![Pedestrians walk past Fabulosa Books in San Francisco's Castro District on Thursday, June 27, 2024. The bookstore ships LGBTQ+ books to parts of the United States where censorship exists.](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/4032x3024+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F5c%2Fc9%2F5532302c42468df0b1fcbb7ff58d%2Fap24179827264565.jpg)
Pedestrians pass by the Fabulosa Bookstore in San Francisco's Castro neighborhood on Thursday. Bookstores are sending LGBTQ+ books to districts across the country facing censorship, responding to rapidly growing efforts by anti-LGBTQ+ activists and lawmakers to ban queer-friendly books from public schools and libraries.
Haven Daily/AP
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Haven Daily/AP
SAN FRANCISCO — In an increasingly divided political world, Becca Robbins focuses on what she knows best: books.
Operating out of a small room at Fabulosa Books in San Francisco's Castro District, one of the oldest gay neighborhoods in the country, Robbins uses donations from customers to ship boxes of books to organizations across the country in need.
She's running a campaign called “Books Not Bans” to send out titles about queer history, sexuality, romance and more, many of which are becoming harder to find as conservative advocacy groups and lawmakers ramp up their campaign to ban them from public schools and libraries.
“The ban and attempted removal of the book is appalling,” Robbins said. She asked herself how she could get these books into the hands of those who needed them most.
![Librarian Sabrina Jesram prepares a book display during Banned Books Week at a New York City Public Library branch on September 23, 2022.](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/2640x2640+660+0/resize/100/quality/100/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F47%2F88%2F2e372c304822bfe7a16af03f31e7%2Fap22268636219090.jpg)
Last May, she started fundraising and looking for beneficiaries. Her books have gone to places like a Pride Center in West Texas and an LGBTQ-friendly high school in Alabama.
Customers are particularly enthusiastic about helping Robbins ship books to areas like Florida, Texas, and Oklahoma, often writing notes of support to include in the packages. From July 2022 to June 2023, more than 40 percent of all book bans occurred in Florida, more than any other state. Florida is followed by Texas and Missouri, according to a report by the nonprofit literary advocacy group PEN America.
According to the American Library Association, the number of book bans and attempted bans is at an all-time high. And now these efforts are expanding not only to school libraries but also to public libraries. Because the totals are based on media accounts and reports submitted by librarians, the association considers the numbers a snapshot, and many bans remain unrecorded.
According to a PEN America report, 30% of banned material included characters of color or discussions of race or racism, and 30% included LGBTQ+ characters or themes.
The most widespread issues often come from conservative groups like Moms for Liberty, which has campaigned nationwide for bans and called for more parental control over the books their children read.
![Secret shelves full of banned books are thriving in a Texas school right under censors' noses.](https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2024/01/26/book-pages-lined-up-1-credit-becky-harlan-npr_sq-1a9765abef42559e5d47644a7e92eb290fcfe0f9.jpg?s=100&c=100&f=jpeg)
Moms for Liberty is not anti-LGBTQ+, co-founder Tiffany Justice told the AP. But about 38 percent of the group’s “directly initiated” book challenges address LGBTQ+ topics, according to the library association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom. Justice said Moms for Liberty is challenging sexually explicit books, not because they address LGBTQ+ topics.
Topping the banned list are Maia Kovabe's “Gender Queer,” George Johnson's “All Boys Aren't Blue” and Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison's “The Bluest Eye.”
Robbins said it's more important than ever to make these types of books available to everyone.
“Novels teach us how to dream,” Robbins said. “Novels teach us how to communicate with ourselves and others, how to listen and emphasize.”
She's sent 740 books so far, with each box costing $300 to $400 depending on the title.
![Some states are threatening to cut off funding to combat so-called book bans.](https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2023/12/14/ap23286742119335_sq-74aebd04cff836bc2fe6ad83de7f57e33fee91a4.jpg?s=100&c=100&f=jpeg)
The new Rose Dynasty Center in Lakeland, Florida, already has books donated by Fabulosa on its shelves, said Jason Deshazo, a drag queen who runs the LGBTQ+ community center and goes by the name Mamma Ashley Rose.
DeShazo is a family-friendly drag performer and has long promoted literacy by hosting drag story times. He uses puppets to address topics of kindness, dealing with bullying, and giving back to the community.
DeShazo hopes to provide a safe space for events, support groups and health clinics, and build a library of banned books.
“I don’t think people of color should have to search that hard to find books that tell the incredible history of what our Black community has gone through,” DeShazo said. “Or for queer people to find books that represent them.”
Robbins' favorite books are young adult queer romances, a rapidly growing genre as conversations about LGBTQ+ issues become more mainstream than they were a decade ago.
“The characters are just like regular kids,” Robbins said. “They’re queer, but they’re also regular people who fall in love and are happy.”