Reading Love Stories is an Act of Rebellion by S.E. McPherson
- Swords & Sapphics team
- Apr 11
- 6 min read
This week, queer fantasy romance author S.E. McPherson joins us on the blog to give us further insight into the way book bans are currently affecting the U.S, and how we can rally as a community to prevent further censorship — hint: it starts with supporting marginalised authors.
Read McPherson's debut novel, A King’s Trust, here!
Under the Current U.S. Regime, Reading Love Stories is an Act of Rebellion
S.E. McPherson, author of A King’s Trust
U.S. politicians and the rising Christian right would like to see the end of happy endings.
For those outside the U.S., a brief political summary: Last year, an organization called The Heritage Foundation dedicated to generating regressive policy and anti-democracy, anti-diversity propaganda released Project 2025, which outlined conservatives’ goals for the destruction of rights, protections, education, and social safety nets in America. State governments immediately began implementing harmful legislation, and this has accelerated since Trump’s inauguration in January 2025.
Many aspects of a safe and free society are currently in danger in the U.S., but unfortunately love stories sit at the intersection of three things Project 2025 calls to destroy:
● women’s equality,
● LGBTQ+ rights, and
● the accessibility of information through books and public libraries.
While 71% of Americans oppose book bans, loud far-right minority groups are driving concentrated efforts to remove diverse books from public libraries. Previously, the U.S. Department of Education gathered and investigated challenges to these bans and provided guidance to states for how to provide appropriate access to information without infringing on civil liberties.
Under Trump, it dismissed all complaints against the bans and removed any countrywide protection for books—individual states may now destroy or protect access as they please.
Some states like Minnesota banned book bans. As an author of queer love stories, I relocated from Texas to Minnesota as soon as Trump was elected, knowing my home state would be among the most dangerous for someone like me and that Minnesota actively supports creatives, women, and LGBTQ+ people.
Other states dove gleefully in the opposite direction: Tennessee, for example, has removed nearly 600 books from libraries, including classics like To Kill a Mockingbird and Fahrenheit 451 and popular titles like The Hunger Games and Twilight. Books in which LGBTQ+ people merely exist are a primary target. Nationwide more than 4,000 books have been removed.
Libraries are also being attacked. Trump’s March 14 Executive Order intends to shut down the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), which could strip 125,000 libraries of funding.
Librarians are being fired for refusing to enact bans, and teachers were forced to remove books from their classrooms entirely to avoid exposing children to diversity or accurate history. In fear for their livelihoods, many librarians and bookish professionals are preemptively removing stories with LGBTQ+ characters, books with any sexual content, and even books that accurately portray the Holocaust, U.S. slavery, WWII, and other critical history. New books that might be viewed as controversial are not stocked at all.
So where does that leave love stories?
Since they’re primarily written by and for “the girls, the gays, and the theys,” romance novels and books with heavy romantic subplots provide a growing base of financial stability for female and LGBTQ+ authors. Women were behind seven of the 10 top-selling books in 2024. Diverse authors perform even better in the indie and self-published space, with women earning 40.9% more than men and LGBTQ+ authors earning ~19% more than straight authors.
Romance also normalizes and celebrates stories where women are whole people, cherished by their partners; where LGBTQIA+ folk can love without fear or reprisal; where people of color take center stage and live joyful, fulfilled lives.
For white supremacists actively working to strip these groups of rights, history, and humanity, there’s a lot to hate there.
Romance has always been a popular target, receiving undue scorn because it’s both written and enjoyed primarily by femme folk. Now, male politicians who’d like women seen and not heard are taking aim at romance, deeming it pornography and “lacking literary merit.” Bills like Oklahoma’s proposed SB593 threaten jail time for anyone publishing, selling or even giving away stories broadly deemed “obscene material.”
While this bill is unpopular, it being introduced at all is a major danger.
If it passes, romance books would likely be removed from distribution entirely in Oklahoma. Because perfectly managing distribution to only one state is a nightmare for digital retailers, some might remove challenged books from distribution altogether. This would be decided company by company, and therefore hard to predict, but if, say, Amazon took this route, romance publishing would be gutted.
Even if companies kept their restrictions only to Oklahoma, the law would not stay in one state for long. Booksellers or authors would challenge it in court as unconstitutional, and because the case raises a “federal question” by involving the U.S. Constitution, it can be appealed all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court. This court is stacked with conservative justices, who would likely uphold the law, giving all states free rein to enact their own similar policies.
I imagine this sounds pretty bleak. Personally, watching the paths to safely and profitably publishing stories in which I can see myself and my community thriving rapidly destroyed has been, to use a small understatement, damaging to my creativity and drive.
But romance writers and readers know a story hasn’t ended until there’s a Happily Ever After. If we stand in support of one another, we will prevail.
So what can we do?
One of the most effective ways to combat the destructive force of conservative fascism is to leverage another powerful, destructive force against it: unchecked capitalism.
The most significant power in the U.S. is held not by any politician but by large corporations. Publishers, retailers, and even social media platforms would take a huge hit if these stories are made illegal to sell, share, and discuss. If we make that financial hit big enough, they may lobby on their own behalf—which, coincidentally, is on our behalf this time, too.
Buy queer books. Buy books by authors of color. Buy books by women. Buy love stories.
If you are in the U.S. or have access to books from U.S. authors who are part of these marginalized identities, I strongly recommend you add them to your TBRs—many of us are trying to escape more dangerous states or to find strong enough financial footing to survive and fight back.
Not everyone has the funds to buy books: borrowing from libraries, sharing them with friends, and talking about these books are also critically important actions. Review love stories, talk about them on social media, and build community around your favorites.
I launched A King’s Trust last month, and it was a risk. A queer, poly romantasy with a neurodivergent MMC and on-page spice that includes two bi men—it’s exactly what politicians are targeting. Add to that political intrigue uncovering corruption and greed that bears a striking resemblance to this country’s leaders and an uplifting picture of what can happen when common people band together to fight injustice, and one can see why there’s a certain amount of fear associated with publishing this story to my name.
But I feel strongly that these stories are more important now than ever.
We have front-row seats right now to a war between love and hate. Weigh in on the side of love. It’s a win-win: authors get to keep telling powerful stories, and in the end, we all get our happy ending.
About the Author
S.E. McPherson has been a writer of fantasy and speculative fiction since she was eight years old, binding books with a hole punch and yarn. While she took a brief two-decade detour into the career of a marketing executive—winning many boring business writing awards along the way—she’s found her way back to storytelling and illustration. A Texas native, she relocated to Minnesota to publish freely in an increasingly restrictive political climate for queer authors.
Her debut novel, A King’s Trust, a queer fantasy romance that has received a prestigious Kirkus starred review, was released in March by Metaltail Press. McPherson is available for interviews on book bans and censorship, neurodivergent and LGBTQ+ representation in literature, and why love stories—especially queer ones—are acts of rebellion. For more information, visit semcpherson.com.
Comments