Current and former employees of an independent bookstore in Florida are speaking out about its owners’ recent mandate to remove LGBTQ+ titles from shelves.

According to NBC News, at least five of Bodacious Bookstore & Café’s ten-member staff have quit since management told them to remove LGBTQ+ books from the Pensacola, Florida, shop’s shelves last month. One current and three former employees told the outlet that the purge, which has resulted in the removal of more than 60 books, half of which feature LGBTQ+ stories or are by queer authors, began after a customer complained about profanity in a greeting card. The store has also reportedly removed queer greeting cards and Pride stickers.

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Former employee Nicole Murphy said the removals began on April 8, less than a week after she joined the store’s staff after volunteering at Bodacious since 2023. Murphy, another former employee, and one current staffer said that interim manager Beth O’Connor told them that Mary “Rishy” Studer, who owns the bookstore with her husband Quint Studer, specifically directed her to have staff remove LGBTQ+ titles and books on witchcraft from shelves. Staffers allege that the removal of the witchcraft titles was an attempt to disguise the fact that LGBTQ+ books were being targeted.

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In an email to NBC, Quint Studer claimed that his wife “never mentioned any specific titles or categories” and that “all conversations regarded language in the children’s area.”

Similarly, in an April 23 statement posted to Instagram, Bodacious Bookstore claimed that it has “not banned any categories of books.”

“We did temporarily pull some titles for review,” the statement continued. “While many have returned to the shelves or been relocated to more appropriate sections, some will not return as we adjust our offerings.”

The decision to “review” the store’s offerings, the statement explained, came after it received “emails from parents — some with photos of sexually graphic and vulgar content — who were surprised to find certain books in our store.” Its goal, the store said, is to offer a “family-friendly space for all.”

However, Murphy, who refused to remove any books, claims that management did not provide any criteria for books that should be removed. Rather, she told NBC, “Management started pulling anything that looked queer — books with pictures of two girls kissing on the cover or romance books with main characters that have the same pronouns. These were not sexually explicit or profane materials.”

And contrary to Bodacious Bookstore’s statement, employees told NBC News that none of the books have been returned to shelves. Titles that have been banned reportedly include memoirs by Billie Jean King and Elliot Page, Casey McQuiston’s novel I Kissed Shara Wheeler, and Alice Oseman’s Heartstopper graphic novels.

“My manager told me that as a private business, they don’t have to sell or cater to certain people, implying queer families can shop elsewhere,” one current employee said. “From both a political and business standpoint, I think it was a stupid decision to pull the books, because that’s actually more political than not pulling them.”

As NBC News notes, Bodacious Bookstore & Café is located in Florida’s Escambia County, where the local school district’s ban of around 1,600 books, many of which feature LGBTQ+ themes, has been the subject of two lawsuits. In May 2023, Penguin Random House and PEN America sued the Escambia County School District for violating the First Amendment rights of students, authors, and publishers with its book ban. The following month, the authors of the children’s picture book And Tango Makes Three joined with six students and their parents to sue Florida’s Lake County School District and the state’s Board of Education over the book’s removal from school libraries. In August 2023, plaintiffs in that case added Escambia County to their suit.

Melissa Smith, Bodacious Bookstore’s former manager, who, along with Murphy and other employees, resigned last month, said that this is not the first time the store has removed LGBTQ+ books from shelves. Smith claims that while she was on vacation in July 2022, the store implemented a policy of removing queer books from its children’s section.

A spokesperson for the Studers reiterated the store’s claim that it is not specifically targeting LGBTQ+ books. “Any assertion to the contrary is not true, especially if made by former employees who are no longer involved with our operations,” he told NBC News in a statement.

However, he added, “We stand by our decision as a privately owned bookstore to determine what titles and merchandise are suitable for our shelves or easily accessible by young children. Our goal is to be a welcoming place for every child and every family, and we believe that means not prominently displaying books and merchandise with profanity or explicit content.”

Notably, the charge that any books depicting LGBTQ+ characters or themes constitute “explicit content” has become a standard justification among right-wing proponents of book bans.

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