Kent council remove trans childrens books from libraries

[WomenShouldStillWinWomensSportsIsBack]

Just heard this on the radio. Can't see another thread on it. R2 had a delightful quote from a random outraged American-sounding TRA but nothing for balance from the other side, just a secondhand statement from the council. Article slightly more balanced. Hope this becomes more widespread.

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

Sorry but this is the one that says Joan of Arc was transgender because she wore mens clothing, aka a suit of armour. Ever tried to fight in mediaval times on horseback in metal? Of course she would wear a mans suit of armour. A metal dress just wouldn't work.

This article is making the rookie mistake of looking at historical events through the modern lens.

Even though the book in question here is an adult book, the majority of children's books around gender ideology are simply propaganda as they state ideology as fact.

They tell children that everyone has a gender ideology and can include claims that if a girl likes football she must really be a trans boy. Even Steps' H has a children's book out telling children to go up to random lonely men on park benches.

A lot of books are designed to put thoughts in children's heads and this particular issue is a well-known social contagion with life-lasting consequences.

Isn't it strange that in all these societies with a "third gender" there are very high levels of homophobia?

Stop derailing the thread with absolute bollocks superimposed on the past by woke modern researchers to justify getting funding grants and cultural misunderstandings/misappropriations to fit a political narrative. Books are published and Wikipedia amended accordingly. Maybe learn about investigator bias, how peer review and citations actually work and how it's all gone a bit wrong, and do some critical thinking around why all this stuff only appeared around the same time as the modern trend for transgenderism, then if you still feel this way go and start a different thread where this is ON TOPIC.
This is a thread about children's library books.

Oh well done Kent! Thank goodness for those that restore sanity!

Wait until you hear how TRAs treat books by JK Rowling! You'll be appalled!

If you don't believe in GI in the modern era, you're unlikely to believe it existed throughout history. But the thought has occurred to me that the very lack of historical analogs to modern day transgender typology is striking, especially when compared to male homosexual behavior for which the historical record is replete, if notably censorious. One is tempted to speculate that the possibility of hormonal treatments and surgical interventions has stimulated a psychological condition that makes them necessary.

there are people who claim they are the gender (not sex, because you can't change sex) opposite to what they were born as.

This point is Moot with a capital M.

You say 'you can't change sex' so it's gender that transpeople claim to have changed, not sex.

But for years the opposite has been true: TWAW, 'Transwomen are women. Transmen or men.' was pushed as a statement of fact, transwomen changed sex so that they were now no less a woman than you or me.
It was was transphobic hate speech to suggest otherwise.

Recently, perhaps because the idea that a human can change sex hasn't sold very well in the marketplace of public opinion, the idea of acknowledging that they remain men or women, but they now 'present' as a different gender, is more noticeable in trans posts on here.

One consequence of this is that as they acknowledge they haven't changed sex, it destroys their justification for using the wrong sex-segregated facility which are segregated by biological sex.

It may also mean that a whole generation of children will have been taught - partly through at school, partly from books - that humans can change sex and that transwomen are women and transmen are men. But by that time, even TRAs may have backtracked on that, claiming instead that as it's impossible to change sex, they have only changed that amorphous concept 'gender'.

I suppose the lesson to be learnt is not to rush to teach new and scientifically dodgy ideas as settled fact to children, because those ideas may not have a long shelf-life when exposed to reasoned argument.

True.
The single title the complaint objected to is clearly marked as adult non-fiction and the algorithm on Spydus prevents any copy in the county being issued to a child.
The rest of the claim is daft. Do they mean that any children’s fiction title with a trans character needs to be withdrawn from the children’s library?
Do they want to remove children’s non-fiction which is designed to help children understand adults who have transitioned in their family?
This will also open up the question of further censorship, and where will the library management be able to draw the line.
Up to this point they were firm is resisting any calls for censorship, admitting any title legally published here. This would be the thin end of the wedge and I fear for the future.

Kent Council is run by Reform now so I’m not surprised. It’s a shame other Councils don’t do the same.

Jolyon Maugham doubts that this is legal and is apparently taking advice from leading counsel.

https://bsky.app/profile/goodlawproject.org/post/3lt5jj7zvlc2d

However, I suspect the case of the library that moved a book to the correct shelf won’t trouble the courts.

Is Jolyon relying on the same leading counsel who told him the FWS case wasn't even arguable?

Has he figured out yet that eminent KCs will tell him anything just to get rid of him?

I did my own private trawl of childrens books during Pride month. The trans ones that were obviously aimed at children ( lots of pictures and little text) and told them it was possible to change sex , I removed . Didn't borrow them , just put them somewhere hidden from view within the library . I am becoming quite militant in my old age .

@recipientofraspberries There is zero evidence of transGENDER existing until around the 1970s. Transvestites (crossdressers) have always existed, but not transGENDER.

This is transwashing/history revisionism. And wikipedia is not a good source for anything. There is a reason schools and universities don't accept it as a source. Also the head moderator is a trans woman and trans activist and actively deletes any factual information about trans and gender ideology.

I don't see what there is to laugh at. Its a valid question. There are indeed records of transgender people throughout history and around the world.

No there are not. There really, really are not. There is no evidence at all, whatsoever.

As I said elsewhere: "It's about protecting vulnerable children from a social contagion. One that takes advantage of vulnerable children with no idea of sex let alone gender 'identity'. That sees them being talked into wanting irreversible puberty blockers because they've been told they're "born wrong". It is not remotely the same as being gay or any actual minority. You think it's because we "hate" trans people. No. It's because we see a very dangerous social contagion and ideology that harms children."

and

"And it's the same reason I wouldn't want to see 'pro-ana' books in the children's section either. Well, in any section, come to think about it."

My point here is that I think children should be able to learn about trans people in history and the modern world.

They can learn about transvestites (the only actual 'trans' that has ever actually existed in history) but learning about trans ideology as the dangerous and misogynistic social contagion that it is, as vulnerable children, is as irresponsible as teaching children about 'pro-ana'.

They rely on wikipedia too. It's obvious they are not discerning with their sources.

Didn't borrow them , just put them somewhere hidden from view within the library

Presumably the section devoted to manners and common sense.

E2A: You are Bridget Christie and I claim my five pounds

This post needs highlighting. There's a large number of manipulative and deceitful books written for children, usually by talentless adults desperate to socially groom even toddlers into believing that sex change is possible. People need to bloody wake up and look at what the youngest of children are being subjected to by this toxic ideology:

https://www.transgendertrend.com/trans-picture-books-little-children/

People who believe the dead can talk to them or appear to them in spirit have always existed.
People who believe they are linked to an animal guide have always existed.
People who believe they are spiritually the opposite sex have always existed.

We can have books about them. We can explore their life stories. We can consider the social context in which their belief was formed and what might have been the unconscious need behind it.

What we should not do is assert that because these beliefs are found in every culture they must have material truth.

Mediums, shaman and trans people exist in every culture because the existence of death, nature and the opposite sex have been observed by every culture.

It's not proof that some humans are "really" trans, it's just proof that all humans are really curious about the things they cannot experience!

They are educational and interesting, even for an atheist

Being an atheist means you can truly appreciate religion in a way no mere believer can 😀

It's even more fun for agnostics.

OK.

This just blew my mind. Such an insightful take on the "trans people have existed forever" argument. Imagine if we had books called "Sheldon The Shaman!" or "Maisie is a Medium!" telling the stories of kids who can talk to dead people as if that was established fact and suggesting that anyone might be able to talk to dead people. "Do you have an imaginary friend? Maybe that's Grandma and you're a Medium too!"

Children's books like I Am Jazz, and all the others mentioned in this thread, do exactly that but with the idea of gendered souls and being born in the wrong body. At least telling kids they might be shamans wouldn't lead to blocking their puberty and preventing them from growing into healthy adults. Although we all know kids are better at seeing dead people than adults (hello Bruce Willis), so I suppose puberty blockers might be "life-saving!" by keeping them from unaliving themselves when they hit 16 and lose their super special shamaning abilities. 🙄

In all seriousness though, the perception that all these types of things are actually expressions of human curiosity about the fundamental aspects of life that we can't experience is brilliant.