The #ReadWithPride Relay: Celebrating LGBTQIA+ Books and Authors
In the U.S. and around the globe, books with LGBTQIA+ characters and content are being targeted by censors. According to the American Library Association, ten of the eleven 2025 Most Frequently Challenged books were written expressly for young adults and four of those eleven were challenged for LGBTQIA+ content.
Rather than ignoring certain titles or challenging teens' right to read, the #ReadWithPride Relay is an ongoing innovative intellectual-freedom-focused program in the United Kingdom. Kate O'Connor, now Head of Library and Research Learning at Alleyn's School in London, organized the first relay to spotlight LGBTQIA+ fiction and authors.
Book Challenges in the UK
In the past, book challenges or bans in the UK have not been systematically documented or counted by any governmental body or organization; some effort is currently underway. No wide-reaching survey has been conducted to ascertain how many UK school librarians have had to respond to book challenges. However, anecdotes shared in library circles confirm that book censorship is not uncommon in the UK today. And as in the U.S., challenges are largely focused on young adult books with LGBTQIA+ themes and characters, many of which are written from an #OwnVoices perspective.
For Kate O'Connor, the #ReadWithPride Relay is a way to promote young adult literature using teens' preferred communication tools. By employing social media channels in a positive manner, the Relay continues to shine a bright light on outstanding LGBTQIA+ young adult books and brings exciting titles to a wider readership in the UK. The #ReadWithPride Relay supports students, authors and educators in expressing their freedom to read, practicing intellectual freedom and interacting with an empowered like-minded community of readers.
The First Relay, 2022
Kate O'Connor and her colleague Helen Cleaves initiated the first Relay in 2022 via the social media accounts of the secondary school for boys in London, England, where Kate worked at the time. The Relay is now run through its own account, @ReadWithPrideUK on X and Instagram.
Librarians who signed up provided a handful of titles they would be interested in featuring. Kate then allocated each school one of their requested titles, giving preference to #OwnVoices stories, and trying to avoid repetition to ensure a wide range of authors and titles. On their allocated day, each school posted a photo of a staff member, a group of pupils or anyone from the school community with their featured book on X (in subsequent years, the Relay expanded to include posts to Instagram). They "tagged" the school that posted the next day, creating a chain that traveled around social media, joyfully celebrating LGBTQIA+ storytelling.
These are some examples of schools' creative posts; they are pictured below. (Please do not reproduce the images below elsewhere. Thank you.)
A school rugby team sporting rainbow laces gathered around a copy of Heartstopper by Alice Oseman (2022 Relay);
A headmaster with Noah Can't Even by Simon James Green (2022 Relay);
School staff and book club members in full Zombie makeup promoting Wranglestone by Darren Charlton and Broken Hearts and Zombie Parts by William Hussey (2023 Relay);
Pupils and staff surrounded by flags and color with Cinderella is Dead by Kalynn Bayron (2024 Relay);
Staff reading Her Majesty's Royal Coven by Juno Dawson while attending a Pride fashion show (2025 Relay); and
Pupils with Somewhere Beyond the Sea by TJ Klune (2025 Relay).
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Kate maintains a #ReadWithPride Padlet that serves as a collection development tool for her librarian colleagues as well as for readers' advisory for youth and their allies. The participants' joy in reading, their creativity and their collective spirit of pride is evident in these images: https://padlet.com/readwithprideUK/RWP
You can follow along with this year's June 2026 relay that is currently underway on the #ReadWithPride Instagram account.
A Sustainable Innovation
Kate O'Connor's work continues to demonstrate to school and other librarians and educators in the UK (and now around the globe with her publication cited below) how to apply core library values of intellectual freedom, inclusion and diversity to make a difference for readers, authors and colleagues.
The #ReadWithPride Relay she facilitates shows the positive impact of standing up against book challenges, book banning and censorship. It publicly proclaims the right to read and the right to self-expression. Her project serves as an exemplar for librarians who seek to spread a love of reading while they demonstrate a commitment to diversity, inclusion and intellectual freedom throughout their networks. With publicity support from two UK school librarian organizations, the School Library Association and the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Specialists School Librarians Group, the Relay continues to be a sustainable literature and literacy project.
"If the #ReadWithPride Relay has one goal, it is to show LGBTQIA+ students, authors and educators that it's not all 'doom and gloom' on social media. These diverse books are loved and are a cause for joy. When librarians, authors and readers are faced with online trolls and book challenges, vocally and publicly celebrating LGBTQIA+ books and their creators becomes a radical act" (O’Connor 2025, 122).
Reference
O'Connor, K. (2025). "#ReadWithPride: Celebrating LGBTQIA+ Fiction, Authors, and Readers." In J. Moreillon (ed), Radical School Librarianship: A Global Response (pp. 118-129). Facet Publishing, London.
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