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Bodacious Bookstore & Cafe in Pensacola, Florida
Bodacious Bookstore & Cafe denies removing titles, saying it only responded to complaints about age-inappropriate content visible to children.
Several employees said they quit their jobs after a manager directed them to remove LGBTQ+ titles from the shelves of a popular independent Florida bookstore, NBC reports. The owners of the bookstore denied they had removed any titles, but only responded to alleged complaints from customers about age-inappropriate books that were visible to children.
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The Bodacious Bookstore & Cafe in downtown Pensacola reportedly received a complaint recently about obscene content on a gift card. Following a review instigated by a meeting with the store’s owner, unnamed former and current employees said interim store manager Beth O’Connor directed employees to remove over 60 titles from the store.
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Employees told NBC News roughly half of the titles removed from the shelves contained LGBTQ+ content. The titles removed included the Heartstopper series by Alice Oseman, and lesbian tennis icon Billie Jean King’s All In and Elliot Page’s Pageboy memoirs.
Bodacious Bookstore denied they had permanently removed any books, saying they had only temporarily removed some titles for review.
“Recently, we reviewed parts of our inventory after receiving emails from parents – some with photos of sexually graphic and vulgar content – who were surprised to find certain books in our store,” Bodacious Bookstore said in a statement posted to social media.
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They added that they have “not banned any categories of books” but instead “temporarily” pulled some titles for further review.
A former employee who wished to remain anonymous told NBC News she cried when she was instructed by O’Connor to remove the LGBTQ+ titles. When she refused, the employee said she was sent home to reflect if she wanted to work at the store.
“It was heartbreaking to see us removing them, especially starting with LGBTQ+ titles,” she said.
Bodacious Bookstore & Cafe is owned by philanthropist, author, and health care executive Quint Studer and his wife, Mary “Rishy” Studer. Travis Peterson, a spokesperson for the Studers, denied there was a purge of LGBTQ+ titles, but instead, a review of titles was done to ensure children are not exposed to titles that might not be age-appropriate.
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“At no time were any books removed because of LGBTQ+ (or any other) subject matter, authorship, or genre. Any assertion to the contrary is not true, especially if made by former employees who are no longer involved with our operations,” Peterson said in a statement provided to NBC. “We stand by our decision as a privately owned bookstore to determine what titles and merchandise are suitable for our shelves or easily accessible by young children. Our goal is to be a welcoming place for every child and every family, and we believe that means not prominently displaying books and merchandise with profanity or explicit content.”
