The playbook to fight against book bans!

 

This guide offers community members step-by-step recommendations to:

• Organize a diverse local coalition including students, parents, teachers, librarians, LGBTQ advocates, authors, health professionals and clergy.

• Create fact-based and meaningful messages to inform and inspire all in the community and present to school and library boards.

• Engage news, social and local media with facts and local interview voices and resources.

• Inform all in the community including families, businesses, elected officials and taxpayers about the absurdity of book bans, and the threat they pose to vulnerable youth, and the entire community’s safety, prosperity and reputation.  

• Hold school and library boards accountable to all taxpayers, ensure proper protocol is being followed in book reconsiderations, and demand necessary reforms to end the skyrocketing and discriminatory wave of book banning.

The guide also spotlights a community success story that turned back a book ban effort in suburban New Jersey. Community organizers engaged local mental health and child psychologists, a coalition of clergy, educators and librarians, and challenged New Jersey native author George M. Johnson to draft and deliver essays and statements shared in local and state news media and social media. Johnson’s statement was also delivered at the decisive hearing by Johnson’s mother and aunts, receiving a thunderous standing ovation. All challenged books were unanimously returned to the shelves.

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100% of your donations help us provide pro-bono support to communities like those in New Jersey so they can win.

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“This guide is urgently needed as communities face a skyrocketing number of book ban attempts across the country targeting LGBTQ books and books about race and racism,” said GLAAD President and CEO, Sarah Kate Ellis. 

“Book bans cannot stand,” Ellis continued. “LGBTQ people and books about us belong in libraries, schools and everywhere. This playbook to push back against book bans will help communities become safer, stronger, and smarter. By using the power of personal storytelling and engaging media, communities can unite with their neighbors, send a signal of welcome and acceptance, and see challenged books return to shelves. Communities who care about each reader and a future where all can be free must get the last word.”

“We are proud to support the work of GLAAD in this unprecedented attack on the LGBTQ community,” John Chrastka, EveryLibary Executive Director said. “We cannot allow this attempt to erase the lives of millions of Americans through book bans to continue. That’s why we’re committed to providing pro-bono resources to communities who are fighting back. I know this guide will help hundreds of communities respond to the attack on their First Amendment rights and the rights of their LGBTQ friends and family.“