'And Tango Makes Three' returns to one Florida school district's library shelves after a ban

A school district in Florida will put And Tango Makes Three and other challenged books back on shelves as part of an out-of-court settlement.

The Nassau County School District reached a settlement of a federal lawsuit wages by pushing houses and authors, including Tango writers Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson. According to the Tallahassee Democrat, the county district was sued in July.

"The settlement is a watershed moment in the ongoing battle against book censorship in our country," Lauren Zimmerman, a Selendy Gay attorney representing plaintiffs in the lawsuit, told the newspaper. "Students once again have access to books from well-known and highly-lauded authors representing a broad range of viewpoints and ideas."

The settlement addresses 36 books taken off shelves after a law signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis opened districts up to public challenges of materials available in school libraries. A total of 36 books were pulled by Nassau County schools. Many had LGBTQ+ topics, including Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teenagers Speak Out by Susan Kuklin, Almost Perfect by Brian Katcher, and Drama by Raina Telgemeier.

Multiple districts in Florida bannedTango, a book about two male chinstrap penguins who raised a chick together at the Central Park Zoo. The children’s book contains no sexual content. Court records show the district initially claimed the book and two others were pulled for “lack of circulation” and later pulled an additional 33 books for “obscene” material.

All the books were deemed by libraries as “challenged.”

The settlement makes clear Tango contains no obscenecontent and is appropriate for all ages of readers. The settlement calls for another 22 challenged books to return to library shelves by Sept. 13, and another 12 books to be made available in a special section that can be accessed by students older than 18 or those with parental consent to read the material.