Reform UK bans promotion of LGBTQ and Pride events at Essex libraries

[IwantToRetire]

Essex libraries have been banned from promoting LGBTQ and Pride events by the county council’s new Reform UK leadership.

The diktat comes at the start of Pride Month: a four-week celebration of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ+) communities.

A spokesperson for Save Our Libraries Essex said: “This is very disturbing and alarming news.

“What possible reason is there not to display Pride promotional material? It’s not as if it’s costing the library service anything, other than pure prejudice.

“It’s not just bigotry, it’s anti-business. Pride gets people out and spending money in our towns and cities. Where will this end up?”

Article continues with explanation from Reform for their decision at https://www.bishopsstortfordindependent.co.uk/news/reform-uk-bans-promotion-of-lgbtq-and-pride-events-at-essex-9468415/

I think it's sad that it has come to this, but I also fear that it will become part of a wider pattern, of which you appear to be an instigator.

It's a two stage process 1)make rights ridiculous 2) remove rights.

People who are same sex attracted only have rights if the law can define what that means. By blurring meaning you endanger the rights of the people who you claim to be defending.

Perhaps most significantly, in Whitehall civil servants have been instructed not to waste public money on rainbow lanyards.

At least some parts of the Civil Service have been told to use the 'Pride' flag and not the 'Progress' one for Pride month.

What have sex acts gay or straight got to do with a library? I think the drag queen story time events for children are inappropriate too. Im fed up with sex being forced into everything.

Well they certainly seemed to have lots of books by Judith Krantz/Shirley Conran/Jackie Collins back in the day...

Taking Pride back a couple of decades, there is an important social history and I have no problem with people celebrating anything as long as all content is age and situation appropriate.

When I was a bookworm kid I loved the library - it was always a dusty warm place with lovely parquet floors and you could get lost in books. It never had this insufferable social campaigning at the forefront and it wasn’t any less for it.

Yes, quietly signpost support agencies on the notice board for those who use the library as safe place and daytime refuge, but let’s not pretend that bigging up pride week is a neutral benign thing. I would chain myself to a railing for gay rights but drag and queer culture has no place in libraries (and most public spaces tbh).

The reality of it is that Essex libraries have had Pride displays and the Essex library website had a section promoting various books (a lot of the books have been flagged up on this website for their content), meaning that Essex Libraries had been spending money on buying the books that would've struggled to sell in a commercial environment.

There's a bit of a racket whereby "authors" can produce these books with little audience and commercial want, but the publishers can get the books included in public sector purchasing orders (like schools and libraries), and allows people to make a career out of it.

I also note that while my local library celebrates pride month and advertises plenty of genderist pish like Juno Dawson etc, it stocks zero books that question or critique genderism, and does not even respond to requests to stock them.

As a pp noted above, libraries are already enforcing a certain ideology - by pushing one political viewpoint and suppressing another.

We saw this very clearly in the National Libray of Scotland debacle.

All that horny housewife fodder was simply on the shelves amongst other fictional books. It didn’t have children’s story time, or flags or neon signs ‘celebrating’ the sexuality of women. The comparison is ridiculous.

Books that had to be looked for . There wasnt a scantily clad man, dressed as a woman targeting children. Ive got no problem with gay pride how it used to be. Gay people celebrating their lives. Ive got a lot of older gay friends who wont go to pride now and disagree with how its presented now. It's gone from a celebration of acceptance to a sexual fetish display. Sexual fetishes should be kept in the bedroom. They've not got a place in schools,libraries etc.

Reform are banning (and thus not providing the funding) the Pride events, which means displays in the front of the library etc. They are not banning a gay book section or banning gay books.

It's interesting that Reform have scrapped the book reservation fee, thus making libraries more accessible, and probably funding that via scrapping Pride events.

It's interesting that Reform have scrapped the book reservation fee, thus making libraries more accessible, and probably funding that via scrapping Pride events.

That's an interesting development, redeploying public funds so it benefits the public. I like it. 😁👍👏

Yes by 2004 just over 50% thought they should be recognised, and you'll have read from my post just a few short years earlier much much higher rates of people thought homosexuality was always wrong and even the stat your quoting means 45% (a lot of people!) didn't agree.

CPs may well have been a stepping stone but it was another decade until marriage equality was achieved. I'm not sure what value there is to trying to twist the years when gay people didn't have fully equality in the eyes of the law as a better time for us - from experience it certainly wasn't better for me when such a large proportion of people thought my sexuality was always wrong and that marriage existed solely between men and women. So again, you have to do a huge revisionist reach to twist times when people were more anti gay marriage and anti homosexuality into a better time to be gay.

I'm not sure what value there is to trying to twist the years when gay people didn't have fully equality in the eyes of the law as a better time for us - from experience it certainly wasn't better for me when such a large proportion of people thought my sexuality was always wrong and that marriage existed solely between men and women. So again, you have to do a huge revisionist reach to twist times when people were more anti gay marriage and anti homosexuality into a better time to be gay.

Oh for heaven's sake, give over with this idea that I'm saying the 90s/00s were a better time to be gay. PRIDE was better then, before the TQ+ took it over. If you actually READ my posts, you will see my concern that this current issue means a backwards step for gay acceptance.

Stop twisting my words to create the argument you want to have. I won't be engaging with you any further.

So again, you have to do a huge revisionist reach to twist times when people were more anti gay marriage and anti homosexuality into a better time to be gay.

What proportion of those who didn't want gay marriage were openly gay themselves, in your analysis here? You seem to be conflating two groups, for some reason. Read my earlier post if you're not sure what I mean.

Well you decided to quote me in response to a poster who was saying exactly that (you may find it easier to keep track of you don't choose to keep replying without quoting the context of the thread you're replying to) by saying well public attitudes were very pro gay marriage by the 90s/2000s even though the data didn't bare that out especially in the 90s, until around 2004 onwards when the legislation was passed for civil partnerships etc. no one's twisting your words, you're just losing the thread of the conversation you decided to start quoting without quoting.

You're misreading. Is there a reason you ask specific questions without quoting the poster so they won't see?

Council offices are not allowed to fly political flags and there are rules about what is/not permitted. It’s to avoid alienating any group. For some reason everyone forgot about the flags being displayed inside which IMO should follow the same rules. The council, police, nhs, fire brigade etc should all be apolitical in order to be truly inclusive. Libraries should be governed by the same rules. People need to stop bringing their whole selves to work and instead bring their public service self! With the emphasis on service

The Head of service.

That is good news! It really does make a difference.

Thats the thing isnt it. We are apolitical.....supposedly.

Spot on.

It's to specify the part I'm responding to, which isn't always the entire post.

I had assumed if people are reading the thread, then they would see. I'm not typing in invisible ink.

If they're not reading the thread, I'm not hugely interested in what they have to say having butted in reading just part of it, or ignoring the bits that might make then think about their claims.

I'm no Reform fan, but...good.