DUP Minister Gordon Lyons has met with Libraries NI chief executive Jim O’Hagan and Library Board chair Bonnie Anley in efforts to remove children’s books including transgender themes from library shelves across Northern Ireland.
Minister Lyons, alongside TUV’s MP Jim Allister, claim that such books are not ‘age-appropriate’, with the Minister saying that libraries should be a “safe space for both parents and children”.
We are clear: there is nothing inappropriate about LGBTQIA+ people, relationships, identities, and lives. Trans children and young people deserve to see themselves reflected in the media that they consume, including literature in our public libraries, and the Communities Minister should focus instead on promoting the diversity of all communities in Northern Ireland.
We have seen contemporary attempts in the United States to remove LGBTQIA+-themed books from shelves, as well as the systematic erasure of LGBTQIA+ art, literature, and research by authoritarian regimes throughout our history. This must not be repeated.
Use our tool below to send a letter to the Communities Minister, Gordon Lyons, to let him know that LGBTQIA+ people and our allies will not accept erasure and invisibility, and that our lives and identities are not inappropriate. You can amend the letter to include your own experience, or what LGBTQIA+ literature has meant to you and your family. We ask that you refrain from using abusive language in any form.