Do we really need to teach library staff to resist using gendered language like boys and girls to make people feel safe?
Victorian children as young as five can look forward to men dressed in drag reading stories to them and having library staff ask about their preferred pronouns.
Opinion
Don't miss out on the headlines from Opinion. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Just when you thought Victoria couldn’t lurch any further Left, the Labor government launches another divisive campaign to push the state further into ideological lunacy.
The Jacinta Allan government is proving yet again that it will not allow little things like crippling debt and a looming energy crisis to disrupt its mad culture wars.
The Rainbow Libraries toolkit – 48-pages of activist bulldust pushing radical gender theory to the young and vulnerable – will entrench far Left LGBTQQIP2SA+ indoctrination into public libraries.
Children as young as five can look forward to men dressed in drag reading stories to them and having library staff ask about their preferred pronouns.
It’s precisely the type of woke idiocy that mainstream Australia abhors and the political class in this state adores.
Sadly, that includes the thoroughly hopeless and gutless Vic Libs who either back such initiatives or stay silent.
Local Government Minister Melissa Horne claims the toolkit is necessary to help LGBTQIA+ folk to access libraries.
“The Rainbow Libraries Toolkit ensures that all Victorians, regardless of identity, have a place in our public libraries – because libraries are a space that everyone should be able to access,” she said.
I’m sorry but since when has anyone been denied access to a public library because of their sexuality or their preference for non-binary pronouns? Do we really need to teach library staff to resist using gendered language like boys and girls to make people feel safe? Should we also remove all books that reference gender?
Thankfully, I don’t have room to inflict the whole 48 pages on you but allow me to quote from page 12 where we are told of the importance of non-gendered greetings and the harms of heteronormative language.
“Non-gendered greetings are important because they eliminate assumptions about a person’s gender, allowing for everyone to feel seen and welcome in the library space.
“Checking in casually about their pronouns (‘Do you still prefer he/him pronouns?’; ‘Do you still go by Sam, or is there something else you’d like me to use?’).
“Do not presume to know a person’s sexuality … When dealing with children or young people in particular, avoid making heteronormative references, for example, talking about a child’s imaginary or future ‘boyfriend’ or ‘girlfriend’. Although these are generally considered harmless jokes, they can reinforce stereotypes and normative thinking.”
Frankly we could do with more normative thinking, not less.
More Coverage
Originally published as Do we really need to teach library staff to resist using gendered language like boys and girls to make people feel safe?
Join the conversation
Campbell: Deeming case all about the vibe of the thing
That well-known Australian legal principle – the vibe of the thing – will be a crucial element to the defamation trial and already we’ve had one Denis Denuto test.
Read more
Panahi: Big business now awake to threat of woke Albanese govt
Corporate Australia is finally waking up to the threat Labor poses to the business sector, as the Albanese government, filled with radical ideologues, finds new and creative ways to thwart development.
Read more