We Must Fight Back Against Book Bans
We have the opportunity to protect the next generation’s ability to think, question, and become fully themselves. Our values as a Commonwealth demand we take it.
Before I ever held elected office—before I understood the mechanics of government or the levers of policy—I was a high school student on Cape Cod trying to make sense of the world around me.
At Nauset Regional High School in Eastham, I first got involved in organizing by speaking up with my classmates to protect the arts programs and teachers who helped shape who we were and who we’d become.
That experience taught me something I’ve carried ever since: young people deserve to be trusted with complexity, not shielded from it. Books are a fundamental part of that.
The books I read in my teens gave me language for things I didn’t yet fully understand, and perspective on lives that looked different from my own. Books helped me ask questions, challenge assumptions, and, over time, better understand myself.
That’s why I find the current wave of book ban efforts so troubling and so fundamentally at odds with what education—and our democracy—is supposed to be.
What’s Happening
This week is National Library Week, a time to celebrate all the ways libraries—and the people who keep them running—make a difference in our lives and in our communities.
Unfortunately, this National Library Week, we need to do more than just celebrate libraries and librarians in our state. We need to protect them.
There’s a persistent myth that Massachusetts is somehow immune to the trend of banning books in our schools and public libraries. Because our state is a national leader in education and inclusion, it’s easy to assume these battles aren’t happening here.
But they are.
In fact, Massachusetts consistently ranks among the top states in the country for attempted book bans. That should give all of us pause.
That’s why I introduced legislation to protect the freedom to read in our public schools and libraries.
My bill, An Act regarding freedom of expression, sets clear, professional guidelines for how materials are reviewed, making sure those decisions are made by trained educators and librarians—not by political pressure or the loudest voices in the room. It also includes protections for library staff, who are increasingly being targeted simply for doing their jobs.
Why It Matters
Protecting Our Librarians
The efforts to ban books in Massachusetts are not abstract. They are organized, coordinated, and increasingly aggressive.
The school librarians I’ve met with across the Commonwealth are on the front lines of this fight. They are trained professionals who chose their careers because they believe in learning, curiosity, and helping us better understand ourselves and our world—but who are now fielding harassment, threats, and relentless pressure simply for doing their jobs.
They deserve better.
Protecting the Freedom to Read
Our residents also deserve the right to read and learn without political interference.
This is not about telling communities what they can or cannot value. It’s about setting a baseline that access to information, literature, and the full spectrum of human experience is a core part of public education.
We can have thoughtful, good-faith conversations about age-appropriateness. Those happen every day in our schools. But what we’re seeing now is something different. It is an attempt to impose a narrow worldview by removing books that make some people uncomfortable.
Education is not about comfort. It is about growth.
Young Lives are at Stake
Let’s be clear: the vast majority of these book challenges are not about protecting children. They are about restricting access to ideas. More specifically, they are disproportionately aimed at books by and about LGBTQ+ people.
Representation matters. That’s not a slogan; it’s a lived reality.
As a queer person, I can say that even growing up on Cape Cod, on the doorstep of Provincetown, it wasn’t easy to come out. The world I encountered—through school, media, and everyday life—was overwhelmingly heteronormative.
That didn’t make me any less gay. It did make it harder to understand myself and feel seen. For a time, it was also easier to internalize a sense of shame about something that is simply part of who I am.
The idea that reading a book about a gay or transgender person will somehow make a young person LGBTQ+ is not just wrong, it’s absurd.
What books can do—what they have always done—is offer recognition. They can tell a young person, quietly but powerfully, that they are not alone. That their experience is valid. That there is a place for them in the world.
For some students, that message is not just affirming. It can be lifesaving.
The National Context
In this moment, the stakes extend beyond our classrooms. We are seeing a broader effort, at the federal level and across the country, to roll back rights and visibility for LGBTQ+ people, particularly our transgender siblings. That’s why we have prioritized protecting the freedom to read as part of the Senate’s Response 2025 initiative.
From threats to strip funding from providers who offer gender-affirming care, to symbolic acts like renaming ships that honored LGBTQ+ icons or pressuring institutions to take down Pride flags—at the Stonewall Inn, no less—the message being sent is one of erasure.
These threats have a real impact on young people. They are paying attention.
In Massachusetts, we can make sure that, in our schools and libraries, we still have access to stories that reflect a fuller diversity of the human experience. We can ensure that when kids reach for a book, they find not just information, but possibility.
Defending our Values
Protecting the freedom to read is not a fringe issue. It goes to the heart of who we are as a Commonwealth. Do we trust our educators? Do we believe in the capacity of young people to think critically and engage with the world as it is?
Are we willing to stand up, even when it’s uncomfortable, for the idea that knowledge should not be restricted to fit a particular ideology? I believe the answer to these questions is a resounding yes.
I believe that if we get this right—if we defend the simple, powerful act of allowing a person to choose a book and read it—we are doing more than protecting libraries. We are protecting the next generation’s ability to think, to question, and to become fully themselves.
What Happens Next
An Act regarding freedom of expression is awaiting action in the House of Representatives.
If passed by the House, any differences between the House and Senate versions will need to be reconciled—most likely in a conference committee—before the bill heads to Governor Healey’s desk for her review and signature.
For Your Consideration
If preventing politically-motivated book bans is important to you, please:
Learn more in the Senate Press Room.
Keep an eye on the House of Representatives for further action on this bill.
Contact your State Senator to voice your support.
Follow the bill on the Massachusetts Legislature website.
Share this update with others!
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