Queer books, especially those written by or for LGBTQ youth, continue to be major weapons and casualties in today’s culture war.

We have seen how red states like Florida, Tennessee, and Texas continue to ban queer books from schools, libraries, or anywhere that young people might have access to them. The bans have led in turn to a decline in the number of bookstores willing to carry LGBTQ books, or publishers willing to publish them. According to an article that Surina Benkat wrote for The Hill, this “spike” in LGBTQ book bans created “a notable chill in the market for queer stories. The effect has been most keenly felt within children’s book publishing, where editors and authors describe lower sales numbers amid book bans, as well as the administration’s targeting of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and pre-occupation with ‘radical indoctrination’ in K-12 schools.”

“This is the first year in a decade that I’ve had [rejection] responses from editors specifically citing that it’s difficult to place queer books in stores, and they’re being selective about acquiring queer stories,” according to Rebecca Podos, a novelist and senior literary agent at Neighborhood Literary. “Publishers are going to invest in books that are safely going to go on shelves, that are not going to get banned, that are not going to have this kind of controversy,” said Dahlia Adler, young adult novelist and creator of the website LGBTQ Reads. “I just feel like they’re stepping back.” Adler told The Hill that she has been having difficulty finding LGBTQ novels in the weekly lists published by Publishers Weekly, something she attributes “to lower acquisitions of queer novels this year, as well as more ‘coded language.’ I think it’s less explicit, particularly in YA [young adult literature], when a book is queer, in the announcements. I think that language is being intentionally left out to keep it from being a target.”

Despite all the forces stacked against it, LGBTQ literature continues to be an important and necessary part of our culture, especially for young people who are learning to accept their sexual orientation or gender identity. Sales and interest in queer books remain steady, especially those that are “banned books.” Some publishers and authors are organizing on behalf of the rights of LGBTQ youth to read stories about their lives. One weapon in the fight for freedom is the Queer Liberation Library. According to its website (www.queerliberationlibrary.org) “Queer Liberation Library (QLL) is fighting to build a vibrant, flourishing queer culture by connecting LGBTQ+ people with literature, information, and resources that celebrate the unique and empowering diversity of our community. Volunteers are ensuring that anyone in the U.S. has access to 1,200 books with LGBTQ themes and authors.” Queer Liberation Library makes queer content, ebooks and audiobooks alike, available to anyone with a library card. QLL also features an escape bar on each page as “a fast way to navigate away from our site if they ever suddenly find themselves in an unsafe environment to be browsing LGBTQ+ materials. Our Quick Exit bar takes you to weather.com, a site we hope is neutral”. Welcome to the Age of Trump.