You'll find Advocacy Action Alerts below for our national, Massachusetts, Missouri, and Wisconsin campaigns!
Call for Partners: Books Not Bans
Books Not Bans sends queer and banned books for free to people who need them! It has sent over 2,700 books to 25 organizations in 17 states in two years. They work with bookstores, authors and publishers and welcome new collaborations.
Follow them on Instagram @booksnotbans or email [email protected].
Legislation Alerts
Massachusetts
March 10 is Mass Freedom to Read’s Advocacy Day in the state legislature, which makes it a great time to write to your state legislators about your support for proactive freedom to read legislation. Find details about how to act on the Mass Freedom To Read website.
Missouri
HB 1839, a bill that could require some bookstore websites accessible in Missouri to perform invasive age-verification measures, passed its Missouri House committee last week 5-1. Instead of using the reasonable definition of pornography that exists in Missouri law already, the bill introduces a new, broader one that could be exploited to target books.
Tell your Missouri House Representative: the bill needs to be amended to protect bookstore websites.
Wisconsin
AB 961, a warning label bill for some media (including books), needs to be stopped. Despite productive dialogue with some committee members, we have been unable to ensure the bill won’t impact bookstore websites as written. If it passes, Wisconsin booksellers will need to be ready to reach out to their state senators.
Make sure you are signed up for our Advocacy Alerts (if you didn’t get our last email about Wisconsin, you might not be). You can also take a look at the latest memo in opposition we sent to the committee on BookWeb for inspiration.
POTUS Imposes New Tariffs After Tariff Rebuke By SCOTUS
On February 20, President Trump signed an executive order imposing a new 10% “global tariff” under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974. While informational materials are exempt from this order, other materials or sidelines could potentially be impacted.
This order came hours after the Supreme Court struck down his sweeping “reciprocal” import duties in a major rebuke of his trade agenda, according to media reports. The Section 122 tariffs took effect on February 24 and are good for a period of 150 days (until July 24, 2026). The global tariffs do not include Canada and Mexico, as long as the goods are compliant with the US-Mexico-Canada agreement.