For Pride Month, Penguin Random House set up a billboard with quotes from LGBTQ books in New York, Chicago, Dallas, Austin, Orlando and Miami. While New York and Chicago are cities in which PRH would regularly advertise, they specifically chose cities in Texas and Florida due to both increased bans and challenges against LGBTQ books in those areas. as well as recent anti-LGBTQ legislation, such as that in Florida. “Don’t Say Gay” Education Bill.

Kyle Letendre did the lettering for the billboards, and all featured authors are also people of color. The recent wave of book challenges has primarily targeted books by authors of color and queer books — and queer books by authors of color in particular — so this choice makes perfect sense. Books and authors featured are those of Samantha Irby We never meet in real life, At Akwaeke Emezi Dear SenthuranE. Eric Thomas’s here for thatOcean Vuong On Earth, we are briefly beautifuland Robert Jones Jr. The prophets.

Penguin Random House explained the intention behind the project as follows: “Our hope is that even more people will see – and really to understand– the power of these words, that they will inspire conversation and move us forward towards a better future.

Although the billboards are no longer up – they were just for Pride Month – you can see these quotes with Kyle Letendre lettering, as well as more queer content from PRH, in their downloadable 2022 Pride Zine.

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