Hundreds of people attended a Wisconsin reading of a book based on a transgender girl after a local elementary school erased the book from its lesson plan.
The book, I Am Jazz, is based on the life of transgender teen activist Jazz Jennings. A reading and discussion of the book at the Mount Horeb Primary Center elementary school was cancelled after a non-profit threatened to sue the school on behalf of “concerned parents.”
Following the cancellation, organizers arranged a reading of the book instead at a library nearby. Amy Lyle, the lead organizer, said she was hoping for about 15 people to show up, LaCrosse Tribune reports. The reading instead drew almost 600.
“I knew that our Mount Horeb community was a loving, compassionate and inclusive one for all kids — I knew that in my heart — but you all have just shown that to be overwhelmingly true,” Lyle told the crowd.
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Write to Tessa Berenson Rogers at tessa.Rogers@time.com