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Governor Ron DeSantis banned hundreds of books across the state of Floridacensorship issues focused on race, history, sexual orientation, and gender in an effort to silence the voices and narratives of marginalized communities and further push their MAGA vision for a “Great American Comeback.”
just last month, A Florida school banned “The Hill We Climb,” the moving poem Amanda Gorman recited at the inauguration of President Joe Biden, saying it would now be out of reach for young readers after a parent claimed the poem was “indoctrinating” students. The school, which claimed the poem is “not educational,” also banned “The ABCs of Black History,” a book intended for readers ages 5 and up.
In response, Gorman, the first national young poet laureate, described feeling “gutted,” He explained that he had written the poem “so that all young people could see themselves in a historic moment,” and said, “We must fight.”
And we are fighting back.
With Ron DeSantis officially in the running for president, MoveOn is launching a “Banned Mobile Library,” filling it with books that DeSantis and other MAGA Republicans have banned in recent years, and touring the country to hand out those books free. We are able to make the Banned Bookmobile a reality thanks to the generosity of MoveOn members.
This response is important because in the last year alone, DeSantis has instituted all of these extremist policies in Florida:
- He instituted sweeping book bans targeting books written by or about people of color and the LGBTQ+ community, books about anti-Semitism and the rise of the Nazis, and accurate descriptions of American history, leaving entire classrooms and school libraries “suspended, closed, or empty.” from books”. either permanently or temporarily. according to PEN America.
That’s DeSantis’ and the MAGA movement’s vision for America: a place where our stories, our identities, and our communities are off limits. The stakes are high: we must unite to fight for our freedom of expression, build community and that young people can see themselves reflected in the classroom through their stories and identities. DeSantis’ bans are an attack on all our freedoms, but he can’t erase us.
That’s where our Forbidden Mobile Library comes into play.
Our members have come together to fund the Banned Bookmobile, launching this summer. We’ll use this as an opportunity to have conversations with voters about the MAGA vision for our country, provide resources for people to get involved to help defeat the GOP in 2024, and keep the topic of book bans surrounding DeSantis in focus. the electoral campaign.
All while handing out as many banned books as possible to students and others who have lost access to them thanks to MAGA politicians like Ron DeSantis.
Your dollars could expand the route of the Banned Bookmobile to follow DeSantis at campaign stops across the country to more early-stage states if enough funds are raised. Because MAGA Republicans are not only passing bans in Florida, they are staging attacks on classrooms and instituting bans on our bodily autonomy across the country.
Here are the first 10 books we’re buying and giving away on our Banned Bookmobile. All of these books are banned in Florida, and five were among the top 10 most banned books in the entire country in 2022:
- “The 1619 Project: Born in the Water” – Nikole Hannah-Jones and Renée Watson
- “Not All Boys Are Blue: A Memoir Manifesto” – George M. Johnson
- “And the tango makes three” – Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell
- “The Bluest Eye” – Toni Morrison
- “Gender Queer: A Memory” – Maia Kobabe
- “The Hill We Climbed” – Amanda Gorman
- “I’m Jazz” – Jazz Jennings and Jessica Herthel
- “Looking for Alaska” – John Green
- “Maus” – Art Spiegelmann
- “Out of the Darkness” – Ashley Hope Perez
“Gender Queer: A Memoir,” a graphic novel about non-binary author Maia Kobabe’s journey toward self-discovery. it was the most banned book in the United States in 2022 and also received the most challenges of any book in 2023.
We want to make sure that as many people as possible have the opportunity to read these books and that we spread the word far and wide that DeSantis and the Republican Party are supporting censorship and book bans, along with their other dangerous and extreme policies. that restrict our freedoms. These policies are attacking our bodily autonomy, from abortion to trans rights to gender-affirming healthcare. They are enacting voter suppression and increasing attacks on the poor. Our rights, our histories and our identities are under threat.
How you can get involved:
Contribute monthly to support the Forbidden Bookmobile. With just a $5 monthly donation, you can help fuel MoveOn’s Banned Bookmobile nationwide tour so we can keep buying as many copies of DeSantis’ banned books as we can, giving them away for free, informing voters about the agenda for MAGA Republicans for our country, and bashing DeSantis and the GOP with bad press for as long as it takes.
We cannot stand by while politicians like Ron DeSantis try to erase history and silence the American people. The more we can get the word out about not only DeSantis but the Republican Party as a whole, the less they can hide from the consequences of their own actions.
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