Libraries across the United States received a record-breaking number of requests last year to ban books.
The challenges targeted more than 4,200 titles, nearly half of which were books that represented LGBTQ people and individuals who are Black, indigenous, or people of color, according to the American Library Association.
On Saturday, the Central Library of Rochester and Monroe County will hold an event intended to push back on book ban efforts. The Banned Book Read-Out will take place downtown on the north terrace of the Rundel Memorial Library building on South Avenue. It's part of a national day of action led by the American Library Association and other library groups.
"A number of the libraries in our county have had some very, very serious issues," said Emily Clasper, associate director of the Central Library of Rochester and Monroe County. "Henrietta Public Library had a very serious issue with community members who took issue with a title and took it to social media rather than having a conversation about it. And that turned out to be, honestly, a terrible experience for the staff in that library. It got very personal."
From noon to 4 p.m., attendees will have the opportunity to read aloud for 10 minutes from a banned or challenged book of their choice. Central Library staff have pulled together a small collection of such books, including:
- E.B. White's "Charlotte's Web," which has been targeted because it features talking animals;
- A children's book called "The Rabbits' Wedding," which was targeted because one of the titular rabbits is black and the other white;
- Toni Morrison's "The Bluest Eye," an Oprah's Book Club pick which opponents challenged because of sexual content including incest and rape.
- J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," which was targeted for depicting witchcraft and the occult.
That collection also includes George Orwell's "1984," a book that, ironically, satirizes totalitarianism and the way people in power use language to mislead the masses, but also champions free expression. People have tried to get it banned from libraries because of its sexual content or political objections.
Locally, the Fairport Education Alliance is one group that has challenged books and other materials made available in the district's school libraries. The group argues it is "working to reclaim our schools from activists promoting harmful agendas" through materials and instruction that is "at odds with basic American values and traditional family structures." In alerts posted to its website the group raises concern that the district is "prioritizing socio-political topics" and criticizes the district for refusing to pull a book it objected to as sexually explicit because it addressed topics of gender identity and sexuality.
Across the country, many of the challenged books deal with gender identity and sexuality, such as Juno Dawson's "This Book is Gay." Clasper said that whenever libraries have to pull content because of a character or author's identity, that's damaging to the entire community.
"As we all know, representation really, really matters," Clasper said. "And people are coming into our libraries and our schools, and they need to see themselves."
Clasper added that book bans also stifle free expression and amount to an attack on democracy itself.
"It's an attack on people's ability to learn and think critically, and that is something that we need ... as a society," Clasper said.
