GLAAD, the LGBTQ+ media advocacy organization, and EveryLibrary, the U.S. national organization supporting campaigns against book bans, have announced a new guide to help communities unite and challenge book bans, particularly LGBTQ+ inclusive titles and publications about race and racism.

The American Library Association reported the most number of challenged titles in 2022 since it started documenting challenges twenty years ago, with the majority by or about LGBTQ+ people and people of color. Last month, PEN America joined Penguin Random House, parents and challenged authors to sue Escambia County in Florida, alleging school board members banned books and ignored recommendations from its formal review process to return the books to shelves.

The new resource, entitled Book Bans: A Guide for Community Response and Action, informs and prepares community members to organize, create authentic messages, and work with media to ensure diverse local voices are heard against book bans and in support of LGBTQ people and all people of color.

“This guide is urgently needed as communities face a skyrocketing number of book ban attempts across the country targeting LGBTQ+ books and books about race and racism,” said GLAAD President and CEO, Sarah Kate Ellis. “Book bans cannot stand. LGBTQ+ people and books about us belong in libraries, schools and everywhere. This playbook to push back against book bans will help communities become safer, stronger, and smarter. By using the power of personal storytelling and engaging media, communities can unite with their neighbors, send a signal of welcome and acceptance, and see challenged books return to shelves. Communities who care about each reader and a future where all can be free must get the last word.”

The guide offers community members step-by-step recommendations to:

• Organize a diverse local coalition including students, parents, teachers, librarians, LGBTQ+ advocates, authors, health professionals and clergy.
• Create fact-based and meaningful messages to inform and inspire all in the community and present to school and library boards.
• Engage news, social and local media with facts and local interview voices and resources.
• Inform all in the community including families, businesses, elected officials and taxpayers about the absurdity of book bans, and the threat they pose to vulnerable youth, and the entire community’s safety, prosperity and reputation.
• Hold school and library boards accountable to all taxpayers, ensure proper protocol is being followed in book reconsiderations, and demand necessary reforms to end the skyrocketing and discriminatory wave of book banning.

The guide also spotlights a community success story that turned back a book ban effort in suburban New Jersey. Community organizers engaged local mental health and child psychologists, a coalition of clergy, educators and librarians, and challenged New Jersey native author George M. Johnson to draft and deliver essays and statements shared in local and state news media and social media. Johnson’s statement was also delivered at the decisive hearing by Johnson’s mother and aunts, receiving a thunderous standing ovation. All challenged books were unanimously returned to the shelves.

“We are proud to support the work of GLAAD in this unprecedented attack on the LGBTQ+ community,” stated John Chrastka, EveryLibary Executive Director. “We cannot allow this attempt to erase the lives of millions of Americans through book bans to continue. That’s why we’re committed to providing pro-bono resources to communities who are fighting back. I know this guide will help hundreds of communities respond to the attack on their First Amendment rights and the rights of their LGBTQ+ friends and family.“

You can access the guide here.

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