Outrage over 'LGBT' books being banned by schools?

[Hairyesterdaygonetoday]

Has anyone seen this story in The Independent? I can't access the story because it's behind a paywall.

I'd like to know if these are books showing gay people living normal lives, which I'd have thought were quite widely read these days. Or if they're nonsense about people being 'born in the wrong body'. Once again it's obscured by the forced teaming of LGB, which are normal human sexualities, with transgenderism, which is totally different.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/lgbt-books-ban-uk-schools-library-b2596374.html?lid=3zhtz7kgzghk

Thanks if anyone can enlighten me!

Not sure if pics are in the right order

Skim reading pulled this out.

The responses revealed that specific titles removed from school libraries included This Book Is Gay, by Juno Dawson, a memoir about a young person discovering their sexual identity; Julián is a Mermaid, by Jessica Love, a picture book about a gender non-conforming boy who dreams of being a mermaid; and the alphabet book ABC Pride, by Louie Stowell, Elly Barnes and Amy Phelps, which introduces young readers to the alphabet while they learn more about the LGBT+ community.

However the whole article is rather vague. Which suggests it's trying to whjp up da feelz rather than da thoughtz

As a woman who's slept with more women than men, books about being gay don't have any place in primary schools.

Children don't need to be concerned or coerced about sexuality.

They just need to learn to read.

You can get to any webpage by just putting the link into archive.ph

archive.ph/ktMq6

Elly Barnes is the founder of "smash heteronormativity" Educate and Celebrate. The charity that

• stretched the truth about having Ofsted recognition or such for its Stonewall-style status programme
• appointed Stephen Ireland (see threads) as a patron.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5143082-founder-of-surrey-pride-charged-with-child-sex-abuse?page=3&reply=137628710

Julian is a Mermaid is a rather charming book about a little boy who wants to dress as a mermaid in a parade. As far as I remember there’s absolutely no trans agenda it’s just about being yourself and I can’t see why any school would ban it . Suspect this article is a bit of clickbait.

Do children young enough to be learning the alphabet really need to learn about the lgbt 'community' at the same time? Far too young to understand, this verges on grooming.

It's the parents who want it banned, according to the article.

Now it could just be the parents have asked questions or suggested age appropriate cataloguing and the schools "every problem is a nail" solution is to ban them. As I say the article was written per word, not per fact.

This book is Gay (when first published was by author James Dawson. Now the authors name is Juno Dawson and the book is revised and updated. Overall reviews are positive but ALL of the recent reviews are concerned about child safeguarding. Copying these from Amazon site. Its possible that the book in its original and unrevised form was helpful (first published a decade ago) but I can understand parents being very concerned based on these reviews.

Good to have books portraying gay families though? Two mums, etc. That's the type of book I’d expect to see in primary schools, rather than books about being gay themselves. And yes parents absolutely do complain about that sort of thing, a mum in our class WhatsApp group is forever banging on about it.

I'd put a small wager on the "all the LGBT books pulled off the shelves" being an overenthusiastic activist school librarian buying something age inappropriate because it was colourful and the blurb on the back looked on-message, and on a parent finding cartoon instructions on "how to have fabulous anal sex with your non-binary trans masc partner" in their 12 year old's bag, the head teacher required that section to be pulled, checked and reshelved.

Again, "This book is gay" is for teens, so if it found its jolly, sexually explicit rainbow self onto a shelf for younger readers then it might be worth weeding for reasons of unsuitability for the children the library was aimed at.

Perhaps instead of facilitating men writing letters scolding unnamed women, the "feminists" could have supported people like Safe Schools Alliance and James Esses when they were calling for a public inquiry after the Cass Report was published. But no. No one wanted their party or loyalties exposed in any way. And now look where we are. Some people need to take a long hard look at themselves, and start putting safeguarding first, instead of their own egos.

I’d be described as gender critical.
I love “Julian is a Mermaid”. It’s a lovely book where a little boy is allowed to explore dressing up without anyone saying “he must be a girl”. I’ve used to book in school lots

I also love “And Tango makes three”, using it in assembly to ensure children know that families come in all shapes and sizes including adoption and same sex parents.

I’ve also used “Nen and the lonely Fisherman” in assembly.

I’d love to use “ Grandad’s Pride”. But the illustrations of the people wearing bondage/fetish gear and the one with a person with obvious “top surgery” scars might lead to conversations that I don’t think are appropriate for children.

And ABC Pride is just a bit shit. They have to really scrape the bottom of the barrel to use all the letters (W is for Wig, X is for Xie), the dull, uninformative text is unsuitable for the age group that the pictures suggest it's aimed at, it doesn't have a story which would be much more appropriate, apart from a few platitudes (be kind!) it's pretty much completely uninformative.

You could buy a much better book for your school library about gay and lesbian lives and families, and you could write a much better book about how some people celebrate being gay (except I guess you'd want to gloss over the pup play for the KS1 age group).

It seems to be the lack of age appropriate boundaries that's the issue. We have countless adults desperate to speak to children about how to have sex. The book "Welcome to Sex" is aimed at 8 years plus. It includes images and descriptions of anal sex, scissoring etc.
Introducing children to age inappropriate sexual content is a safeguarding issue and if you look at the specific details included in the book, few reasonable adults would argue that 8 years olds should be introduced to specific sexual acts. Yet adults insistent that they must share details of sexual acts with children get the contracts to write this stuff and publishers publish it.
There's a complete absence of understanding child development, psychology and the impact of introducing young children to adult sexual acts:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12307055/Big-W-comes-fire-graphic-sexual-book-aimed-children-written-ABC-personality-Yumi-Stynes.html

Maybe there will be a revised version one day that is improved?
W = woman
X = XX chromosone

I would describe this as something that needs to be reported to the police:

"Sexual abuse - Involves forcing or enticing a child or young person to take part in sexual activities, not necessarily involving a high level of violence, whether or not the child is aware of what is happening. The activities may involve physical contact, including assault by penetration (for example, rape or oral sex) or non-penetrative acts, such as masturbation, kissing, rubbing, and touching outside of clothing. They may also include non-contact activities, such as involving children in looking at, or in the production of, sexual images, watching sexual activities, encouraging children to behave in sexually inappropriate ways, or grooming a child in preparation for abuse. Sexual abuse can take place online, and technology can be used to facilitate offline abuse. Sexual abuse is not solely perpetrated by adult males. Women can also commit acts of sexual abuse, as can other children."

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/669e7501ab418ab055592a7b/Workingtogetherrtosafeguarddchildren_2023.pdf

I love “Julian is a Mermaid”. It’s a lovely book where a little boy is allowed to explore dressing up without anyone saying “he must be a girl”. I’ve used to book in school lots

This is exactly the sort of book I'd like to see more of. It challenges trans dogma's dreadful, regressive enforcement of outdated stereotypes, that boys must be tough, girls must be cutesie. Those stereotypes harm all children, even the ones that don't get lured into believing they're 'born in the wrong body'.

"Grandad’s Pride" sounds like the sort of thing any adult would object to. One side-effect of transgenderism is that it's encouraged sex fetishists out into the open. They need an audience -- and an unwilling audience is more exciting for them. That's nothing to be proud of.

Juno Dawson is the one who said men being gay was a consolation prize for not being a women.

Hardly a positive view of homosexuality.

Juno also writes for teen girls and how fun it is to have anonymous sex with out-of-town commuters.

I don't understand why schools have to keep re-inventing the wheel.

They must be absolutely bombarded with people wanting to write about sex for children. Nefarious or otherwise.

I still don't get why it can't be centrally controlled. All the children of this age get this book, in every school, and when they're older they get this one.

All fully approved, done and dusted. one time only. Reviewed every few years or so.

Same with the syllabus.

It really shouldn't be difficult to prevent children being forced to play dice games with their teacher on how to have anal sex.

It's mad that this is the one area of the curriculum which - by all accounts from CofE schools, private schools, state schools, academies...the lot - is shrouded in mystery and stuffed to the gills with activism.

What did your child learn in Maths? English? Not only will your school tell you, but they'll email over and over, then pile all their books and work back to you at the end of term. Same with any subject. Or any piece of artwork or tiny project they might possibly have done. Enough to fill a small shipping container by the time your kid is 6.

What did they learn in RSE/PHSE?

<crickets>

Yes.
Partnership with parents, pupil voice, numerous school initiatives involving parents in supporting their child's education. Yet sex education? All of a sudden teachers know best and the curriculum must be secret.
Then when parents discover that some schools have outsourced the curriculum to a motley crew of sex positive / queer theorists with not an iota of knowledge about children, a complete absence of safeguarding knowledge delivering a range of activities, many of which involve adults in sharing age inappropriate information / material, parents object.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/3717969-Warwickshire-CC-drops-its-Respect-Yourself-sex-ed-training-pack

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4584553-the-proud-trust

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4526569-This-charity-is-delivering-sex-education-in-schools

Think there’s a strong TQI+ element to the books - Juno Dawson for example is a trans woman so writing about gay issues may contain an undercurrent of other stuff. I am all for LBG positive books being available from middle grade age, but I can see that it may just be too difficult to curate the texts that cross the line into identity politics. This is what LBG organisations are alluding to when they argue that the TQI+ movement has undermined gay acceptance.

I read a bit of a Juno Dawson book, supposedly for the young adult market, about a "trans girl" at a girls' school. It gave off strong sex fantasy vibes. I was shocked it was even published.

Where as, at DD's primary school, they use "My Dad's a She" as a reading comprehension book in year 4, and doubled down when a group of parents raised concerns.

Apparently, it is "well reviewed", and the school values inclusivity above clear language/biology.