A woman wearing a red robe and white handmaid’s bonnet stood at the center of the Utah Capitol Rotunda on Friday, a book open in front of her.
The book, “Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West” by Gregory Maguire, was banned from all Utah public schools just a month prior.
“I think everybody deserves the right to read freely, and if you don’t like a book, you don’t have to read it,” Haley Giddings said.
Her costume was inspired by Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale,” a nod, she said, to the book’s themes of censorship and government control.
She was joined by roughly 300 other readers, free speech advocates and local organizers Friday at Let Utah Read’s annual “read-in” event. The statewide coalition, which includes The American Civil Liberties Union of Utah, EveryLibrary and others, works to defend “the freedom to read,” according to its website.
Speakers on Friday included Rep. John Arthur, D-Holladay, and Calvin Crosby, co-owner of The King’s English Bookshop. Together, they condemned Utah’s sensitive materials law, which allows books to be banned from public schools statewide if they meet certain criteria.
Read Carmen Nesbitt's full story at sltrib.com.
This article is published through the Utah News Collaborative, a partnership of news organizations in Utah that aims to inform readers across the state.