Members of the community gathered in protest opposing right-wing extremist group Moms for Liberty national summit in Philadelphia last month. The “parental rights” organization has been gaining notoriety as they push to enforce “conservative values” in public schools across the country, most recently gaining attention for their crusade against books addressing gender and sexuality at all levels of education.
Efforts in book banning aren’t new, and the fixation on LGBTQ+-centered literature is reflective of growing national efforts to pass discriminatory legislation. However, being a predominantly liberal city, LGBTQ+ books are readily accessible throughout the Greater Philadelphia Area.
The Human Rights Campaign recently put together an LGBTQ+ affirming book list at the middle and high school levels, and all of the mentioned titles are available through the Free Library of Philadelphia. Physical copies of these books can be found throughout the different libraries, and titles at specific locations can be found through their catalog.
“We try to spread distribution among the branches so that there are copies available in all areas of the city,” said Renee Pokorny, the assistant chief of the Free Library’s materials management division.
Additionally, all of these titles, and more LGBTQ+ literature, are accessible through the Free Library in e-book and audio formats.
LGBTQ+ community centers in the city also have libraries with large collections of queer literature available. The Attic Youth Center, which provides programming and services to queer individuals ages 14-23, has its own small library. They have queer books for all ages, with a predominantly young adult selection to meet the needs of the organization’s demographic, as well as many commonly banned books donated from members of the community and allies.
Likewise, the John J. Wilcox, Jr. Library at the William Way LGBT Community Center has thousands of queer books, all donated by members of the community. Anyone in the Greater Philadelphia Area can borrow from the library, and specific titles can be queried through their catalog. Additionally, the Center hosts a book club called Rainbow Reading, which is dedicated to the queer literary experience.
With consideration to Philadelphia’s predominantly left-leaning urban area, the political affiliations of the city’s surrounding suburbs are more varied. Bucks County, for one, has a politically mixed population, and Central Bucks School District (CBSD) has gained media attention due to a fringe group of conservatives pushing their book-banning agenda, most of which are titles that have characters and authors that are LGBTQ+ and/or of color.
The push to ban these books began back in early 2022, however CBSD had already had a procedure for parents to restrict certain books in the schools’ libraries from their own student(s) if they desired.
“The development and passage of the book banning policy has been a tremendous waste of time and resources for the district,” said Karen Smith, CBSD’s Region 1 school board director. “We should be focusing on real issues like learning loss and the mental health of all our students and not on unnecessary policies that further marginalize some student groups.”
Students, parents, alumni and other members of the community spoke out at school board meetings in opposition to these anti-LGBTQ+ policies, such as Policy 321, which was passed earlier this year. Despite the backlash, CBSD has banned the books “Gender Queer” by Maia Kobabe and “This Book is Gay” by Juno Dawson. While more queer titles are available in the schools and other means for students to access them, this practice still puts a discriminatory imposition on students and teachers.
“Not all students are able to access a public library or purchase books from Amazon,” Smith said. “Our school library must have a diverse selection of books, which represent all the students in our schools. When some books are removed or targeted for removal, it sends a message to those students that their identity is not welcome in school.”
This is not the case for the School District of Philadelphia. According to the district’s communications officer Christina Clark, the district does not currently have any books banned from any of the school libraries, nor are they experiencing any calls to ban certain books.
LGBTQ+ books not only maintain a presence, but are also well loved by young people. Per the Free Library’s Field Teen Center, a service providing library programming and support to teens aged 12-18, some popular titles in Philadelphia include “They Both Die at the End” by Adam Silvera, “Cemetery Boys” by Aiden Thomas, “You Should See Me in a Crown” by Leah Johnson, as well as graphic novels such as “Moonstruck” by Grace Ellis and “Heartstopper” by Alice Oseman.