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Chris Colfer, Cameron Esposito, & Alexandra Billings on Book Bans and Visibility
Chris Colfer, Cameron Esposito, & Alexandra Billings on Book Bans and Visibility
The three will speak on a virtual panel on queer visibility.
The LGBTQ+ group Pride and Less Prejudice is hosting a virtual panel on queer visibility and authorship on Saturday.
Featured as panelists for the program “Telling Our Stories: A Panel on Queer Visibility and Authorship”will be actor, author, and producer Chris Colfer (Glee, The Land of Stories); comedian, actress, and author Cameron Esposito (Take My Wife, Save Yourself, Queery); and actress, singer, and author Alexandra Billings (Transparent, This Time For Me). Writer Sa'iyda Shabazz will moderate the virtual event.
“With the outrageous book bans and constant attacks on our trans and drag communities, now more than ever, it’s important to support LGBTQIA authors and their stories and introduce young readers to inclusive books that treat all kids with compassion," Colfer said in a statement to The Advocate.
The organization Pride and Less Prejudice was founded in 2019 and provides LGBTQ-inclusive books to classrooms from pre-K to the 3rd grade. The group has been able to donate more than 8,000 books and has raised more than $140,000 for its mission. Pride and Less Prejudice received funding from Miley Cyrus’s Happy Hippie Foundation recently.
Esposito said the group gives LGBTQ+ students something that many were missing growing up. The organization offers “a sense of belonging and normalcy in their wider community, where their friends and classmates accept them exactly as they are as a matter of course. That’s a feeling every child deserves.”
The panel takes will take place over Zoom, which will then be followed by a Q&A. You can purchase tickets for $20 dollars here. Proceeds from the event will go to sending more LGBTQ+ books to schools in the U.S. and Canada.
“From bans on gender-affirming care to restrictions on discussions of queer people in the classroom, LGBTQ+ people and their identities are constantly being silenced,” said PLP founder Lisa Forman. “That is why it’s so important to celebrate the queer people who are telling their own stories – in books, television shows, movies, and comedy. The more authentic stories we hear from the LGBTQ+ community, the more we foster acceptance and inclusivity.”
