A San Francisco bookstore worker is fighting efforts to ban LGBTQ+ titles from public schools and libraries by shipping them to states where they've been targeted by conservative groups and lawmakers.
Becka Robbins said she has raised the money needed to send 740 books since May through a "Books Not Bans" program sponsored by employer Fabulosa Books in the city's Castro District, one of the oldest gay neighborhoods in the U.S.
Each shipment is worth $300 to $400, depending on what books are in the box, she told the Associated Press.
"The book bans are awful, [an] attempt at erasure," said Robbins, the store's events manager.
Robbins said she started the effort based on the belief it was more important than ever to make books like Maia Kobabe's memoir "Gender Queer" and George Johnson's "All Boys Aren't Blue" essay collection available.
"Fiction teaches us how to dream," she said. "It teaches us how to connect with people who are not like ourselves, it teaches us how to listen and emphasize."
Some of the books went to the LGBTQ+ Rose Dynasty Center in Lakeland, Florida, which is run by Jason DeShazo, who performs as a family-friendly drag queen known as Momma Ashley Rose.
"I don't think a person of color should have to search so hard for an amazing book about history of what our Black community has gone through," DeShazo told AP. "Or for someone who is queer to find a book that represents them."
Robbins also sent books to a pride center in west Texas and an LGBTQ-friendly high school in Alabama, aided by Fabulosa customers who write notes of support to include in the shipments, AP said.
Florida, Texas and Missouri lead the nation in efforts to ban books, reports AP, citing information from nonprofit literature advocacy group PEN America.
A PEN America report said 30% of the bans involved books with LGBTQ+ characters or themes, and 30% had characters of color or discussed race and racism, AP said.
Many challenges are the work of conservative organizations such as Moms for Liberty, which denies being anti-LGBTQ+, and says it targets books that are sexually explicit, not because they deal with LGBTQ+ issues, AP said.
