Books Unbanned Stories and Testimonials

We are in FL, enough said. Omitting facts from curriculum limits education, limiting education oppresses the people, oppression leads to compliance through fear and that is a very very slippery slope for any elected Government or Gov entity. Censorship is control of the people, the opposite of freedom.

Banning books is wrong!

Honestly, I don't know that enough people go to the library in my area to that they care about banning books. I think the biggest barrier to access in my area is that there simply aren't a lot of books in my library, because we don't have enough funds to have a vast collection. I am grateful to this library card because it will give me more access to books, especially books in non-English languages, or those about more niche subjects.

I appreciate being able to read books without the restraint of others opinions.

Even before books were banned here, it was hard to get a lot of things, like books about alternative religions, or other cultures, or vegetarianism or anything that is the least but outside of "normal." One time I was getting a book and the librarian was commenting that it was not appropriate for me to read. Now it is even worse, not only in the books we can get, but some of the librarians, not all, feel free to comment on what you are checking out.

If it hadn't been for the books available to me about different marginalized people's perspectives in my school libraries growing up, I might have grown up to be a very different person. Without them, I might have been influenced by society to be more bigoted, narrow-minded, and less forgiving, and ashamed of myself for things that were never shameful. But I learned, simply, and I'm so grateful for how differently I turned out. I'm a lot happier now than when I was a kid, and much kinder. I want to keep learning, and I want other people to have that chance, too.

Coming from a conservative state, I have seen parents and other groups strongly advocating against many books that give important representation and perspectives. Some influential books in my life have since been banned in my school district, and there are still books I have been unable to find access to at my public and school libraries. I am so grateful that I will now have the opportunity to use this card to read freely with more diverse books.

Governor Abbott recently banned DEI offices at Texas universities, meaning free access to inclusive resources is essential.

My local library is currently being run by an unqualified mayoral appointee (not the usual way library directors are hired in our town) who keeps removing books from shelves with no due process. She has also been publicly called out for spewing racist vitriol on her social media.

Positive vibes only

As a queer kid in a very religious household, access to my library was absolutely vital for me. Being able to read books about queer people showed me that they were normal, and ok. The fact that people are losing access to that is so scary to me.

Books in my elementary and middle school libraries were the only places I could explore ideas and concepts from all angles and how I learned to have as wide a mindset as I do. Taking books which helped me develop intellectually and emotionally off the shelves, from the hands of a ton of kids like me, will do nothing but harm. Not everyone has Internet access to find things like this responsibly and not everyone has access to a public library. Unban books mfs!

I appreciate having more access to reading material.

As an indigenous person in North Carolina, much information about my culture, including the attempted genocides, has been suppressed even before the increase in book bans nationally. Unfortunately, a small group of uneducated, backward and very bigoted hicks has a stranglehold on the government in this state.