During last weekend’s Ogden Pride Fest, two groups rolled out and promoted their initiatives — the Utah LGBTQ+ Chamber of Commerce had a booth promoting its Read Between the Bans program while Ogden Pride cut the ribbon on its Banned Wagon Mobile Library.

Read Between the Bans

Liz Pitts, president and CEO of the Utah LGBTQ+ Chamber of Commerce told the Standard-Examiner, that the Read Between the Bans program is just getting underway.

“This is a campaign we started this year,” she said. “We did a little pilot last year, but as books are being pulled off of all the public school library shelves in Utah, we decided to get together with our independent booksellers and bookshops who are part of the business community and do a campaign.”

She said there are two parts to the campaign.

Rob Nielsen, Standard-Examiner

“We’re encouraging people to go to the bookshops and buy these banned books to support small local businesses,” she said. “Do what you will with the banned books, or give them back to us, or donate money, and we will use all of that money to purchase these banned books — these 44 titles — from local independent booksellers, and we give them away for free in community, at events like Ogden Pride here. And we’re going to keep doing it until there are no more banned books in Utah.”

Pitts said the initiative is about connecting youth with stories that may resonate with them.

“The initiative started just simply because the books themselves — many of them have LGBTQ themes and BIPOC themes and characters,” she said. “They’re stories of marginalized youth. … There’s so many stories that are of critical importance to youth. Youth need to be able to see themselves represented in media, in culture, in literature. Especially when they’re grappling with issues like coming out, some are grappling with issues of being victims of sexual violence and all kinds of things. We’re taking these stories away. We’re taking away a lifeline for a lot of youth. We’re also making it harder for other youth to explore and learn empathy for people who are different from them, by being able to read. Reading opens up all kinds of worlds to people who read, and learning about people and experiences different from the ones that you’re having in your own life. It’s a very good part of education, making us well-rounded, empathetic people.”

She said, entering last Saturday’s Ogden Pride kickoff event, the group had already given away 534 books to interested readers. Several more books were given away over the course of Ogden Pride.

The Banned Wagon

Pride weekend also included the ribbon being cut on the Banned Wagon Mobile Library.

Rob Nielsen, Standard-Examiner

Ogden Pride President and Festival Director Sean Childers-Gray told the Standard-Examiner the mobile library has been a few years in the making.

“A few years ago, we started collecting books — books to give out to kids coming to our youth group, books to have readings with,” he said. “We would connect with authors and have a book club with their book, and we realized there was more to this. With the bans in Utah growing and growing and across the nation — the focus on LGBTQ+, BIPOC, and Indigenous voices being silenced by governments — we knew that we could do something. And so, we started collecting those books and really focusing on how we could make that happen.”

He said a brick-and-mortar store was considered but would’ve proven too expensive — but then an alternative appeared.

“I literally had a dream about building out an enclosed trailer and doing a bookmobile, and it came to fruition, finally,” he said. “The mobile library is a lending library, and the only books in it are LGBTQ, BIPOC, and Indigenous voices and the entire Utah state banned book list. We’ll be able to get out into the different counties that we serve and into rural areas where kids can’t always get to a pride center, or they can’t get to a youth activity, or community members are homebound, they can get maybe closer to somewhere in their area. We’ll be able to work with community partners to do mobile Saturdays, pop-up pride center days, and have library day.”

While attendees were able to tour the mobile library Saturday, which has collected upwards of 1,900 books, Childers-Gray said it will begin formal operations in January.

Rob Nielsen, Standard-Examiner

“In January, we’re going to start rolling out and we will work with community partners,” he said. “We’re probably going to be first with the UCC church in their parking lot to do a library day, and then we’ll do that once a month, and we’ll find a parking spot. We’ll announce where we’re going to be, and we’ll have a bistro table set up. People can chill and they can read books, they can check out books, and we’ll have games and activities and just have a spot that is a mobile center.”

About access

While there may be 44 books designated as banned in school libraries, they haven’t been banned from public libraries nor from being sold in the state.

However, Pitts said that it all comes down to access, especially by those who may not have the convenience of other resources as an option.

“They are banned in schools, and that is correct — the public libraries still can have the titles, but it’s a matter of access,” she said. “We’re fortunate in Utah that most all of our schools actually have libraries. This is the first point at which people of this age are able to get books through the school libraries. Not all students have access to a public library. Rural communities don’t have as many public libraries. Students can’t necessarily drive themselves to a bookshop or maybe might not be able to afford to purchase a book. So it is taking this access away from a certain group of people, and it’s usually the most marginalized people.”

She added that the initiative has been well-received so far.

Rob Nielsen, Standard-Examiner

“We’re getting a really good response from the community,” she said. “We’re getting a lot of encouragement and support and donations, so we will keep promoting banned book giveaways, and we’ll keep coming to community events to do so.”

Childers-Gray said they’re not looking at the Read Between the bans program as competition but rather a complementing service.

“With all the initiatives that I know of in the state, we’re all community partners working together and making sure that we all have the resources that we need,” he said. “I don’t think that it’s overkill at all. It’s something to get those who can make change happen to see that smaller groups can do this, and we’re doing that at a local level. I think that the world can change by having small groups like us do these big things.”

For more information on Read Between the Bans, visit https://www.utahlgbtqchamber.org/read-between-the-bans/

For more information on the Banned Wagon, visit https://www.ogdenpride.org/the-banned-wagon/.

Rob Nielsen, Standard-Examiner