The John J. Wilcox, Jr. Library isn’t exactly “a fancy joint,” according to Tom Wilson Weinberg.
There are no chandeliers, marble columns or a grand circulation desk, but that’s what Weinberg, a Philadelphia resident and library patron of 15 years, loves about the space.
“When I go into the Wilcox Library, I just feel so comfortable,” Weinberg said. “It’s so friendly and it feels so good to be in that cozy space with the walls just lined with every LGBTQ book you can think of.”
But that isn’t Weinberg’s favorite thing about the library.
“I like best that [the Wilcox Library] has all the books that our adversaries want to ban,” Weinberg said. “And we so badly need to have libraries like the one in William Way.”
Housed in the William Way LGBT Community Center in Philadelphia, the Wilcox Library has over 14,000 books and DVDs. Established in 1976, it is the country’s oldest LGBTQ+ lending library. The collection focuses on material relevant to the queer community across all disciplines, with both fiction and nonfiction offerings.
The collection is mostly in English and Spanish. Some items are over 50 years old and almost every book was donated by a community member.
To Director John Anderies, the library serves multiple purposes for different types of patrons. It’s both a place for pleasure reading and in-depth historical research on the LGBTQ+ community.
“That’s its shining star,” Anderies said.
Some items in the collection cannot be found in “very many, if any” other libraries, Anderies said. When cataloging new additions, staff regularly don’t find a catalog copy for the books, meaning those titles are not in any other public or research library with an online catalog.
“I really feel a sense of satisfaction — but also responsibility — for maintaining the library and making sure it’s here for future generations,” said Eric Murphy, a library volunteer of almost five years.
The library is open to all, but an account is required to check out materials. The library has a little over 1,000 card holders, although not all are currently active users, Anderies said.
A majority of borrowers live in the city, while some others come from the surrounding metro area. This includes Bucks County, whose school district has one of the strictest book ban policies in the state, according to the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania.
“Based on what I’m hearing from my own child, it’s an attack on her community,” said Mindy Freeman, the mother of a transgender Central Bucks student. “It’s really saying that you’re not welcome here. You don’t belong. That’s what people are saying: that you are not appropriate.”
Freeman is a member of the Bucks County PFLAG chapter and co-founder of Project Uncensored, a campaign with her daughter to stop censorship of LGBTQ+ books in schools.
In May, the Central Bucks School District removed “This Book is Gay” by Juno Dawson and “Gender Queer: A Memoir” by Maia Kobabe due to concerns over “sexually explicit content.” It’s currently reviewing 56 other challenged titles.
This reflects a statewide trend. Last year, Pennsylvania had the fourth-highest number of challenged titles, according to the American Library Association. The most-challenged book in the state was “Gender Queer” — also the most challenged book in the nation.
2022 saw the highest of attempted book bans in the U.S. since the ALA began compiling data more than 20 years ago. Of the 2,571 unique titles challenged, most were by or about LGBTQ+ individuals and people of color.
“It takes away people’s experiences, that they could read about [themselves] and see themselves in books,” Freeman said.
To volunteer Eric Murphy, the rise in book bans shows how resources like the Wilcox Library “are only going to be more valuable.”
“We have young adult [books], we have children’s books, we have things that run the gamut, essentially,” Murphy said.
Looking towards the future, the library staff hopes to acquire more materials relevant to the transgender community, women and people of color. They said it could also benefit from a budget to purchase books, because the donation-based system cannot guarantee the immediate acquisition of new releases.
Because not everyone can safely go to a LGBTQ+ community center in person, expanded online resources would also be helpful to increase access to the collection, library volunteer Jorie Thuon said.
“You run into that with book bans as well,” Thuon said. “It’s a lot easier closing tabs on your computer than holding a book in your hands.”
These changes could be around the corner. The William Way Center plans to renovate its facilities, including the library. By upgrading its space, the library would be more accessible and offer events like author readings and book clubs, according to the project’s website.
“At that point, we very well may be able to start to seek some more money into the growth and maintenance of the library,” director John Anderies said. “It’d be really wonderful.”