(CNN) — President Joe Biden will appoint a new federal coordinator to address the increase in book bans enacted across different states—part of a slew of new actions the administration will announce on Thursday aimed at protecting the LGBTQ+ community. As part of Thursday’s announcement, the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights will appoint a new coordinator specifically tasked with combating book bans enacted at the state and local level. In March, the American Library Association released data documenting 1,269 demands to censor library books and resources in 2022, marking the highest number of attempted book bans since the association began compiling the data more than 20 years ago. And an April report from free speech organization PEN America found book bans rose during the first half of the 2022-2023 school year. In 2021, Biden became the first US president to ever issue a presidential proclamation to mark International Transgender Day of Visibility.

Source: CNN June 09, 2023 04:58 UTC