Many out-of-town visitors to Fabulosa Books in San Francisco react emotionally when they see what Becka Robbins calls the “Great Gay Wall,” which features a stack of shelves filled with LGBTQ+ titles.
But Robbins, the store's events manager, best remembers the response of a 15-year-old boy from Ohio.
“Wait a minute! Are all the books on this entire wall gay?” the teenager asked after entering from Castro Street last year.
When Robbins said yes, the boy stayed silent and then smiled back. “Can I hug you?” he asked.
Fabulosa Books in the Castro District.
(Loren Elliott/for The Times)
The moment was “super touching and sweet,” Robbins said, but also “a little terrible,” a reminder, in one of America's strangest neighborhoods, that LGBTQ+-affirming books are still hard to come by for many young people. queer in the United States.
Robbins said he still thinks about the exchange when he packs boxes of LGBTQ+ books to ship to Alabama or Idaho, Oklahoma or South Carolina, Texas or Florida as part of a grassroots effort he launched from Fabulosa last year called “Books Not Bans.” .
The initiative is a West Coast counterattack to the well-organized and rapidly growing effort by anti-LGBTQ+ activists and lawmakers in more conservative parts of the country to ban queer-friendly books in schools and public libraries.
According to the American Library Association, more than 4,200 book titles were subject to censorship in 2023, representing a 92% increase in challenged titles in public libraries and an 11% increase in school libraries compared to the last year. Nearly half of the titles deal with the lived experiences of LGBTQ+ people and people of color, the group found.
Emily Drabinski, president of the association, said librarians in smaller communities are being bombarded with ban requests, threatened if they don't comply and forced to remove books from shelves by overzealous lawmakers eager to demonstrate their moral authority.
The Castro district has long been a beacon of strange hope for the country, and this is one of the latest versions. It has been fifty years since San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk, one of the country's first gay elected officials, began drumming up local political support for the gay community by giving speeches about gay children in more rural areas of the country who encountered hope in the neighborhood message. acceptance.
The need for that hope persists, as does St. Francis' instinct to satisfy it.
“They need more than books, obviously, but this is what we have,” Robbins said. “This is something I can do that is concrete.”
Customers shop at Fabulosa Books.
(Loren Elliott/for The Times)
Books Not Bans operates with the blessing of Fabulosa owner Alvin Orloff from a closet in the bookstore. The nonprofit is heading into its second year and its concept is simple.
Signs at Fabulosa talk about the program and solicit donations from customers, many of whom are immigrants from more conservative parts of the country or visitors to those places.
Once enough money has been raised for a full box (usually about 20 books, or about $400), Robbins finds a group he thinks might need it and reaches out. If the organization is interested, Robbins works with its members to select the titles that best fit their needs, whether they are children's books, young adult books, parenting guides, or anything else.
So far, Robbins has shipped 35 boxes, or about 700 books, he said. Recipients have included an LGBTQ+ affirming high school in Alabama, a Straight Gay Alliance in South Carolina, a drag story hour in Idaho, a graduate student working with queer seniors in Oklahoma, and a queer youth center in Florida.
Becka Robbins works packing a box of books for the Books Not Bans program that she keeps in a closet inside Fabulosa Books.
(Loren Elliott/for The Times)
Recipients have sent thank you cards and other mementos of appreciation, Robbins said, although not everyone wants the attention. Some have received death threats for their work.
Jason DeShazo, aka drag queen Momma Ashley Rose, recently received a box of books from Fabulosa for the Rose Dynasty Center, an LGBTQ+ safe space, health clinic, and community center that DeShazo just opened in Lakeland, Florida.
DeShazo said he's been performing hours of family-friendly drag stories since long before they became the political lightning rod they are today. He believes deeply in the power and importance of books in the fight for queer acceptance. The intense hate and discrimination he has recently experienced from anti-LGBTQ+ protesters has only solidified that belief, he said.
Fabulosa's books are a big boost for the library she is trying to build downtown, she said, but they also send a powerful message about the bonds of the LGBTQ+ community, near and far.
“It gives me hope,” DeShazo said. “It's a joy to think that there are people in other parts of the country who know what we're going through and are willing to support us, to make sure we can have that safe space for people.”
Becka Robbins runs the Books Not Bans program.
(Loren Elliott/for The Times)
In San Francisco, queer acceptance is often taken for granted, even in the literary space. The San Francisco Public Library calls itself the “queerest library ever,” has a dedicated queer collection in the main library’s James C. Hormel LGBTQIA+ Center, features LGBTQ+ titles in all of its branches, and hosts special events that encourage people to read LGBTQ+ and other prohibited topics. books.
“We see our role as a place of representation and also of joy and kindness, so that people can come in and see themselves represented,” said Cristina Mitra, director of programs at the Hormel Center.
But the picture is very different in other parts of the country.
“There's a lot of fear and concern,” said Drabinski of the library association. In addition to targeting gay-friendly books, he said, anti-LGBTQ+ activists are mounting “a pressure campaign to undermine trust in libraries and librarians.”
Drabinski, who grew up in Idaho and is queer, said the books crucially helped her understand herself and that part of her mission is to make sure today's youth have the same learning opportunities. She praised Fabulosa for being part of the same fight.
Robbins said he hopes Books Not Bans continues to grow, but also that other queer institutions in places like San Francisco find ways to connect with those in less accepted parts of the country, to see how they could help.
“A lot of people in the LGBTQ community on the coast feel very, very confident that everything is fine, but that's not what I hear,” she said. “It really matters to show up for each other.”
