Here in conservative parts of the United States, Judy Blume's books in general are under attack. Some of them were recently formally banned in some Florida school districts. (Ironically, Blume lives in Florida. She's castigated the governor over his censorship, but nobody supposes he cares about her rebuke.)

Conservatives here generally oppose sex education. The Republican Party in the state of Texas just approved a party platform that calls for eliminating all sex education in public and charter schools.

Of course, the same platform is as homophobic and transphobic as you can get.

This is a big country, and many other states are very different — publicly valuing queer people, education, and books of all sorts.

But in much of the country, we're still fighting the battle for any sex education at all, so calling for good books for queer kids seems quixotic sometimes.

I live in a very conservative part of Michigan, for example, where voters shut down (defunded) a local library over "pornographic books" for kids.

Of the books they most strongly objected to, the 'Heartstopper' graphic novels were at the top of the list.

The quite famously wholesome and nonsexual 'Heartstopper' series evokes outrage. So Judy Blume for queer kids? With frank talk about queer sexuality?

Books like that certainly get published, but conservatives here work their asses off to keep kids from reading them.