Literary Activism

Survey: What Happened During Pride Month? Book Censorship News for July 5, 2024

Kelly Jensen

Editor

Kelly is a former librarian and a long-time blogger at STACKED. She's the editor/author of (DON'T) CALL ME CRAZY: 33 VOICES START THE CONVERSATION ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH and the editor/author of HERE WE ARE: FEMINISM FOR THE REAL WORLD. Her next book, BODY TALK, will publish in Fall 2020. Follow her on Instagram @heykellyjensen.

Last year, following Pride, I pulled together a piece that covered all of the targeted anti-LGBTQ+ attacks on schools, libraries, and bookstores over the course of the month. It’s time to do that again, and like last year, I’m asking for your help.

News media doesn’t always cover these stories. Part of it is a lack of news outlets at the local level. Part of it is that the news outlets at the local level have done a poor job covering bigotry, period, and part of it is that some of these stories never get shared with the media. Even when these stories do make the news, the truth of their provenance isn’t connected — down in the censorship news roundup, for example, you’ll see a story of a bomb threat sent to a New Jersey public library, and most outlets did not note that the threat happened during a drag story time performance at the library.

This is where you come in.

If you experienced or know about a targeted attack on a Pride-themed book display, event, or activity related to libraries, schools, or bookstores, please share that in this Google Form. All of the responses can be anonymous, though providing as much information as possible — locations, type of institution, etc. — will make this much more representative of what’s actually happening.

Even if you do not work in any of those places but have seen a news story about Pride-directed bigotry in them, drop it into the form. I’ve been collecting these stories since mid-May and through the end of June, but certainly, things get missed.

The roundup will run later this month. It will begin with a look at the stories covered by the media, exploring the themes running among them, and then it will share your experiences.

Form responses will close Friday, July 12, 2024.

Book Censorship News: July 5, 2024