Queer books are under attack

It’s Pride Month and the first Pride was a riot. 

Turns out, we still have plenty of shit to riot about. 

I’m sick of Republicans trying to take away queer books and stories from kids and literally trying to erase trans people. It’s all the same playbook. You know it, the one that says us trans people are here to indoctrinate their children and prey on their women? Unsurprisingly, support for LGBTQIA+ rights in the U.S. continues to drop, according to a new poll. 

In case you haven’t heard, H.R. 2616, the “Stopping Indoctrination and Protecting Kids Act” passed the House on May 20, and would go to the Senate next.

This insidious bill is short, but would do a few detrimental things: 

1. Require parental consent before changing a student’s gender markers, pronouns, preferred name or sex-based accommodations (including locker rooms or bathrooms). 
2. Make it illegal to use funding to “teach gender ideology,” which much reporting has said will effectively ban a lot of school materials, including books, that teach kids about gender. 

What happens if schools don’t comply? Public elementary and middle schools will lose federal funding. As you probably know, schools already struggle to get enough funding to survive. 

Huffington Post reported that this bill “isn’t likely to pass the Senate, if it even comes up there,” but Democrats will only stay strong in this if we hold them accountable to make sure this does not become law. We also have the fiscal year (FY) 2027 appropriations bills to watch this month during mark-ups, as the Trump administration continues to target the Institute of Museum and Library Studies (IMLS) for elimination. 

And what’s worse: a proposed federal regulation released by the Trump administration “includes ending government sponsorship of gender ideology and other radical doctrines the previous administration sought to impose across the country through Federal funding programs.” 

(screenshot of the federal regulation, source)

As Erin in the Morning has reported, this would impact anyone receiving federal funding, including public and school libraries.

All of this represents a continuing trend of trying to target both public and school libraries, with threats to slash funding and force book banning. 

If you don’t have kids you may be wondering, with everything else going on in the world, do I have to track all of this too? It’s impossible for us to keep up with everything, but I like to think about it like this: what kids in our community are learning in school becomes how our community handles difference, conflict and safety. Kids who are learning to hate in school will become our community members passing these laws, sitting on boards and in leadership roles – actively making our communities unsafe for BIPOC and trans people. 

We need to protect the trans and queer kids in our community. We need to make sure they have access to the materials they need, that they feel safe in school and that they can thrive in an academic setting. 

It’s worth mentioning too that the targeting of IMLS also harms public library resources and we ALL benefit from public libraries. 

So what do we do about it? 

There are a lot of things you can do locally in our community to support libraries and library workers right now! And you don’t have to do everything – do SOMETHING. 

Is there one thing you can do this week to support libraries? Here are some ideas: 

1. MOST IMPORTANT AND URGENT: Support our Urbana Free Library workers! Tell Board President Daniel Urban that library workers deserve fair wages and predictable schedules! Urbana library workers are asking us to help them get a fair contract in a flyer they asked me to pass out this week at Carnation Bookhouse. If you are an Urbana resident especially, your participation can play a vital role in showing that this community cares about its library workers. Go to this site for a script to show your support. The next board meeting is on Tuesday June 9 at 7 p.m., so it would be great to get your letter in before then.
2. Comment on this heinous proposed federal regulation from the Trump administration! The comment period ends on July 13, 2026, but don’t wait until the last minute to get your comment in.
3. Keep checking 5 Calls for ways to speak up on a federal level. If there’s a call to action for queer and trans people, make some calls to your reps. 5 Calls has some great script options. Calling works, people! You have to give your name and address and call YOUR representatives so that the aide taking your call can count your call. 
4. Have you been to a board meeting for your public library? It’s a good way to make sure you are supporting our libraries now, before we have a crisis locally. If we form networks now, we keep us safe when shit hits the fan. 
   1. The Urbana Free Library – The Board of Trustees meets on the second Tuesday of each month at 7 p.m. in the Lewis Auditorium at the Library or via Zoom. More info here.
   2. Champaign Public Library – The Library Board of Trustees meets the third Wednesday of the month at 5:30 pm. Meetings are open to the public and are usually held either at the Main Library or at the Douglass Branch Library. More info here.
5. Have you considered being a mentor at one of our schools? The mentoring program we have in CU is called 1-to-1. I do this and it’s been great to build a relationship with my mentee and be more aware of what’s happening at local schools. More info here.
6. Do you go to the library? Making sure you have a library card, going to your local library and checking things out all help signal to bureaucrats that we still need these vital institutions. 
7. Can you volunteer for your local school library? It can be a huge help for the library to have volunteers and for kids to see queer people at school. Also it’s fun! 

I recently read How Queer Bookshops Changed the World by A.J. West, and was reminded again of how critical access to books is. Queer bookstores, library workers and booksellers, have been part of so many political movements throughout history, as West highlights in his book. 

Don’t underestimate how detrimental bills like H.R. 7661 and H.R. 2616 are, or this federal regulation, or the administration's efforts to defund IMLS. But on the other hand, it’s comforting to know that we have always been able to gain access to materials we need, no matter how people have tried to suppress them. There will also be people who are willing to put themselves on the line to make sure people can have books that help them understand themselves and their community. If you need to feel some more fight and hope for the world, can I suggest you check out West’s book? 

And then do something on the list this week. Bring a friend. Let’s make this Pride the commitment to our community that it’s been from the beginning.

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