In 2022, a record number of demands to censor library materials were reported, almost double the amount seen in 2021. I contacted the American Library Association (ALA) to find out what was causing this sudden increase. ALA explained that book challenges tend to spike during times of more conservative political environments, and that they are common during election years. In particular, books by and about the LGBTQ+ community and people of color were the most targeted for censorship, and some of those challenges were led by people running for office. On Friday, ALA will open up the most challenged book in the country right now for a weekend reading recommendation: Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe.