This August, just as schools were getting ready to start another academic year, there was a shocking and disturbing image on the campus of New College of Florida in Sarasota: a dumpster and large boxes filled with books to be thrown away.
Many of them had come from the library of donated materials to the now-closed Gender and Diversity Center. Others had come from the school’s main campus library.
Titles included “When I Knew,” an anthology of coming out stories from LGBTQ+ writers to the H.G. Wells classic, “War of the Worlds.” New College, which has undergone a dramatic shift in identity after Gov. Ron DeSantis replaced most of the board of trustees, has said the books were removed due to water damage…