Fighting Florida Censorship

Updated – February 2, 2023

You might have heard that teachers in Florida are being made to catalogue and submit all of their classroom books to make sure they’re “approved” under HB-1467. Many feel it’s an excuse to rid schools of queer books.

Well, on Wednesday, the first day of Black History Month, the state of Florida took things one step further. The state’s College Board gutted its proposed AP African American Studies curriculum and removed topics the Florida Dept. of Education and Gov. DeSantis felt violated the state’s “Stop Woke” act.

Six topics in total were dropped: “Intersectionality and Activism,” the “Movements for Black Lives,” “Black Feminist Literary Thought,” “The Reparation Movement,” “Black Queer Studies,” and “Black Study and Black Struggle in the 21st Century.” 

Florida is trying to silence Black Voices and Queer Voices. As HRC President Kelley Robinson tweeted on February 1, “Censoring Black and queer history does not create a stronger nation. It is one of the oldest ways society has tried to vilify and suppress marginalized voices.”

We can work together to make sure these marginalized voices don’t go unheard — and unread — in the state of Florida. Help us get LGBTQ+ inclusive books to the state of Florida — in schools that will allow them, yes, but also LGBTQ+ centers and GSA club/youth groups.

With a $50 donation, we’ll send a bundle of LGBTQ+ inclusive books books to the LGBTQ+ center, GSA club/youth group, or school library of your choice — in Florida, in one of the 31 other states attempting to push through book bans, or wherever you feel the books are needed most.

Politicians can try to erase us from places of learning — but history can be learned and made ANYWHERE.

So let’s work together to make that possible.

Visit CenterLink for information about LGBTQ+ centers around Florida and send books now by clicking here.