Mick Hartley

Well now. From a shocked BBC:

A council has removed all transgender-related books from the children's sections of its libraries, its leader has announced.

In a post on social media, Kent County Council leader Linden Kemkaran said the books were to be removed with immediate effect in a "victory for common sense in Kent".

Paul Webb, Reform UK's communities portfolio holder who oversees libraries, said the move came after a "concerned member of the public" contacted him….

Defending the decision, Webb said: "In our society, children are quite rightly and properly protected from items and actions that could cause them harm – for example alcohol, cigarettes and gambling.

"My fellow Reform members and I believe that our young people should be protected from exposure to potentially harmful ideologies and beliefs such as those held by the trans lobbyists."

When the BBC asked if Reform UK had carried out an assessment to understand the impact of removing the books, Webb said: "As far as impact assessments are concerned, I would have thought that question should have been asked before these books were placed in the children's section to begin with."

A good response.

Plenty of horrified LGBTQ+ people are quoted, of course.

Steven Pullen, founder and director of Swale Pride, described the move as "deeply upsetting".

He said: "It emboldens anti-trans rhetoric and contributes to a culture where marginalised people feel unsafe, unwelcome, and silenced."

And Erin Strawbridge, the manager of the Folkestone Bookshop, an LGBTQ+ bookshop, told BBC Radio Kent: "Censorship does not stop people from learning information but it does send the message, and it's sending a message to the young people of Kent that they're not safe and they're not welcome if they're LGBT or trans.

Nonsense. Teaching children that they could be "born in the wrong body" and can change sex if they want to  – like the ghastly Pop'n'Olly – is a grotesque abuse of their innocence, pushed by trans activists. As always the T gets smuggled in via the good will towards the LGB.

A reminder, from Matilda Gosling's report last week on publishing:

The promotion of gender-identity beliefs in children’s publishing is widespread and its ramifications are serious. Children who identify as trans are more likely than other children to have underlying vulnerabilities such as autism, poor mental health, a history of abuse or having grown up in care. They are several times more likely to grow up to be lesbian, gay or bisexual. They need support to feel comfortable in their bodies. Children’s books, on the other hand, paint a shiny, sparkly world of trans identities that supposedly fix deep-seated underlying challenges, resolve bodily hatred and create enduring joy in the form of “trans euphoria”. 

These publications are steeped in stereotypes. The blurb for the book I Am Jazz, for example, reads:

“From the time she was two years old, Jazz knew that she had a girl’s brain in a boy’s body. She loved pink and dressing up as a mermaid and didn’t feel like herself in boy’s clothing. This confused her family, until they took her to a doctor who said that Jazz was transgender and that she was born that way.”

Jazz Jennings is now an adult who has had several transition-related surgeries and experienced post-surgical complications, as well as many other health issues.