Bookshops have been told by Scotland’s most powerful literary alliance not to sell books written by gender-critical writers or to give the authors public platforms.
As reported by the Times, a briefing document on providing safety for trans people published by the Literary Alliance Scotland (LAS) said that “Terfs” – trans-exclusionary radical feminists, a derogatory term for women considered hostile to trans people – were joining forces with “fascists”.
It said this was a “societal issue” and urged bookshop owners not to “stay out of it”. It added: “This rise in transphobia signals a danger to all LGBTQ+ people, to reproductive rights, etc.”
In a section titled “for bookshops”, the briefing said: “Don’t sell Terf books/platform Terf authors. Don’t expect trans booksellers to sell them. Trans people who see Terf books or ‘gender criticism’ in a bookshop will understand that the bookshop doesn’t want them there.”
The guidance adds: “Terfs are actively joining forces with fascists. For example, see BRAVE books, which seeks to ‘Bring Real American Values that Endure into the hearts and minds of children and their families’.”
The alliance, formed in 2015, is Scotland’s largest literary network with a membership “committed to advancing the interests of literature and languages at home and abroad”, according to its website. It says it is a “trusted, strong, collective voice” that brings together writers, publishers, educators, librarians, literature organisations and national cultural bodies.
On its board are some of the most influential figures in Scottish literature. They include Rosemary Ward, director of programme at the Scottish Book Trust, Marc Lambert, chief executive of the Scottish Book Trust, Vikki Reilly, business development manager at Publishing Scotland and Sophie Moxon, executive director of Edinburgh International Book Festival.
The guidance was written for LAS by Eris Young, a “queer, transgender writer of speculative fiction and non-fiction”. It was removed from the LAS website on Friday after details emerged online.
An LAS spokesman said that the document published on their website in March this year had been uploaded in error and “should have been removed more swiftly”. He said it had been “deemed unsuitable in its current form” and had not been approved by the board.
“We will be investigating the process in which our online materials are uploaded and will revise our procedures,” he added. “We apologise for any confusion or offence this has caused.”
This isn’t the first time trans activists have attempted to instruct those working in the book trade on how to protect the public from ‘immoral’ works published by gender critical authors.
Last year it emerged that a “best practice” guide, titled Welcoming LGBTIQ+ users: advice for public library workers, had been shared among council-run public libraries across the country and contained recommendations on how to handle “transphobic books”. Librarians are urged not to promote works by gender-critical authors and told how to mitigate the “risk” that LGBT readers might encounter these “offensive” titles on shelves.
The guidance also suggests that staff limit the number of gender-critical books they stock.
Produced in 2022 by an Islington “LGBTIQ+ library” called Book 28, the document was until recently available on the website of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals in Scotland, and remains available on the website of the charity Libraries Connected, an organisation whose membership includes every library service in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Book 28’s founder, Southwark Council librarian Isadore Auerbach George, drew up the advice with Lambeth librarian Colette Townend, who recently wrote an article for the trade publication Information Professional on “public libraries’ response to transphobia when making library stock decisions”, and academic Dr Elizabeth Chapman, whose doctoral thesis was on “provision of LGBT-related fiction to children and young people” in public libraries.
In a section titled ‘Transphobic books’, the co-authors warn: “There have been a few titles published which claim to be ‘gender critical’ and argue for removal of trans rights.
“We, along with many in the LGBTIQ+ community, find these books offensive,” they thunder from up on their ideological mount, and issue a decree to the faithful that “these authors and their work can be labelled transphobic, and the writers themselves Terfs”.
Having regretfully noted that such books are “legally published”, the authors advise librarians on how best to guard against the sin of biological blasphemy in their taxpayer-funded woke Sacrament houses: “We do not say you shouldn’t stock these books or consider methods of censorship around them. Rather, we would recommend to be mindful of and not promote these books, and to think carefully about how many you want to buy, perhaps based solely on individual requests.”
It is believed to be Book 28’s guide that led to a number of gender critical books being hidden from view at public libraries within the library service of Calderdale Council, a local authority affiliated with the controversial LGBT charity Stonewall
Following receipt of a “formal grievance” from a single member of staff, Calderdale Council (metropolitan borough population: 206,600) removed a variety of books, all critical of gender ideology and transgender activism, from public view at the Council’s 12 public libraries and placed them out of sight in an off-limits storage space.
The books in question included Dr Joyce’s Trans: When Ideology meets Reality and Prof Kathleen Stock’s Material Girls, bestselling titles which argue that biological sex is immutable and not altered by self-identification.
