I agree that book bans are symbolically a big issue, but I also think it’s hilarious that the conservative idea of shielding children from “dangerous” information is to take the books out of school libraries, as if anyone uses them to get LGBTQ-related information. When I was in school, the library was just a place where you would study, with most of the books being related to the curriculum. Basically no one went there to read about complex, modern, fast-moving topics like queerness. Kids these days all know how to look shit up online, and most school libraries have a computer lab with fairly permissive internet access. Most kids will use that to research any “forbidden” information that conservatives would find offensive.

Based on that, it really seems like book bans aren’t mean to solve and practical issues for conservatives at all, and are moreso meant as vehicles to broadcast and systemically solidify the exclusion of ideas and people they don’t personally like. Like a child shouting “you can’t play here anymore!” on a playground to someone they don’t like, only for the excluded party to go right back to what they were doing uninterrupted.