Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

"I feel like 'please acknowledge we exist' and 'please stop killing us' being the two trans-related days on the calendar is telling." -- Söphie (SBElikeswords), 2021-11-15

And, related to yesterrday's QotD, this is from "Denton [TX] library cancels story time, citing safety concerns" by Lucinda Breeding-Gonzales (LBreedingDRC), Denton Record-Chronicle, 2021-11-15 [bold emphasis added]:

The Denton Public Library on Monday canceled a children's story time scheduled for Saturday, citing safety concerns for library patrons and staff. The library said it had received complaints from people who mistakenly believed the event included books about transgender children.

The program, called Rainbow StoryTime, happens three times a year and is scheduled to coincide on days focused on marginalized groups. The Saturday morning program at North Branch Library would have included three titles about children accepting themselves and one another.

A statement released Monday said some printed materials incorrectly used the word "transgender" in reference to the program because the story time falls on the national Transgender Day of Remembrance, a day to memorialize transgender people who have been murdered as a result of transphobia. The printed material, which was lifted from an age-appropriate transgender story time the library hosted in 2019, was then corrected.

[...]

The library reached out to the Denton Police Department earlier Monday before deciding to cancel the event. Bekker said the library wanted to discuss security and crowd control "in case a lot of people showed up."

The library later decided to cancel the event.

While the books don't make mention of sexuality or gender, the titles help adults and children consider and discuss differences, acceptance and self-expression, Bekker said. Inclusion is a part of the library's mission, and while the Rainbow family story time was a way to include transgender awareness in programming, Bekker said the titles were deliberately selected because they can appeal to a broader young audience.

[...]

"I got tired of hearing from Jim Mann and his parishioners," Maguire said. "They are a group that use this rhetoric that transgenderism is a mental illness and people who want to talk to children about gender are grooming them for sexual abuse. This idea that talking about gender is sexualizing children, that was something in almost every email I received from them."

[...]

"The people who object to this program are the same people who object to transgender people existing in public spaces," she said.

[The annual Transgender Day of Remembrance is tomorrow.]