The City of Hoboken kicked off its Banned Book Read-A-Thon at the Hoboken library.

Mayor Ravinder S. Bhalla called the event an uplifting day and said on Twitter: “In Hoboken, love will always prevail, and I couldn’t be more proud of our community coming together and standing affirmatively for equality and inclusion."

The event received a tremendous backlash online against the library. Mayor Bhalla defended it earlier this week.