LGBTQ+ stories take center stage nationwide on National Day of Reading in an era of book bans

On Friday, in classrooms and libraries, in church basements and living rooms, in school auditoriums and small-town community centers, people across all 50 states will open books that, in many places, have become political lightning rods.

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They will read about queer families. About transgender children. About love and belonging and the quiet relief of seeing yourself reflected on a page.

And they will do so deliberately.

The Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s 11th annual National Day of Reading arrives amid what the organization describes as escalating hostility toward LGBTQ+ youth, from restrictions on teaching about gender identity and sexual orientation to the rollback of civil rights protections and intensified battles over who can play sports.

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“As LGBTQ+ youth and their families face escalating hostility and attacks from the current administration, communities and allies will come together to elevate and celebrate queer stories,” the group said in announcing the event.

What began as a local response to a single dispute has evolved into a national show of solidarity.

“We started this effort 11 years ago,” Cheryl Greene, vice president of school and youth programming at HRC, said in an interview with The Advocate.

The origin story is by now part of the movement’s lore: A kindergarten teacher in a small Wisconsin town sought to read I Am Jazz, a book about a transgender girl, to their class, which included a transgender student. When parents objected, allies organized a public reading at a library; hundreds attended.

“What it showed us is that one, the power of allies and saying, this is not okay, but the power of reading,” Greene said.

Expanding the movement

This year’s participation reflects both urgency and expansion. Greene said roughly 2,800 readings have been pledged across all 50 states and the District of Columbia, with organizers hoping to reach nearly 300,000 people.

“That’s blowing our numbers out of the water this year,” she said.

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The event is anchored by HRC’s Welcoming Schools program, which the organization describes as the nation’s most comprehensive bias-based bullying prevention initiative, providing LGBTQ-inclusive training and resources for Pre-K–12 educators.

This year, the coalition behind the day has broadened. In addition to longstanding education partners, groups such as the National Education Association, PEN America, EveryLibrary, Authors Against Book Bans, the School Board Integrity Project, Lambda Literary, the American Association of School Librarians, Red, Wine and Blue, and Mama Dragons have joined the effort.

The breadth of that partnership underscores how battles over books have become proxy wars over democracy itself, about who defines “appropriate,” who counts as a child worth protecting, and who decides what empathy looks like in a pluralistic society.

What’s actually in the books?

At the center of the controversy, Greene said, is a persistent misunderstanding.

“I think that one of the things is that people conflate sexual orientation and gender,” she said. “What they’re saying is you are too young to be talking about sex, and that’s not what’s in these books.”

Instead, she describes stories rooted in “love,” “family,” and “treating each other with respect.”

Part of the day’s purpose, she said, is almost disarmingly straightforward: read the books before condemning them.

“Open these books and read them instead of listening to the propaganda on the right that’s telling you that it’s whatever it is they’re saying,” Greene said.

She believes many critics have not done so.

“I guarantee that so many of these right-wing people are saying that we shouldn’t be doing this, have never opened one of these books,” she said. The cost of removal, she argues, is not abstract. “When these books are taken off the shelves, the message that we’re sending is that you are not valid and that your lives are not valid and that you don’t exist,” Greene said.

Reading as defiance

For HRC President Kelley Robinson, the stakes are deeply personal and generational.

“LGBTQ+ youth are growing up in a world where they watch books disappear from shelves and lessons about their lives get pushed aside. Even if they don’t understand every political decision behind it, they feel the impact,” Robinson said in a statement. “Moments like the National Day of Reading remind them that their stories matter. Sharing books becomes an act of defiance, and when communities show up for one another, we build understanding and acceptance. Standing together, we make it clear that no one is facing this moment alone and queer stories deserve to be told.”

Greene describes the current wave of censorship as driven by “a small minority that is super vocal,” even as she sees signs of broader pushback.

“There are more of us than them,” she said.

Across the country, she said, students have been speaking at school board meetings to demand that their libraries reflect the diversity of their communities.

An Invitation to participate

Participation does not require official sanction. Greene emphasized that anyone can pledge to read — in a classroom, at a place of worship, in a neighborhood gathering, or simply with one other person.

“It doesn’t have to be a full, organized event,” she said. “Just have a discussion around the importance of books, and most importantly, open the book and read it, and then talk about why these books are important.”