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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

Trans books banned in children's library sections

191 replies

BeeSouriante · 04/07/2025 13:40

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c6257p2vry3o

Including kids books that just acknowledge the existence of trans people.

Obviously, this is a local Reform council, but would you call for a ban of books about trans people across the board?

Rows of books on shelves. The books are all different colours.

Kent council bans transgender books in children’s library section

KCC says the move came after a "concerned member of the public" contacted them.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c6257p2vry3o

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Hoardasurass · 05/07/2025 10:49

sashh · 05/07/2025 07:07

Children's libraries and children's sections have always been policed. I was a big Enid Blyton fan but my local library didn't think they were "suitable literature for children" so they just didn't have them.

I also agree with keeping certain books out of displays.

Children are people, people who are exploring their surroundings. It is up to parents to police what is suitable for their individual child. A library that displays books not suitable for children is over stepping that mark.

Children learn about the world around them in child terms. We tell small children not to talk to strangers, even if they do give you sweets and tell you they have some puppies.

We do not go in to gory details of what has happened to some children who have been abducted, assaulted, tortured and killed.

Children don't need that message, they need, "Don't talk to or go with strangers".

Same here i remember asking why they were banned and I was told it was because of the character George in the famous five books, so i asked if they had any of her other books.but no when they banned an author they banned all their books. So because some Twitter had a bee in their bonnet about a character who was a tomboy i couldn't even get her bedtime stories to read to the girl I babysat 😡
Atleast I found out why my mum bought me so many of her books and I bought all the rest (even the ones I hadn't wanted as a child). My dd loved them and now wants them for her dc as the bloody library still has Enid Blyton on the banned list 40 years on 🤣🤣🤣.
The above is an example of censorship moving an adult book out of the children's section is not

Grammarnut · 05/07/2025 10:35

ducksinarow123 · 04/07/2025 13:46

The worry is though that it start with banning trans books, but where does it end? Does it then ban gay books? Multi-racial families? Books about strong independent woman?
I am deeply against banning books, if you don’t want your children reading them - just don’t pick them up and read them to your kids. I find it very uncomfortable with that freedom of choice taken away

I think the problem is the way that gender ideology is pushed in these books. I remember reading 'Frog and Toad' stories to my DC - Frog and Toad live together, they are male. It did not push being gay, merely gently gave a picture of a gay couple living happily and having adventures.

Books which show same sex parents do much the same.
The problem with books about trans is that they tend to centre on children being trans, with glitter and rainbows for little boys - and this is disturbing. They're not describing a relationship in the same way the 'Frog and Toad' books did (or 'The Wind in the Willows' for that matter!), they are advocating for a belief system and not in a wholesome way quite often (it's not Bill's New Frock, by any means!).
One factor I do remember as a girl/teenager was how distanced I felt when reading e.g. the scene in LOTR where Merry, Pippin and Aragorn are sharing a pipe and chatting about their adventures; it is so clearly a male friendship group that a) entirely excludes females (despite Aragorn being in love with Arwen) and b) could not be replicated in female friendships at the time (at least to me - I had few friends) and could not include females, either (the feeling I got was that the man who wrote the scene could not imagine women being in such a same sex group doing these things - the few women in the book never interact, in fact). Tolkein was a man of his time and a RC convert, so his views were polarized, I suppose, but LOTR has this effect of excluding women. I often felt the same reading books about boys' adventures - Sorry, derailing! There is a thread on this elsewhere in Books, I think.

Dwimmer · 05/07/2025 10:17

TheCatsTongue · 05/07/2025 09:54

So there seems to be debate around what has actually happened.

But isn't it perplexing that a local council matter from a Reform councillor over books in a local library somehow makes national BBC news? And that BBC have got lots of comments from T+LGB groups moaning about it?

The BBC can pretend they're impartial, but what they choose to and choose not to cover is important.

The BBC haven’t been impartial for some time.

TheCatsTongue · 05/07/2025 09:54

So there seems to be debate around what has actually happened.

But isn't it perplexing that a local council matter from a Reform councillor over books in a local library somehow makes national BBC news? And that BBC have got lots of comments from T+LGB groups moaning about it?

The BBC can pretend they're impartial, but what they choose to and choose not to cover is important.

sashh · 05/07/2025 07:07

KerryAnnSalford · 04/07/2025 14:05

Why? Just how in depth do you think these books are going?

Exact same stuff was said about books about gay and lesbian people.

Bigots that are utterly obsessed with this topic at this point just can’t help but sexualise people’s identities for some reason, that’s far more perverse than teaching children that we have a diverse society.

Children's libraries and children's sections have always been policed. I was a big Enid Blyton fan but my local library didn't think they were "suitable literature for children" so they just didn't have them.

I also agree with keeping certain books out of displays.

Children are people, people who are exploring their surroundings. It is up to parents to police what is suitable for their individual child. A library that displays books not suitable for children is over stepping that mark.

Children learn about the world around them in child terms. We tell small children not to talk to strangers, even if they do give you sweets and tell you they have some puppies.

We do not go in to gory details of what has happened to some children who have been abducted, assaulted, tortured and killed.

Children don't need that message, they need, "Don't talk to or go with strangers".

PrettyDamnCosmic · 05/07/2025 07:05

Celestiel · 04/07/2025 20:01

BBC have an article about the book where the author defends the imagery…

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-humber-66591848

Edited

Andy Train, chair of the Hull and LGBT+ Forum, helps organise Hull Pride events and gave his reaction to the book.
He said: "I was surprised to see this illustration. I think the illustrator [of the book] was given carte blanche. It's a bit stereotypical. An illustration showing a family waving a trans flag, for example, may have been a better choice.
"People are free, within the realms of the law, to dress how they want at Pride event.
"Some people do attend Pride events wearing that kind of clothing but that tends to be abroad. The weather here rarely lends itself to dressing in a revealing way."

EweSurname · 05/07/2025 06:20

HonestAquaMember · 04/07/2025 14:07

So people can't use 'cis' on mumsnet because it's a slur for women, but you can use slurs against other people?

Best let stonewall know then

www.stonewall.org.uk/resources/list-lgbtq-terms

Trans books banned in children's library sections
Codlingmoths · 05/07/2025 02:02

is it against the Mumsnet rules for people to link this thread every time @BeeSouriante pops up on a post and say Bee is someone who was so angry that it’s not allowed to expose kids to adult materials in libraries that they started a whole thread on it?

DefineHappy · 05/07/2025 00:44

Ramblingnamechanger · 04/07/2025 22:35

And stay out of the trans widows support threads. They are not for you

I cannot believe this has to be said…
🤯

ArabellaScott · 04/07/2025 22:53

'Kent county council have confirmed that children are not and will not be exposed to adult transgender literature in our libraries.

“Staff at the county’s 99 libraries have been asked to ensure that books are always stocked in age-appropriate categories and that no adult literature makes its way into areas specifically aimed at children, or where children will be selecting books, such as the public welcome displays.

“It follows feedback from a resident who spotted a transgender book aimed at adults in a public display at the entrance of one library in Kent. The book has since been relocated to a section that is unlikely to be visited by children.”'

Good, good. Storm in a T cup, then.

ArabellaScott · 04/07/2025 22:51

helpfulperson · 04/07/2025 13:46

Banning books never turns out well. Where do you draw the line? There are plenty of people who think books mentioning same sex relationships should be banned.

What's your position on 'mein kampf' in school libraries?

Ramblingnamechanger · 04/07/2025 22:35

TeenToTwenties · 04/07/2025 14:09

@BeeSouriante Please can you go back to other threads you have started and respond to questions? I am still waiting on a thread to hear what rights teans people don't have that others do.

And stay out of the trans widows support threads. They are not for you

Dwimmer · 04/07/2025 20:18

Celestiel · 04/07/2025 20:01

BBC have an article about the book where the author defends the imagery…

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-humber-66591848

Edited

I would expect not different from the BBC. Apart from their obvious pro-transideology/anti-women propaganda, they are another organisation acting unlawfully on single sex spaces.

PruthePrune · 04/07/2025 20:13

I remember "Grandpa's Pride" being aimed at children. It showed Grandpa going to Pride in his BDSM gear, not going shopping with his husband. So some children's books are not suitable for children. Trans books are trying to normalise lies/delusions.

Newlittlerescue · 04/07/2025 20:08

which effectively means that they are not banned - most libraries will allow books from anywhere on a child’s ticket - I was reading dickens / Tolkien / Wodehouse / Sayers / etc. before I was 10 - no issue borrowing books from the adult section…

In Kent Libraries, adult books (fiction and non-fiction) can't be issued on child tickets.

Celestiel · 04/07/2025 20:01

BBC have an article about the book where the author defends the imagery…

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-humber-66591848

RapidOnsetGenderCritic · 04/07/2025 19:52

@BeeSouriante would you be happy for Kent libraries to stock My Body is Me! by Rachel Rooney? It seems that it's totally unacceptable to the "LGBTQ+ community".

Celestiel · 04/07/2025 19:33

This book on the shelf in The Works with all the kids books - someone mentioned it had imagery of an adult wearing ‘harnesses’ - trying to normalise fetish wear around children is grooming!

Trans books banned in children's library sections
user101101 · 04/07/2025 19:20

BeeSouriante · 04/07/2025 15:04

So it's OK to mention trans people as long as you don't really mention trans people, but be explicit as to trans people exist and that's too much for you?

If this is what you mean then why? What other groups in society should not be talked about to children? Black people? Disabled people? What would be ideal in your society?

Mentioning trans people without saying it’s a mental health condition is basically advertising anorexic people as of they were healthy

forgotmyusername1 · 04/07/2025 18:33

A text about being trans that is not designed for children has been moved out of the children's section of the library to somewhere more appropriate.

Struggling to see the issue there. They haven't banned it just removed it from the kids books

If 'Mein Kampf' or '50 shades of grey' was found among 'biff chip and kipper' that should be moved to a more appropriate part of the library as well.

ChimpanzeeThatMonkeyNews · 04/07/2025 18:06

IDareSay · 04/07/2025 16:46

https://www.spiked-online.com/2021/07/13/the-rainbow-dildo-butt-monkey-is-no-laughing-matter/

This is what has been happening in children's libraries, a complete failure of safeguarding. It's about time someone took an interest in what children are being exposed to, and agree with pp, the WRN Dorset library report should be required reading for all those involved in buying books for children, whether for libraries or at home.

Edited

I remember reading about a particular DQST event, on ‘What Do They Know?’

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/drag_queen_story_time_informatio#incoming-2123761

The library had to provide fucking security for him!

Which is all perfectly natural, i’m sure.

Explosion Reaction GIF
Ddakji · 04/07/2025 17:54

TimeFliesin2046 · 04/07/2025 17:10

This idea that children should be exposed to anything and everything is so weird no, they’re kids and not everything is appropriate or safe for them to access at every age. I question the people who think otherwise, and what their agenda may be…

That’s post modernism and queer theory for you.

Gotta break down those boundaries between adults and children! 🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩

southerngirl10 · 04/07/2025 17:50

A friend said their children aren't exposed to this kind of thing. They are in private school. It does make me wonder if it's a class thing. The rich (yes ok and a number of poorer people who've saved their money), who's children are privately educated probably wouldn't come into contact with the rainbow dildo butt monkey unless they ventured outside the school grounds.

I can't imagine Eton or Harrow's primary schools/infant allowing men in dresses with handbags. Your local primary school quite possibly will.

TimeFliesin2046 · 04/07/2025 17:10

lemonraspberry · 04/07/2025 17:07

And rightly so. Children do not need to read books about adults bedroom preferences. They deserve a childhood where they can discover and grow at an age appropriate rate. They need facts and stories. Its is why there are parental controls on internet access - to ensure child appropriate access.

This idea that children should be exposed to anything and everything is so weird no, they’re kids and not everything is appropriate or safe for them to access at every age. I question the people who think otherwise, and what their agenda may be…

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