For the past several weeks, the hottest subject of debate in Newtown has been a pair of books almost never checked out of the library.

On one side are parents who claim a pair of young adult books are overly graphic and should be removed from the shelves at Newtown High. On the other side are parents, students and activists who defend the books and see attempts to ban them as overreach and censorship.

Recent Board of Education meetings have become increasingly tense, with spirited public comment from both sides and a deadlocked vote among board members that seems to have stoked passions even further. On Facebook, arguments over the book challenges have been fierce and often nasty.

"It's kind of tearing the community apart," superintendent Christopher Melillo told CT Insider.

Though Connecticut hasn't seen as intense a book-banning push as states such as Florida and Texas have, the national trend has arrived conspicuously, with recent challenges not only in Newtown but also in Westport, Darien, Brookfield, Fairfield, Guilford and other towns. In most cases, challenges have concerned books addressing gender identity and sexuality, many of which have been at the center of controversies nationwide.

Overall, the Connecticut Library Association has identified 38 active book challenges across the state, up from about nine at this time last year, CLA president Douglas Lord said.

"Not since I've been a librarian have we seen this level of baloney with book challenges and censorship types of activity," Lord said. "In my lifetime or career it's not really precedented."

A community divided

In Newtown, the fiercest book-banning debate anyone in town can remember began earlier this spring, when a handful of parents ("nine or 10," estimates the superintendent) filed formal challenges of two books: a graphic novel called "Flamer" that chronicles a queer Filipino-American teen bullied for his race, his weight and his effeminate presentation and another called "Blankets" that depicts a young man's struggles with religion, relationships and sexual abuse.

The local library media specialists at Newtown High found no obvious problem with the books, both of which have been widely acclaimed, and neither did a special committee made up of the principal, the media specialist, two teachers and an assistant superintendent, who unanimously voted to keep both on the shelves. Melillo, the superintendent, also saw no reason to remove the works and endorsed the findings of the committee.

When the issue reached the Board of Education, however, it proved more divisive, splitting roughly along party lines. Democratic members have mostly defended the graphic novels and argued students be allowed to make their own choices. Republican members, who hold a four-to-three majority on the board, have described the books as obscene and explicit, suggesting students below a certain age should need parental consent to read them.

"Graphic content — call me a prude by all means — is not appropriate for young children," Republican board chair Deborra Zukowski said at a public meeting, citing a scene in "Flamer" describing masturbation.

Many of the parents and elected officials who want to remove the books insist they don't have the problem with the LGBTQ themes in "Flamer," only its sexual content. But those who defend the book see a nationwide wave of challenges to stories with LGBTQ characters and wonder what banning the graphic novel and others like it would signal to queer students.

"It's a terrible message," said Tim Stan, a Newtown parent who identifies as bisexual and says he wishes he'd been able to read "Flamer" as a child in the 1980s. "Attempts to ban this kind of literature is really like an attempt to further marginalize the LGBT community and kind of erase our existence."

Melillo notes that the argument is more theoretical than practical. "Flamer," which was published three years ago, has never been checked out of Newtown High's library, while "Blankets" was checked out only once, in 2015.

As the superintendent sees it, those trying to pull the graphic novels are enforcing a double standard, opposing books that offend them personally, while leaving a range of other works that might bother people of different identities or political persuasions. He says parents are welcome to choose what their kids do and don't read but shouldn't impose those preferences on other families.

"You can't have it both ways," Melillo said. "When it fits into your values, you can't say everyone else has to conform, but when it's against your values you can't then say, 'Take it off the shelf.'"

At the most recent Board of Education meeting, most, though not all, community members who spoke did so in support of the books, painting efforts to remove them as censorship. Still, when it came time to vote, the three Republican members present (one was absent) came down against keeping them on the shelves without restriction, resulting in a three-to-three deadlock.

Far from resolving the issue — which is expected to come in front of the board again as soon as next week — the vote seems to have increased tension in town. On Facebook, the Newtown Republican Town Committee accused book banning opponents of "extreme name-calling" as well as "middle fingers being used toward elected volunteers, hollering, chanting" and in one case throwing something at a board member.

Dan Grossman, a Newtown parent who has argued fiercely against restricting the books, describes the fight as "a matter of life and death."

"What the Board of Ed is in essence doing is saying they value for certain people to not be uncomfortable over the literal lives of marginalized community members," Grossman said. "Because we know that the suicide rate is high [for LGBTQ children], and we know that's because of a lack of empathy and understanding and caring."

Beatrice, a Newtown High sophomore who asked to have her last name withheld, said she's frustrated that students haven't had a louder voice in the debate over what books they can read. The attempt to restrict access to "Flamer" and "Blankets," she says, suggest the adults are out of touch with today's teenage experience.

"It says that they're not very well-informed on what goes on in the schools," Beatrice said. "These are topics that we have to talk about because these are things that go on in high school kids' lives, and to not talk about it just because it's a touchy subject is not a great choice."

A statewide (and nationwide) trend

Lord, who has worked as a librarian for about three decades, says he had almost never encountered a serious book-banning challenge until about two years ago, when the challenges began to trickle in.

In Fairfield, the local library decided against removing a teen novel called "Let's Talk About It" after some parents challenged it. In Darien, parents objected after a picture book featuring a gender nonconforming character was taught in a second-grade classroom. In Guilford, residents called for parental notification for books they regarded as vulgar and inappropriate.

In Westport, parents sought to ban "Flamer" and two other books dealing with gender identity from the local high school, before a committee voted to keep them on the shelves. In Brookfield, residents have targeted one of those same books, titled "This Book is Gay," claiming it was not age-appropriate.

As far as Lord knows, this wave of book challenges is the largest since the Red Scare of the 1950s.

"Speaking for the librarians of the state, it's disheartening," he said.

So far, Lord knows of only one instance in which a book was removed from library shelves following a challenge, though books have also been banned in other settings, including state prisons.

Connecticut's spike in book challenges makes the state part of a broader national trend. In a recent report, PEN America found 1,477 instances of books being banned during the first half of the 2022-23 school year alone, while the American Library Association tracked 1,269 attempts to censor library books and resources in the 2022 calendar year, nearly double the total in 2021 and the most in more than 20 years of tracking.

Both PEN America and the ALA found that books written by or about LGBTQ people or people of color were far more likely to be challenged or banned. The ALA lists a graphic memoir called "Gender Queer," written by a non-binary and asexual cartoonist, as the most challenged book of 2022, followed by a memoir from a queer journalist called "All Boys Aren't Blue," then Toni Morrison's "The Bluest Eye" and "Flamer."

In some Republican-controlled states, legislators have contributed to the trend toward book challenges, pushing laws that restrict what materials teachers are allowed to present in class. In Florida, a 2022 law requires that school boards maintain a searchable list of books on library shelves, to help facilitate challenges.

In Connecticut's Democratic-controlled legislature, however, lawmakers have gone the opposite direction, proposing to subsidize "sanctuary libraries" that make available books that have been challenged or banned.

"Our students, library officials and educators deserve to teach and learn without being dragged into politics," state Rep. Matt Blumenthal, D-Stamford, said last month. "We must continue to stand up against efforts, here and across the country, to censor or ban books from our libraries."

'I'm hoping it phases itself out'

In Newtown, the Board of Education is expected to meet again this week to vote on the books again, this time with all seven members present.

Zukowski, the board chair, said in an email that since the most recent meeting board members met with the district's library media specialists, who "provided a lot of clarity." Still, she wouldn't say whether their perspectives had changed her stance that the two challenged books should be restricted.

"My focus and that of my colleagues is not removal of books but rather a compromise that addresses the core concerns of most of our community members," she said. "The meeting with the library media specialists helped provide information related to possible compromises."

Many of those who oppose restricting the books worry that if the current challenges are successful, more will follow. Smith, who has one child at Newtown High and another who graduated several years ago, said he's already heard rumors about which books parents will flag next.

"What I worry about is that there's a slope to it," Smith said. "If these two challenges come through it makes it easier to challenge more next time."

Lord isn't pleased to see the rise in book challenges, but he doesn't expect it will last forever. In the same way that activism against masks and against "critical race theory" surged and then sputtered, he thinks book bans will fade over time, as proponents move on to the other things.

Or at least that's what he wants to believe will happen.

"I'm hoping that it kind of phases itself out, that people just get bored with this," Lord said. "I'm really hoping that it goes away of its own accord."