Pink to give away thousands of banned books at her show

Los Angeles, Nov 19 Grammy-winning singer Pink said she will hand out banned books in the state's schools when she plays in her Florida gig.

"Books have held a special joy for me from the time I was a child. That's why I am unwilling to stand by and watch while books are banned by schools," Pink said.

Florida has become the centre of the book-banning debate and Pink's plan has been formed with the national free speech group PEN America.

They have chosen four titles to give away to fans - Toni Morrison's 'Beloved', Todd Parr's 'The Family Book', Stacia Deutsch's 'Girls who Code', and the poem recited by Amanda Gorman at Joe Biden's presidential inauguration in January 2021 titled 'The Hill We Climb', reports aceshowbiz.com.

PEN America's database of censored tomes lodged 3,362 book bans in US public schools in the 2022 to 2023 school year. Of those more than 40 per cent - the equivalent of 1,406 book-ban cases - happened in Florida school districts.

The state's Republican governor Ron DeSantis, 44, oversaw a bill he signed into law in 2022, called the Parental Rights in Education Act. Commonly known as the 'Don't Say Gay' rule, it prohibits elementary schools from discussing sexual orientation or gender identity.

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