More common than it is? How common does it have to be to deserve representation? You can’t tell who’s gay and who isn’t by glancing at someone. I guarantee you it’s more common than YOU think. These books were Young Adult fiction. How old were you when you had your first crush? How did you know you were straight? Did you decide that you liked girls or did it just happen? How often is straight romance in any middle school-high school fiction? And even if homosexuality wasn’t “as common”, does that give someone the right to burn books that belong to a public library?

Also, these stories CAN’T be found somewhere else. That’s why we write them. People just recently started paying attention and writing LGBTQ stories whereas straight stories have always been around. That’s why the books are in the library — so the kids can see themselves in fiction. Representative matters. The books are there because the kids are interested in reading them and are interested in seeing themselves. There’s no justification for this fool burning books that don’t belong to them. There’s nowhere in this conversation where “focus on fiction that will keep them interested.” makes any difference. The books were written for LGBTQ kids and this man took them from a public library and burned them because he has a stick up his ass about LGBTQ people.