The executive director of Equality Virginia this week reiterated her sharp criticism of efforts to ban books with LGBTQ-specific content.

“There is a dangerous, insidious trend developing in states around the country where innocuous and inclusive books are being removed from libraries and curricula, including and especially books and resources about LGBTQ+ people,” Narissa Rahaman told the Washington Blade on Tuesday in a statement. “We should not be pursuing book bans in a pluralistic democracy, but rather seeking to provide more information, more resources, more points of view for anyone seeking it out.” 

Robert Rigby, Jr., a spokesperson for FCPS Pride, a group that represents LGBTQ employees of the Fairfax County School District, echoed Rahaman.

“Libraries and are places where children can and should be welcomed, safe, respected and included. Books and librarians literally save lives,” Rigby told the Blade on Wednesday. “Practically, inclusive book and materials collections improve attendance, scores, graduation rates and well-being. FCPS Pride respects and trusts our professional librarians. They are heroes who make schools a better place for all.”

Rahaman and Rigby spoke with the Blade against the backdrop of continued efforts to ban books with LGBTQ-specific content as students return to the classroom in Virginia and around the country.

A group of parents who want the ability to allow their children to opt-out of classes in which books with LGBTQ-specific books are read have filed a federal lawsuit against the Montgomery County Board of Education and Montgomery County Public Schools Supt. Monifa McKnight. A hearing in the case took place in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt on Wednesday.

“The Montgomery County Board of Education took away parental notice and opt-outs for storybooks that advocate pride parades, gender transitioning and pronoun preferences for kids as young as pre-kindergarten,” said Becket, a conservative law firm that advocates for religious freedom, in a statement about the case. “Becket is helping a group of Muslim, Catholic and Ethiopian Orthodox parents who want to restore their ability to raise their children consistent with their faith.” 

NBC Washington on Tuesday reported Michelle Ross, director of the Samuels Public Library in Front Royal, Va., has resigned after she and her staff faced harsh criticism from a group that wants to ban books with LGBTQ-specific content. Donald “Mac” Scothorn, chair of the Botetourt County (Va.) Board of Supervisors, on July 31 proposed adult supervision for anyone under 18-years-old who visits the county’s four libraries.  

The Hillsborough County School District in Florida ahead of the 2023-2024 school year has prohibited teachers from teaching their students about William Shakespeare, citing the state’s “Don’t Say Gay” law that Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed. The Urbandale Community School District in Iowa has removed a Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg biography and nearly 400 other books from school libraries and classrooms.

“We even see extremists ban books and attempt to erase, and even rewrite, the ugly parts of our history,” said Vice President Kamala Harris in Orlando, Fla., on Aug. 1 in response to the Florida Board of Education’s new Black history curricula standards that suggest slavery had benefits. “Right here in Florida, they plan to teach students that enslaved people benefited from slavery. They insult us in an attempt to gaslight us, in an attempt to divide and distract our nation with unnecessary debates.”

A federal judge in Texas in April ordered Llano County officials return books — many of which had LGBTQ-specific content — they removed from their public libraries. 

Republican Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders earlier this year signed a law that would have made it a crime for librarians and booksellers to provide access to books and other materials deemed “harmful to minors.” The statute was to have taken effect on Aug. 1, but a federal judge blocked it.

The College Board on Aug. 3 said the Florida Department of Education had effectively banned the teaching of Advanced Placement Psychology classes in the state’s schools because the course includes discussions about sexual orientation and gender identity. Florida Education Commissioner Manny Diaz, Jr., in a letter he sent to the Florida Association of District School Superintendents the following day said the course could be taught “in its entirety.”

California officials — Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, Attorney General Rob Bonta and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond — in a June 1 letter to the state’s public school superintendents and charter school administrators told them not to ban books. The Prince George’s County Memorial Library System the day before announced the launch of its Rock Banned Book Club.

“Here in Virginia, we were founded in response to government overreach,” Rahaman told the Blade. “As this conversation moves throughout state legislatures, we’re hopeful that our founding principles and open society outweigh the fear-mongering from opportunistic politicians and government officials.” 

Brody Levesque and Christopher Kane contributed to this article.