People sometimes look at our banned books display and say: They aren’t really banned, are they? You have them for sale here.
Yes, you can buy Judy Blume’s Forever or Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye or All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson in our store or from our online shop. But those same books can’t be found in many schools and libraries here in Florida or around the country. PEN America, a nonprofit that advocates for free expression, found that during the 2021-2022 school, Florida schools banned 565 books, many of them because they have “LGBTQ+ themes, protagonists of color, or that touch on race or racism.”
We sell books because we believe books are important. We believe books help us think about who we are and who we could be. Hiding the books doesn’t erase the history some people would like to forget, or stop people from being gay or nonbinary or transgender – but it may make those experiences harder for many people to talk about, learn about, and empathize with.
As Juno Dawson, author of This Book is Gay, says, “LGBTQ people exist. We have always existed. Banning books isn’t going to remove us from the world. What it will do is leave a vulnerable minority in real danger. Young LGBTQ people deserve the same education and information as anyone else.”
Or as LeVar Burton, former host of Reading Rainbow, says, “Read the books they’re banning. That’s where the good stuff is! If they don’t want you to read it, there’s a reason why.”
Celebrate Pride with us by reading something from our Pride Reads display or browse online: fiction & nonfiction.
* Thanks to Tracie D. Hall, Executive Director of the American Library Association, for the phrase, “Free people read freely.” (https://time.com/6276657/librarian-tracie-d-hall-full-time100-speech/)