Cameron Samuels

Cameron Samuels (they/them/theirs) organized nationally recognized efforts against book banning and LGBTQ+ internet censorship in the Katy Independent School District in Texas. Within months of once facing the school board alone, receiving no applause while other speakers stoked fear with bigotry, Samuels packed school board meetings and distributed hundreds of banned books to students across Texas. With the ACLU, Samuels filed legal action that resulted in the district unblocking queer internet resources like the Trevor Project and the Montrose Center. Later that year, President Barack Obama recognized Samuels for their efforts against book banning.

Samuels is now organizing a coalition of Students Engaged in Advancing Texas to demonstrate youth visibility in policymaking. In the Texas Legislature, SEAT has organized on the frontlines in opposition to legislation diminishing students' rights, authored bills increasing student representation in educational decisions, and developed amendments against the House Bill 900 book ban bill. With SEAT, Samuels has spearheaded grassroots opposition to anti-LGBTQ+ mandates in Texas school districts, organized events with high-profile creatives and policymakers, visited the White House to meet President Joe Biden and join federal efforts, and testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary for a hearing on book bans.

In 2022, Samuels was named the inaugural Youth Honorary Chair of Banned Books Week, a Seventeen Magazine Voice of the Year, an NBC Pride 30 trailblazer, and one of Teen Vogue's 21 Under 21 and GLAAD's 20 Under 20. This past year, Samuels received the Trailblazer Award from the Human Rights Campaign, was recognized in OutSmart as a hometown hero, and was honored as Pride Houston's Honorary Trendsetter Grand Marshal. In 2024, Samuels was a SXSW EDU panelist with best-selling author Angie Thomas for "How to Be a Freedom Fighter" on the unprecedented attacks on education and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

Select Publications by Cameron Samuels

• Democracy requires digital rights, so we’re suing Texas (Shift Press, Aug 2024)

• As a Katy student, I fought book bans. We're losing (Houston Chronicle, Jun 2023)

• Texas Book Ban Bills Set a Dangerous Precedent for the Narratives of Young People in Education (Project Censored, May 2023)

• Uniting Against Censorship (School Library Journal, Sep 2022)

• Why we’re fighting our school’s internet ban in Texas (Washington Blade, Apr 2022)

• Our darkest moments of history are ‘pervasively vulgar’ and must be taught (JHV, Apr 2022)

• Texas Students Distribute BIPOC and LGBTQ+ Books During 'FReadom Week' Initiative (NCAC, Mar 2022)

Select Testimony by Cameron Samuels

• University Bans on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (Texas Senate Subcommittee on Higher Education, May 2024)

• House Bill 900 Book Ban - Library Standards Implementation (Texas State Board of Education, Dec 2023)

• Book Bans: Examining How Censorship Limits Liberty and Literature (U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Sep 2023)

• Comprehensive Anti-Transgender Policy (Katy Independent School District, Aug 2023)

• Safe Spaces in Schools / LGBTQ+ Extracurricular Ban, 88(R) SB 1072 (Texas Senate Committee on Education, Apr 2023)

• Student Voices in Educational Policymaking, 88(R) HB 2647 (Texas House Committee on Public Education, Mar 2023)

• LGBTQ+ and BIPOC Censorship in School Libraries and Internet (Katy Independent School District, Aug 2021 - May 2022)

• Whitewashing Social Studies Curriculum, 87(1) SB 3 (Texas Senate Committee on State Affairs, Jul 2021)

Select Interviews with Cameron Samuels

• Texas Book Ban Law Is the Target of Youth Organizations Like SEAT, Booksellers (Teen Vogue, Apr 2024)

• Cameron Samuels '26 testifies before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee (Brandeis University, Sep 2023)

• Student activist Cameron Samuels makes a stand by fighting for a seat at the table (OutSmart Magazine, Jun 2023)

• Students Taking Back 'Ownership' of Education (Texas Observer, Jan 2023)

• Cameron Samuels Led a Powerful Movement Against Censorship in Their Texas School District (Seventeen Magazine, Dec 2022)

• A Conversation with Cameron Samuels, Inaugural Banned Books Week Youth Honorary Chair (School Library Journal, Sep 2022)