to executive orders issued by President Donald Trump, which limit discussions on transgender identities and diversity, equity, and inclusion. Another order prohibits the Department of Defense and its schools from endorsing “un-American” ideas — defined to include diversity, equity, and inclusion; “gender ideology”; and any claim “that America’s founding documents are racist or sexist.”
“Book banning always has one clear purpose: to erase any message that someone not white, not straight, not male has value,” Willie Edward Taylor Carver Jr., 2022 Kentucky Teacher of the Year and author of Gay Poems for Red States, told Truthout. “MAGA book bans employ vague concepts like CRT or DEI so ANYTHING else is seen as other, aberrant, and dangerous. They push that message to children to groom them into white supremacy.”
According to a librarian interviewed by Task & Purpose, DoDEA staff have been directed to remove both physical and digital copies of books related to gender and inequality topics, documenting them in a spreadsheet. The memo states that these books will be moved to the school’s professional collection, which students cannot access. When Task & Purpose inquired about the books’ final fate, DoDEA officials did not provide further clarification.
In addition to book removals, the department has banned cultural observances, prompting schools to cancel Black History Month events and remove bulletin boards featuring figures such as Martin Luther King Jr., Harriet Tubman, and Rosa Parks. Schools have also dissolved student clubs and barred transgender students from participating in sports or using bathrooms that align with their gender identity.
As DoDEA conducts its compliance review, PEN America, a nonprofit advocating for free expression, warns that “books are under profound attack in the United States.” During the 2023-2024 school year, the organization documented 10,046 cases of book bans. Among the most frequently banned titles, 44 percent depicted characters of color, while 39 percent included LGBTQ characters.
“The removal of these titles [by the DoDEA] is yet another indicator of the new Administration’s flippant and autocratic approach to K-12 education,” Kasey Meehan, program director of Freedom to Read at PEN America, said in a statement.
Appalachian authors have highlighted that it is ironic that Vance’s memoir has been caught in the crossfire of censorship battles. “Vance pretended to have an ethnic identity — Appalachian — to launch his career. Ethnic identities are dangerous to white supremacy, so of course it would be banned,” Carver said.
Similarly, Banks explains that Vance’s book is “a tale of equity and inclusion.”
“Through Vance’s own words, we see a DEI tale, the type his administration adamantly opposes,” Banks explains.“Vance was a diversity pick for Yale, which nearly covered the costs of his first year in attendance.”
However, Appalachian activists argue that its harm doesn’t stem from the themes that typically attract book bans, like LGBTQ representation or discussions of race and ethnicity, but from its portrayal of the region itself.
“Hillbilly Elegy is a perfect example of why representation in literature matters. Many of us with deep generational ties to Appalachia felt misrepresented, misunderstood and outright used by J.D. Vance’s portrayal of our communities,” Orr told Truthout. “His book isn’t a heartfelt memoir — it’s a political manifesto designed to serve his own ambitions.”
Appalachian authors, scholars, and activists have published multiple rebuttals to Vance’s portrayal of the region, which Orr says “leans into harmful stereotypes” and typecasts Appalachians as “lazy and broken” instead of “recognizing the systemic forces that have shaped our region.”
Appodlachia, a progressive commentary podcast on Appalachia, recommends reading books like Elizabeth Catte’s What You’re Getting Wrong About Appalachia, Neema Avashia’s Another Appalachia: Coming Up Queer and Indian in a Mountain Place, and the edited collection Appalachian Reckoning: A Region Responds to Hillbilly Elegy instead.
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