Defend the right to learn and read

In 2022 alone, the American Library Association (ALA) reported 1,269 book and library resource challenges, the highest number in the 20 years since the ALA began recording censorship attempts. The majority of these censorship attempts were attacks on books by and about people of color and LGBTQ+ people.

The Connecticut Library Assocation (CLA) has reported 40 attempts to censor school and library books in our state since 2022, with two LGBTQ+ books – Gender Queer and Let’s Talk About It –  the most frequently challenged. According to the CLA, the majority of challenges in Connecticut have been against books by and about people of color and LGBTQ+ people. Challenged books in Connecticut, for instance, include Flamer, Blankets, Who Is RuPaul?, This Book is Gay, Drama, and The Bluest Eye. In recent years, Connecticut has also seen censors attempt to challenge drag story time, Pride displays at local libraries, and access to books in prisons.

At their core, book bans are attempts to erase the history and lived experiences of people of color, LGBTQ+ people, and women, and to censor conversations about race, gender, and sexuality that impact people’s daily lives – including young people’s. 

Inclusive and representative books are particularly important for ensuring that Black and Brown people, women, and LGBTQ+ people, including youth, are able to engage equally in our school and local communities. All of us deserve to have a free and open exchange about our history and present — not one that erases the lived experiences of Black and Brown people, women and girls, and LGBTQ+ people. 

Having the opportunity to learn and talk about the history and cultures of Black and Brown, LGBTQ+ folks, and other marginalized communities benefits all of us, including students. Studies show that equitable education can increase greater cultural understanding, which helps to build empathy, affirm diversity, and foster greater connection between all students. Culturally relevant education can improve academic performance, too.

We all have the right to read free from viewpoint-based censorship, and young people have a First Amendment right to read and learn in our libraries. Censoring books by and about BIPOC and LGBTQ people is inherently discriminatory and antithetical to our First Amendment rights.

Books are one tool for all of us to learn our history, understand our present, and collectively shape our futures. Our country and state must acknowledge their histories of systemic racism and bigotry and reckon with the present-day harms of racial discrimination and discrimination against LGBTQ+ people — this includes being able to teach and talk about these things in our school and public libraries.

We all have a right to read and learn free from viewpoint-based censorship, and young people have a First Amendment right to read and learn about the history and viewpoints of all communities in our schools and libraries.

The First Amendment protects our freedom of expression and our right to receive and share information. This includes our right to read, learn, and share ideas free from viewpoint-based government censorship. This holds true in schools and especially in libraries, which exist to enable people to encounter and explore different ideas, topics, and viewpoints. 

Legally and morally, the library is a place where we should all be free to encounter and explore new ideas, viewpoints, and find the things we enjoy reading.

The government shouldn’t make attempts to suppress our First Amendment rights by banning books from public libraries. Libraries are an entry point to a whole universe of ideas. Maintaining the breadth of available books from varying viewpoints and backgrounds is essential to preserving our First Amendment rights to read to receive and share ideas.

Attempts to ban books by and about people of color and LGBTQ+ people are also blatantly discriminatory. Banning books and conversations about race, gender, and sexuality in our schools and libraries risks creating or maintaining public services that are unwelcoming to people of color, women and girls, and LGBTQ+ people.

In Connecticut and across the country, parents, students, librarians, and other community members have been fighting for the freedom to read and against book bans. In Newtown, students testified and community members rallied to try to prevent the school board from banning Flamer and Blankets from the high school library. In Lebanon, teens organized testimony to oppose an attempt to ban a Pride display at the local public library. In Colchester, a librarian stood up to the selectman when he attempted to ban Who Is RuPaul?

If you’re facing a book challenge in your town, here are things you can do to fight for your freedom to read:

• Report the book challenge to the American Library Association
• Testify at your school board, library board, or town council meeting
• Write and submit a letter to the editor to your local newspaper
• Email and call your decisionmakers – local school or library board members, town councilors, state representative, or state senator
• Create a petition, gather signatures, and deliver results to your decisionmakers
• Engage directly with candidates running for office to ask them where they stand on book bans, and ask them to support the freedom to read
• Hold a rally to speak out in support of freedom to read
• Email your local librarians, teachers, school administrators, and others to thank them if they speak out to protect the freedom to read
• Submit purchase requests to your local libraries for books about race, gender, and sexuality
• Start a banned book club, like these teens in Texas
• Urge your local decisionmakers to designate your library a book sanctuary, like the Ferguson Library in Stamford
• Urge your state representative and senator to support legislation designating funding for sanctuary libraries in Connecticut

If your town is not facing a book challenge, there are still important things you can do to speak out for the freedom to read:

• Express your support for local librarians, teachers, school administrators, and others if they speak out to protect the freedom to read
• Submit purchase requests to your local libraries for books about race, gender, and sexuality
• Urge your local decisionmakers to designate your library a book sanctuary, like the Ferguson Library in Stamford
• Urge your state representative and senator to support legislation designating funding for sanctuary libraries in Connecticut
• Engage directly with candidates running for office to ask them where they stand on book bans, and ask them to support the freedom to read