Love and loathing in Albany: following the book banning narrative unfolding in Western Australia
More than 400 people crammed into the City of Albany council rooms to weigh in on motions relating to proposed restrictions on sex education books in the local library - journalist Alicia Cook reports
On Monday evening more than 400 people crammed into the City of Albany council rooms to weigh in on motions relating to proposed restrictions on sex education books in the local library.
Keeping Children Safe Albany, the group calling for titles including Welcome to Sex by Yumi Stynes and Sex: a book for teens by Nikol Hasler to be removed from the general youth section of the library, formed earlier in the year and has since made news for its outspoken views connecting child sexualisation and grooming practices to LGBTQIA+ people. At a previous community meeting on the 29th July, the group outlined t their concerns about library books, sex education, Dungeons & Dragons, transgender people, and twerking.
Western Australian civic law stipulates that a special meeting of electors may be held to decide on a community issue if enough support is demonstrated by the petitioning party. The city of Albany requires a minimum of 300 signatures from ‘electors’, or people in the community with the right to vote, to call a special meeting. In the wake of their meeting at the end of July to discuss measures against the sexualisation of children, Keeping Children Safe Albany was able to secure 362 signatures.
Albany is a city with a population close to 40,000, so in comparison KCSA represents a small percentage of the community, even if a particularly vocal one. The city is nestled in between green hills, with white sandy beaches stretching out to the rugged and sparsely populated coastline of South Western WA. With a design sensibility that seemingly peaked in the early 1990’s it’s difficult when walking around, especially given the context of events that unfolded on Monday night, not to make fun of shopfronts called ‘The Closet’ and ‘Depeche Mode’, and the unfortunately named ‘Dicks’ street. It feels somewhere close to the edge of the world, which is only bolstered by the whaling history and claim to being the departure point for 30,000 soldiers to sail to the frontlines of WW1. Locals will joke that the population is comprised of retired FIFO workers, but thriving in the midst of this is a healthy tourism economy, an inclusive community, and a decent night life in bars like Liberte which has excellent gin based cocktails, a welcome feature as it took the majority of a bottle of gin to debrief after the Albany Special Electors meeting.
A Pride supporter at the protest held before the meeting on Monday evening, Paddy Glackin said the events unfolding were especially troubling given Albany had always seemed to him a welcoming place to live.
“As a gay man of my vintage I’ve put up with faith based oppression all my life,” Mr Glackin said.
“One of the things I love about living in country WA is that it’s a welcoming environment where people accept and respect one another as neighbours and I’m just not going to countenance this sort of unpleasantness happening in this great community,” he said.
Proceedings on the night consisted of a public question time, during which any member of the community could speak on the matter, which prior to the meeting was published as being:
“The promotion of sexualising children in the City of Albany through unrestricted books in the town library and events held during the month of February 2024”
While supporters of Keeping Children Safe Albany held the clear majority of bodies in the room during the meeting, speakers who stepped up to advocate on behalf of members of the queer and neurodivergent communities affected by the proposed motions outnumbered those in favour of censorship. The supporters of the motion mostly self-identified as predominantly faith based advocates with unsubstantiated opinions through comments like “I’m just a dumbo grandad,” “it wounded my heart to think that children were being shown this garbage,” and a personal favourite, “In all fairness we should have a Christian festival.”
Community members and visiting advocates of freedom to access information who spoke in opposition of Keeping Children Safe Albany included authors, teachers, research directors, and members of the Pride community.
Local pride advocate Tegan O’Neill cited research from Trans Pathways that illustrates the need for activities criticised by KCSA, such as Dungeons & Dragons and other community supported peer groups, for the promotion of mental well-being among transgender children.
“Trans kids do exist,” said Ms O’Neill. “It can be hard to offer support without experience so when they don’t have adequate support at home, it is important that trans children can access peer support in the community.”
“Everyone here wants to protect children from harm” she said.
“Events and resources made available at the public library, along with community programs and supervised peer support groups are there in part to offer such protection.”
Director of the State Library of Western Australia, Susan McEvans said on the night that library collections should be reflective of all members of the community and that what children read was ultimately at the discretion of their parents.
“The State Library supports the City of Albany and all public libraries in Western Australia to provide reference and information and ideas free of censorship… within legal and regulatory obligations,” she said.
The discussion was followed by a vote on six motions put forth to be considered by the City of Albany at their next general council meeting in September.
In addition to three motions around age restrictions and re-classifications to be put on the sex education titles, and one graphic novel called Sex Criminals by Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky, KCSA also proposed that spending on Pride events in the town hall be done so “responsibly,” using their disapproval of an 18+ twerking workshop hosted by Albany Pride at their festival in February to support this.
Unsurprisingly these were carried with a significant majority, prompting one community member to be removed from the meeting after making the comment “is this a community meeting or a Christian meeting?”
Pride board Member Hannah Hall presented the final motion of the night, which proposed all community organisations that work with children, including religious groups are verified by the City of Albany as being compliant with the recommendations from the 2017 Royal Commission into child abuse.
“We proposed the motion to ensure there was substantive, serious effort to protect vulnerable children up for discussion rather than the those put forth by keeping children safe that do not in our opinion achieve that end,” Ms Hall said.
The motion was passed 173 to 71, as a significant portion of the KCSA audience abstained from the vote. Whether this was due to confusion or simply not wanting to side with the gays is really only speculation.
In any case an important democratic process took place in Albany on Monday night, one that Ms Hall said Albany Pride was satisfied with and had led to several members of KCSA contacting them to find out more information about the queer community.
“We are satisfied” said Ms Hall “we understand this was a rather unusual situation for the city of Albany too.”
“Several of the people who attended to support the keeping children safe motions reached out after meeting to seek better understanding than they had been previously led to have.
“These were positive conversations that represent our hopes for a more inclusive, less divided community” Ms Hall said.
The representative for KCSA, Michelle Kinsella, declined to speak directly with Nonsense for this article, but in a message did comment that KCSA was also satisfied with the proceedings.
“The community came together, voted on motions and every one of our motions were supported by the community and reflected their views and concerns,” Ms Kinsella said.
The five motions passed on 26 August will be considered by the City of Albany at their next council meeting on 24 September.
The City of Albany was approached for comment for this article. According to a city spokesperson, a full transcript of the proceedings and the motions will be released on their website within seven business days after the meeting.
Alicia S Cook is a multilingual journalist covering social and public interest stories, currently freelancing for various publications. She identifies as part of the LGBTQIA+ community and more of her writing can be found on her Substack and website.
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