Florida library dumps hundreds of books about LGBTQ issues and gender in the trash

The latest casualty of Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis' culture war was on display in the dumpster outside the New College of Florida's library this week.

Sarasota Herald-Tribune reporter Steven Walker reported that there were hundreds of books pertaining to LGBTQ+ issues and gender studies being loaded into dump trucks on Tuesday. According to Walker, some of the books being thrown away included titles like "Nine and Counting: The Women of the Senate", "The War of the Worlds" and "When I Knew" — which he described as "a collection of stories from LGBTQ+ people recounting when they knew they were gay."

Previously, students were able to purchase books from the school if the library was planning on getting rid of some of its inventory. It wasn't immediately made clear why students weren't offered the chance to buy the library's books prior to them being taken to a landfill.

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21 year-old fourth-year student Natalia Benavites told the Herald-Tribune that books being throw away had a "discard" label on their spines. Florida state statute currently forbids the college from donating any books to the public that were purchased with taxpayer dollars. Additionally, the college was throwing away books from its now-shuttered Gender and Diversity Center, even though Walker reported that those books were not bought with public funds.

As a public college in the Sunshine State, the New College of Florida is subject to DeSantis' 2023 ban on public schools in Florida spending money on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programming. At last month's Republican National Convention, DeSantis bragged about his anti-DEI record during his two terms as Florida's chief executive and railed against President Joe Biden's administration for "impos[ing] gender ideology on everyone from our infantry men to kindergarteners."

"They stand for DEI, which really means ‘division, exclusion and indoctrination’ and it is wrong," he said.

DeSantis singled out the New College — which was previously known as a progressive "community of free thinkers" — as a target to be restructured as a conservative institution, according to a 2023 report in the New York Times. The two-term Florida governor replaced six of the school's 13 trustees with far-right allies, who then ousted the school's president and installed a career politician who was paid a salary more than twice that of his predecessor.

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According to the Times, DeSantis sought to remake the New College more in the vein of the Michigan-based Hillsdale College (a far-right institution on the vanguard of anti-LGBTQ politics). This initiative came after he signed controversial bills into law banning curriculum educating students in K-12 schools about LGBTQ+ issues, which were known as the "Don't Say Gay" law and the "Stop WOKE Act."

"You knew it would eventually spiral to higher education,” second-year New College student Sam Sharf told the Times. “But I didn’t anticipate it would happen this fast.”

Click here to read Walker's full report in the Herald-Tribune.

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