This Seattle author wrote a memoir for LGBTQ youth. Now it's being banned

Hundreds of books have been challenged in 2023, including numerous LGBTQ titles.

About 26% of titles banned in 2023 have LGBTQ characters or themes, according to PEN America, a free speech organization that tracks such challenges.

Seattle author Shaun David Hutchinson's memoir "Brave Face" has been among them.

It's a vulnerable look at Hutchinson's experience growing up queer at a time when he had few resources to turn to for support.

"I had been unable to find the resources that I needed to understand and come to terms with what was going on with me, to understand what being gay meant," he said.

"Brave Face" was published in 2019, well into Hutchinson's adulthood and time as a Seattle resident. Then, in 2020, he first learned his book "We Are The Ants" was being banned, then "Brave Face" followed. To add salt to the wound, it all started in his home state of Florida.