(upbeat music) - We are honored to be joined by George M. Johnson, the author of a "New York Times" bestseller, "All Boys Aren't Blue: A Memoir Manifesto."

George, it's great to have you with us.

- Yes, thank you for having me today.

- This book, not just the "New York Times" bestseller, banned in lots of states.

- Yes.

- More possibly to come.

Second most banned book in the country.

In Florida and Iowa, some political leaders, not literary experts, have argued that the LGBTQIA+ profanity, sexual explicit content, those things, they argue, caused the book to be banned.

Kids shouldn't read it, you say?

- Yeah, I wanna make sure, one, that we, because they oftentimes use the word kids, right?

And we know when we hear kids, we think kindergartners, we think elementary school children.

My book is not for kids.

It is for teenagers, specifically 14 to 18 who are growing young adults.

When they talk about, "Oh, the book is too explicit," or "too sexually provocative," one, it indicates to me that they have not read the book because there are only four passages within the book where I even go into detail about sexual assault as well as my first sexual experiences.

And two, it indicates that most of them do not understand what teenagers actually live through day to day.

When we think about teenagers and young adults, the next place that they're going is to college.

So if we are removing sexual education, if we are removing education or resources for them to even understand what their bodies are going through when they're going through puberty, when they're going through their first loves and their first crushes, how do we then expect to put them on college campuses together and for them to know what consent means, for them to know what non-consent means, for them to know what safer sexual practices are if no one is allowed to even ever talk about it?

And so this book, it is not to excite, it is to educate.

And that is what this book has done, not just for LGBTQ teen readers, but for all teen readers, which is why in 2021, the teen readers at the American Library Association chose this book as their number one book for the year.

- George, this book is called "A Memoir Manifesto."

Highly personal.

By the way, we're proud to say George from Plainfield, the great city of Plainfield, New Jersey.

- Yes.

- You've said that this book, you wish that a book like this had been accessible to you at a critical point in your, I don't like to say childhood, in your growth, in your evolution.

Talk about that 'cause it's highly personal, please.

- Yes.

When you are someone like myself, I was a Black teenager who was having an identity crisis.

I grew up in the 90s, and I didn't have many images of myself on television.

It was the birthing age of the internet.

There was no social media.

So there was no way for me as this teenager who was in the minority population of a Catholic school to connect with anyone that I knew felt what I was feeling.

And so I felt alone.

I felt isolated.

I was forced to read stories about my counterparts, the white students in the room.

We had to read about what their lived experiences were, but never got to read about what my lived experience was.

And so a lot of times when you don't have images of yourself that you could connect to in the world, you don't know that you already exist in the world and you feel like an anomaly.

You feel guilt.

You feel shame.

You question everything about yourself.

And furthermore, you question why your existence has to look like this when everybody else gets to exist the way that they do with laws that support them, with families that support them, even though I had my family's support, but with a society that supports them.

And so I wish I had a book that I could read that told me that I did exist in this world and that I did have value in this world.

And that would've given me the tools, the resources, the education that I needed to know how I was going to navigate my community, the LGBTQ community, that exists within the overall larger picture of society.

- When the community of Glen Ridge, which is one town away from where I live in Montclair, or a state like Florida, or Iowa, or any number of states, communities, attempt to ban your book "All Boys Aren't Blue," to what degree do you experience that as a ban against you personally?

And I don't mean to be overly analytical, but bringing back what you experienced as a young person growing up, how much of this is personal for you versus nah, it's just politics, it's just, you know, it's, you know, it's just community stuff and it's a debate?

For you, it's not just a debate.

- Yeah, for me and for so many others, this is not a debate.

Like, it comes down to like how dare you debate my existence?

How dare you think that you can have an opinion on who I am telling you that I am.

The people who are literally trying to ban this type of text and create these laws that say you can't say gay and you can't talk about LGBTQ people or queer theory, how does that fit into Black history?

And it's like, yeah, because James Baldwin is Black history, because Zora Hurston is Black history, and because the Harlem Renaissance figures, and Alain Locke, one of the greatest philosophers, is Black history, who are also queer people.

And so it's not simply just an attack on, well, we don't think that our teens or our, we can even say in this instance kids, because there are books that talk about LGBTQ issues that are specifically meant for young readers and meant for middle graders.

This is way more than just saying these topics, they're just too young to know about this.

This is literally an attack on the existence of people who have always been here since the beginning of time.

And so I have to take it personally.

I don't necessarily take the banning so personal because, again, they did not read the entire book.

I know they didn't read the book because there are sections in the book that they would've been upset about before they ever got to the sections they claim to be upset about.

So this isn't just like an attack on the story per se, but it is an attack on the existence of people.

The anti-LGBTQ laws, you know, don't say gay bills, removing queer texts from classrooms, they are all going hand-in-hand with the constant attack and the constant attempts to remove the rights and remove the livelihood of LGBTQ people in this country.

- You went to Catholic school, right?

- Yes.

Catholic high school.

- Same here.

Same here.

Essex Catholic high school on Broadway, Newark, New Jersey.

- Yes.

(laughs) - Where'd you go to school?

- I went to Bishop Ahr in Edison, New Jersey, which I believe they changed the name back to St. Thomas Aquinas.

But yes, when I went it was Bishop Ahr and before I went it was St. Thomas Aquinas.

So it has went through multiple name changes.

- So here's where I'm going with this.

So you're in a Catholic school, you're growing up in a community, Plainfield, with a significant African American population, with a church that's not necessarily Catholic, a church culture that's not necessarily Catholic, but is powerful, strong.

Did you feel connected/welcome in either community?

- Yeah, I mean, when I talk about Catholic school, you know, we were all forced to go to mass.

It was okay.

Like it didn't bother me.

It was like, okay, like this is how-- - You also had to wear a jacket and tie.

Go ahead.

- Right.

It's like, okay, like this is different.

Like from what I experienced in the AME church, I grew up AME, but I was always welcomed in my church primarily because of who my grandmother was.

My grandmother was the head of the Sarah Marsh Missionary Society at my church.

She was the President - She was an elder in the church?

- of the flower club.

She was the mother of the church.

Yes, she was an elder in the church and she had a love for queer people.

A very, very strong love for queer people.

I grew up with a transgender cousin.

I was queer.

My godmother, who my mom and my grandmother chose to be my godmother, who's really my aunt, was also a lesbian growing up.

So my grandmother, she understood that the main principles of church were about love.

She really took come as you are seriously.

And, you know, a lot of times it's like come as you are, but also you can't, you can't, you can't.

That wasn't her mentality around church.

Her mentality was always God is love, and we are supposed to love everybody, and we start from a place of love.

And so that's why my church experience wasn't as hostile as many were.

Now, the older I got, you know, things started to be said, you know, whatever may have you.

But the one person who I knew was the greatest salvation in my life, who was my spiritual warrior, my prayer warrior, was my grandmother.

And as long as I knew that she had this love for my community, the community she knew I was going to exist in, no one could tell me that the church was not a place for me to also call home at that time.

And so I was fortunate enough to grow up with a woman who was just powerful and would not let anyone, especially within the church, turn anyone away.

- You talked to our producers and also you've talked in other interviews about suicidal ideation among Black queer teens who experience isolation, homelessness, violence, discrimination, et cetera.

Your message to folks who fall into, and that's not a category, those are people, they're not numbers, they're not statistics.

What message do you have for them and those who are closest to them now?

- Yeah, you know, I live my life to try and be a possibility model for those families.

My mom and my two aunts, in a very iconic way, went to the Glen Ridge meeting where the book was attempted to be banned in New Jersey not far from where I grew up.

And they spoke at the school board meeting.

And the comments were interesting because I just put it out there to show like, look, like this is what it looks like when a family shows up for you.

But the beautiful thing that happened was I was getting messages from Black families who had queer teens in, you know, within their family or people who were raising queer teens, and it started to change their mind about what love looks like and what support looks like.

And the fact that they could see that my family was supporting me as a non-binary adult still so fervently, it made them have to question like why am I trying to change my child?

Why am I trying to force my child into a box that they were never meant to be in?

And so that's my message, is that, you know, we just have to start operating from a place of unconditional love.

When you are fortunate enough to, you know, bring a child into this world, you have a duty to love the child that they are, not try to force them into a box that society tells them what they should be.

And when you allow a child to be who they are and innately come into themselves, they can be as great and as powerful as someone like myself and so many other LGBTQ people.

Persecution should never start at home.

Society already beats us up enough.

We always should have a place that we can call our safe place and a place that we can call home.

And so for me, ultimately, I wanted to be a possibility model.

My family is a possibility model.

Someone who I work with really closely, Gabrielle Union, you know, they're raising a transgender daughter.

- I'm sorry, who?

Who?

- Gabrielle Union.

(laughs) - I'm joking.

I'm joking.

- The great Gabrielle Union who I'm working on developing "All Boys Aren't Blue" into a TV series with.

She is actively a possibility model for the world with Dwayne Wade raising Zion.

- That's right.

- And so it's hard to be us as public figures who are doing this publicly with our families, but we know the ramifications of if we can change the minds of so many people within our community, we can then start to love, support, and provide safety for LGBTQ teens whose families don't understand.

We wanna be that olive branch to help people understand.

And so that's what it looks like for me.

And that's why anybody watching, I want them to see how fervently we will defend our own and that they should go just as hard for people like us.

- Got just a couple, A minute and a half left.

First I wanna be clear, the Glen Ridge, I believe, the Board of Education voted not to ban the book.

And I saw the reaction on "NJ Spotlight News," our colleague at public broadcasting, they did a great job covering that meeting.

So I just wanna make it clear what the outcome was there.

Real quick in the minute we have left, what is next for George Johnson?

- Yeah, so trying to develop this television series based on "All Boys Aren't Blue," and my family, and my upbringing in New Jersey while going to college in Virginia.

I have another book coming out next year called "Flamboyance," which will talk about the LGBT.

- "Flamboyance?"

- Yeah, "Flamboyance," which will talk about the LGBTQ figures from the Harlem Renaissance to start to tell the truth about their story.

I also, working on other television projects and recently signed a seven-figure deal with my friend Leah Johnson.

And we are gonna co-write a Black queer romantic comedy young adult book.

- George Johnson's doing okay.

- Yes.

- And Making a difference.

The book is called "All Boys Aren't Blue: A Memoir Manifesto."

George, I cannot thank you enough.

Not only for staying with us as long as you did, it wasn't on your schedule, but for making a difference in the lives of so many young people who don't feel that they're is someone who cares and connects with them and speaks in a way that they can relate to.

Thank you so much and wish you all the best.

And when the new book comes out, please come back.

- Yes, I definitely will.

Thank you all for having me today.

- You make New Jersey, you make Plainfield, proud.

That's George Johnson.

- Thank you.

- Thank you so much.

See you next time, everyone.

- [Narrator] One-On-One with Steve Adubato has been a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Funding has been provided by Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey.

Hackensack Meridian Health.

New Jersey Institute of Technology.

PSC.

The Fidelco Group.

Prudential Financial.

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey.

And by The Adler Aphasia Center.

Promotional support provided by Northjersey.com and Local IQ.

Part of the USA Today Network.

And by Insider NJ.

(hands clapping) (drums banging) (fingers snapping)