A western Sydney council has reversed its controversial policy that banned a book containing same-sex parenting material following a fiery debate.
Two weeks ago, Cumberland City Council voted to ban same-sex parenting books in its libraries after a motion was brought forward by councillor Steve Christou of the Our Local Community party.
However, after a four-hour debate and numerous failed attempts at amendments, the council on Wednesday night passed a motion 12 votes to 2 to reinstate the books in its libraries.
In the final hour of the debate, Christou was abandoned by his party colleagues Paul Garrard and Helen Hughes, who voted in favour of the motion.
The only person to vote in line with Christou was Eddy Sarkis, who previously left Christou’s party after failing to be pre-selected.
Outside the building where the debate and vote took place were an estimated 500 protesters, according to police who deployed officers to keep the peace and to keep both sides away from each other.
LGBTI+ community members and their supporters who opposed the book ban chanted “bigots are not welcome here” and “1, 2, 3, 4 kick the bigots out the door, 5, 6, 7, 8 no right to discriminate”.
Meanwhile, those who supported the book ban chanted “Go back to Newtown” and “Leave our kids alone”.
“This is our suburb; this is our neighbourhood, we’re proud Christians, we’re proud Muslims, we’ve got a multi-ethnic and multi-religious neighbourhood. You guys are a bunch of godless vermin scum,” said one protester who supported the book ban.
Grandmother Caroline Staples, who was behind the Equality Australia petition that called on Cumberland City Council to reverse the decision, told reporters she was horrified by the pro-book ban protesters she saw outside the council building.
“What I saw in their eyes was terrifying. There was such hate and that is very hard to see when you know that hate is directed against one of the most vulnerable and marginalised groups in our community,” she said.
The book at the centre of the outcry is Same-Sex Parents by Holly Duhig, a children’s book depicting diverse family structures that features two men and a child on the front cover.
Christou initially said he had not read the book before calling for its ban. He has since read the book and told Network 10 that his concerns were the same concerns of Cumberland residents.
“The matter is not what’s in the book. Local residents were concerned that at such a young age parents don’t want to answer questions about same-sex parenting,” he said.
Christou repeated claims that members of the community had expressed concern about the book and that he was merely sticking up for them.
“People are just conveying the views, that they don’t want to answer these questions,” he said.
Four copies of the Same-Sex Parents book have been in the council’s libraries for five years. They have only been checked out twice.
“The reality is a lot of people don’t want to answer questions from their child at such a young age [about] why some people may have same-sex parents,” said Christou.
Christou criticised the LGBTI+ protesters as being “imported in” from other suburbs, saying they were not representative of residents from the community.
However, Equality Australia said more than 2000 signatures on its petition were from the local area.
“We walked in there [the council meeting] with 50,000 people who had their say and wanted to be heard and 2400 of them were from the Cumberland area. Their quiet, respectful yet persistent ask to be included was heard,” said Ghassan Kassisieh, Equality Australia’s legal director.
Cumberland City Council Mayor Lisa Lake, who always opposed the book ban, said she was thankful that the council came to what she described as a common sense decision.
“You don’t put children’s books into the adult section of the library, that’s akin to a soft form of censorship…it’s the same debate; that would go against everything we’ve been saying,” she said.
“We want free access to information and we want children and the families of those children to access information that they need.”
Gay Sydney News reporter