Yes, Two Boys Kissing Is Banned!

Harry and Craig, two seventeen-year-olds, set out to break the Guinness World Record for the longest kiss: 32 hours, 12 minutes, and 10 seconds. Around them, Levithan weaves the stories of other LGBTQ+ teens: a boy navigating his first relationship, a transgender teen finding himself, two girls building something new together. The whole narrative is observed by a Greek chorus of gay men from an earlier generation, men who died of AIDS and now watch the world they didn’t get to live in.

A parent in Fauquier County, Virginia petitioned to remove the book from school libraries in 2014, arguing that the cover art (showing two boys kissing) violated the school’s rules against public displays of affection. The request was denied. In 2022, Moms for Liberty challenged it in Bedford County, Virginia alongside other LGBTQ+ titles. The book has been banned or challenged in Texas, Florida, and Utah as part of broader efforts to remove LGBTQ+ content from schools.

Why You Should Read This

The ghost chorus is what makes this book land differently. These are men who fought for the right to exist, who watched their friends die, who never got to see two boys kissing in public become something a teenager could do on a dare. Their narration carries grief and joy in equal measure, the weight of all those years of silence pressing against the lightness of Harry and Craig’s marathon.

Levithan refuses to write a single “gay experience.” His characters are figuring out identity, desire, courage, and heartbreak in different ways, and none of their stories collapse into a neat lesson. The book is warm without being soft. It acknowledges that being queer in America still carries real risk while insisting that the risk is worth it. If you’re looking for a book that makes LGBTQ+ lives visible, complicated, and fully human, this is it.