A San Francisco bookstore is fighting back against escalating anti-LGBTQ+ book bans across the US by sending prohibited queer texts to communities battling censorship.

Fabulosa Books, located in the Castro, the city’s historic gay neighborhood, has received widespread support during Pride month for its Books Not Bans program, which allows customers to buy and send books to LGBTQ+ organizations operating in conservative parts of the country.

Becka Robbins, founder and director of the program, and the bookstore’s events manager, launched the initiative last year, inspired by repeatedly witnessing how impactful it can be when youth discover queer literature for the first time: “At the store, I’ve seen young people who don’t have access to these books, and it’s definitely a cinematic moment, where they are like: ‘Oh my god!’ … This should be ordinary. They should see this queer lit in their own libraries, in their classrooms, on their parents’ bookshelves. But they’re not.”

She decided the most practical way to push back against bans, which have become a priority of anti-LGBTQ+ school boards across the country, was to send books directly to groups that could provide them to readers who might not be able to access the texts in their schools or through their families.

The project is a grassroots effort that operates out of a closet in Fabulosa, and since launching, Robbins said she has sent more than 700 books to states across the US, including Texas, Florida, Alabama, Arkansas and Oklahoma.

“I really believe in the power of fiction as a driving force for connection, resilience and empathy. It gives you the capacity, in a way that nothing else does, to connect with people who are different than you,” Robbins said. “There’s been times in my life where fiction has really kept me going.”

She has more boxes ready to ship, and since the program got recent news coverage in the Los Angeles Times, the Associated Press and local television stations, donations have been pouring in, with more people stopping by the store wanting to buy books for other communities: “It’s been a community effort. Customers come in and pay for entire boxes and say: ‘Send this to Florida.’ They leave a note that says: ‘Hang in there, you’re going to get out of that place.’ It’s encouraging and also a little heartbreaking. People shouldn’t have to leave to find safety and comfort.”

The American Library Association (ALA) reported in March that more books were banned in 2023 in US schools and libraries than any other year on record – 4,240 titles censored, which was more than the previous two years combined. Many targeted books are about race and LGBTQ+ people.

Last week, South Carolina adopted one of the harshest book ban laws in the country, with a vague policy requiring books to be “age or developmentally appropriate”, an edict that could impact a broad range of texts. Public school textbooks have also increasingly been targeted, with literature on the climate crisis, vaccines, history, racism and sex education facing censorship.

Fabulosa owner Alvin Orloff said some of the local patrons supporting Books Not Bans come from the communities that are now facing rising censorship: “Our customers live in San Francisco, but they know what it’s like to grow up in a small town where everybody’s bigoted. So they feel really strongly that they want to do anything they can to make life easier for the next generation.”

The program is also designed to show solidarity with transgender and queer groups that are sometimes faced with significant backlash and violent threats over their efforts to defend people’s rights, Orloff added: “There’s a psychological thing for them to just know there’s people out there who are thinking about them and care about them, that they’re not invisible, that there’s a world beyond their community that values them.”

Watching the escalating book bans has reminded Orloff of the 1970s campaigns of anti-gay activist Anita Bryant, who claimed her efforts were about “saving the children” and promoting parents’ rights: “Politicians just want to whip up the fear. It’s a big, symbolic thing for them to say we’re ‘protecting the children’. It’s the same thing they were saying 50 years ago when I was growing up.”

“Books offer a wider variety of role models and a greater understanding of queer communities than you’re going to see in the movies,” Orloff added. “It just makes you feel so much better to know that there are people like you out there and that you don’t have to have a life constricted by people who don’t value you.”

The heat is on in the South Bay with temperatures expected to exceed 100 degrees over the next few days, and people are already finding creative ways to beat the high temperatures.

Some people are beating the heat with a splash through the fountains in downtown San Jose

“It’s always nice and cool in the water, and you know we’ve got shade over here under the trees too,” said Javier Cascaneda.

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Families flocked to the fountains Monday as temperatures hit the 90s.

And this is just the beginning, the heat is expected to top 100 degrees over the next few days.

“I have a pool at my apartment so probably swim there. We’ll maybe go to the beach,” said Jeneva Alvarez and Luis Ponce.

That seemed to be a common theme, many people told KPIX they’re already making plans to head out of town towards someplace a little cooler.

“Go to the Ocean. Yeah, Half Moon Bay or maybe Santa Cruz,” said Paul Padilla and Jennifer Liu.

But while some are escaping to cooler temperatures, first responders back are preparing for what could be a dangerous combination, a heat wave and the Fourth of July.

San Jose Police posted on social media reminding people that all fireworks are illegal in the city and can be very dangerous in conditions like this.

People said they understand that but still expect to see some people breaking the rules.

“I feel like there’s always more fireworks every year and just about the same amount of fires. But there’s not much that I think is going to change honestly. It’s just going to be keep on going unless we get more rain hopefully,” said Javier Cascaneda

Of course, the hope, especially in conditions like the ones expected this week, is that people will be extra careful celebrating the holiday this year.

Under SB 423, which passed last year, cities that miss their state goals on planning for new housing must provide an expedited path for approving permits for new developments that meet existing planning standards.

San Francisco will be the first city where the law is triggered after Wiener included language making it the only city with an annual review of its housing permitting goals. Other cities are reviewed every four years.

On Friday, the California Department of Housing and Community Development ruled that San Francisco was falling short of its goal to plan for building 82,000 new units of housing by 2031. Last year, the city authorized just over 3,000 units, according to the San Francisco Planning Department.

Rich Hillis, director of the Planning Department, called the streamlined process instituted by SB 423 “a new era.”

“You could come in today online and apply for a housing project that will be approved by the end of this summer,” Hillis said at a press conference Monday. “And that is truly a game changer, where that would have normally taken a year, two years — or, as Mayor Breed pointed out, sometimes 10 years or more if CEQA is involved and appeals are involved.”

Critics say the penalties instituted by SB 423 were always part of a plan to do away with local control in favor of market-rate developers.

Lori Brooke, co-founder of anti-upzoning group Neighborhoods United SF, called the state’s goal of 82,000 new units for San Francisco “unattainable” and said the city was unfairly singled out by SB 423, which she said “forces the city to haphazardly make changes to zoning and planning that will be felt for the next 100 years.”

“San Francisco is being punished for actions beyond its control — cities don’t build housing; developers do,” Brooke said in a statement.

KQED’s Sara Hossaini contributed to this report.