The Fabulosa bookstore in San Francisco's Castro district specializes in offering LGBTQ+ books. Typically, the Saturday before San Francisco's Pride parade is the busiest day of the year at Fabulosa.
"We are the neighborhood bookstore in San Francisco’s Castro district, which of course is one of the oldest 'gayborhoods' in the country," said Fabulosa owner Alvin Orloff.
But this year, the store is not just busy with sales to the many tourists who flock to San Francisco for Pride, it is also busy carrying out an effort to bring queer books to states where those books have been targeted.
Store employees at Fabulosa said they are upset to see the many books getting pulled from school and library shelves around the country.
"It’s so important for people to see themselves represented in the literature they’re reading, it makes a world of difference, especially if you’re in a community that’s not that supportive," said Orloff.
The American Library Association says the number of books challenged in U.S. libraries spiked 65% in 2023 compared to 2022, marking the highest level ever documented by ALA. That same report found that 47% of those challenged books in 2023 represented the voices and experiences of the LGBTQ+ community and people of color.
In May of 2023, Fabulosa employee Becka Robbins came up with an idea to send books to LGBTQ organizations in states where books are getting pulled off the shelves. This effort has been titled "Books not Bans" and features a prominent spot both in Fabulosa's store and on its website.
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Robbins spearheaded finding LGBTQ+ organizations in those states and asking them whether they would be interested in receiving books, and if so, what type of books.
Now, Fabulosa sends all kinds of queer books to organizations in states experiencing book bans at no cost to those organizations. The idea is that those books will remain accessible and free to the public through these organizations.
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"If you’re a young person and you’re not in a supportive family, you might have to read [a book] at the LGBT center, you know, you can’t have your Amazon book delivered to your home like that," Orloff explained.
Customers can either donate towards that effort or buy specific books in the store they want to contribute.
"There are a lot of introductory books about gender, about being trans, about being LGBT, and novels -- people want happy-ending romance novels with queer characters," Orloff noted.
All of the boxes of books are packed by Robbins in a tiny storage closet inside the store. So far, Fabulosa has sent 35 boxes -- with at least 20 books each inside -- to organizations in states including Oklahoma, Alabama, Tennessee and South Carolina.
Fabulosa customer Andrew Rodela of San Francisco said he is a fan of this effort.
"Anything we can do to help people get access to books that they should be able to read is a good thing," Rodela said.
Several customers in the store mentioned how particular queer books impacted their lives.
"I came out maybe 20-25 years ago, and at that point – it was kind of pre-internet," said San Francisco resident Gino D'Agostino. "So how I kind of got word of what I could become and what was out there was through literature, right? Was through books."
Fabulosa staff say customers are overwhelmingly supporting this effort. The store is packing up two more boxes of books they plan to send out soon.
"We’re not going to stop, as long as they keep doing these silly bans, we’re going to keep sending books out," Orloff said.
