LGBTQ Youth Build Mini-Libraries to Buck Academic Censorship

Six young activists have deployed their first "Little Library" in Miami-Dade County, filled with banned books and works they hope will counteract academic censorship and the stigmatization of LGBTQ people under Florida's new public education regime.

The Alliance for LGBTQ Youth's unveiled a hand-crafted, weatherproof book hut on July 15 outside of the Allapattah YMCA — the first of three Little Libraries planned for the county.

Vince Cuadra, a 19-year-old member of the alliance's "Changemakers" leadership program, explained that their mission is to provide the public with examples of books by and about people from marginalized groups whose stories have been shut out of school libraries amid the culture-war furor.

"It is the role of the Miami-Dade County Public School system to provide accurate education of these truths. However, we refuse to wait to be recognized," Cuadra said at the unveiling.

Over six months, the Changemakers, a six-member group ages 13 to 20, learned about education censorship on topics recently barred from Florida's public schools. Courses involved the kind of material that might make the blood of the anti-"woke" boil: intersectionality, ingrained anti-Black discrimination, the history of LGBTQ resistance, colonial origins of gender binaries and sexuality, students' rights, and campaign building.

The group pursued the Little Libraries project in opposition to the large-scale removal of books from Florida public school libraries. Between July and December 2022, Florida school districts banned more than 350 books based on challenges lodged by parents, activists, and politicians.

Cuadra tells New Times that as a queer resident from a working-class family of immigrants, he sees the Little Libraries project as essential for marginalized communities.

"It's the intersection of all my identities," Cuadra says. "We need to see ourselves represented in our education."

The surge in the removal of books — many about race, sexuality, sexual orientation, and gender identity — came after the 2022 passing of the Stop WOKE Act, which restricted teaching about systemic racism in schools, and the so-called "Don't Say Gay" bill, which banned instruction involving gender identity and sexual orientation before fourth grade.

Promoted and pushed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, the laws don't ban specific book titles, but book challenges mirroring the legislation's language have flooded Florida school districts. Educators across the state have cited the laws and related administrative rules by the Florida Department of Education as the reason for the removal of books tackling LGBTQ and race-related topics.

HB 1467, a bill that facilitated parents' book challenges, mandated new school-librarian training, and reinforced libraries' "alignment to state academic standards," was also passed last year.

Book huts in the Little Libraries project will hold 25 books each and will be restocked regularly by the Alliance for LGBTQ Youth (with donations from the public), Books and Books, Haymarket, and Paradis Books and Bread. The project now has 150 books, and organizers hope to expand through future donation drives.

A flyer beneath the little door on the book repositories asks passersby to "take a book, leave a book, tag them @all4lgbtqyouth, and enjoy."

Sabrina Diaz, the Changemakers' fellow, oversees the six students but says she allows them to lead the way. The students chose the issue of education censorship and personally organized partnerships with their donors.

"Some of my proudest moments are actually kind of small, like pushing them to dream really big and then supporting them to create the thing they were going for," Diaz notes, pointing toward the Little Library.

Last year's students also wrote and published a book titled The Courage to Be Truly Free, a play on the title of Gov. Ron DeSantis' book, The Courage to Be Free. The story, recited during the Little Library unveiling, follows a lonely zebra named CoCo, who didn't fit in with others in school, but finds the courage to express their identity to the world. Proceeds from the book's sales on Amazon and Barnes and Noble go toward the Alliance.

Most parents of this year's leadership cohort were "amazing support systems," Diaz says with a beaming smile. A father of last year's cohort attended the unveiling with his daughter to support.

Lucia Nuno, a 14-year-old group member, says that her mother noticed the applications were open for Changemakers and encouraged her to join.

But that degree of familial support is not always easy to come by.

"I also want to acknowledge that there are people out there who need the help that they can't get from their parents and to make sure that their stories are heard, not just mine," Nuno says.

Nuno hopes others can see themselves represented in the Little Library books in the same way she found solace on queer TikTok and LGBTQ communities online during the pandemic.

"I knew I never really resonated with being a guy, so after seeing all this stuff talking about LGBTQ issues, I was like, wow, this is my community. This is where I fit in," Nuno says.