BBC Kent, Political Reporter
Getty ImagesA 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.
The Liberal Democrat leader of the opposition, Antony Hook, said: “It is bizarre that the leader of the council is making announcements on social media, rather than to the council.”
It is unknown how many books are to be removed or how the council will classify transgender-related books.
The authority runs 99 community libraries and five mobile library vans.
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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.”
Ms Kemkaran added: “Telling children they’re in the wrong body is wrong and simply unacceptable.”
Hook said he had written to the head of Kent library services to ask for an update on what books were to be removed.
He said: “The announcement made by Ms Kemkaran is vague. She does not specify what books she is referring to. This needs to be properly explained.”
Meanwhile, Labour MP for Chatham and Aylesford Tristian Osbourne has called the decision “unedifying gender baiting of the LGBT community”.
‘Unsafe, unwelcome and silenced’
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.
“It just pushes kids into the closet, into worse mental health situations. It’s just going to scare young people.”