Albany council rejected a proposal to remove sex education books from the city’s libraries and implement strict controls around twerking workshops being held in council buildings.
At the same time the council also knocked back a proposal for all community groups, including church groups, to abide by the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
The motions were the result of a Special Electors Meeting held last month where local activist group Keep Children Safe Albany put up most of the motions. They called for action on several sex education books in the city’s library, and a graphic novel with what has been described as adult content which available through the online library.
The additional motion referring to the recent Royal Commission was put forward by a representative of Albany Pride. The councilors voted 8-3 against the motion which encapsulated all of the suggestions from the recent Special Elector Meeting.
Councilors Mario Lionetti, Thomas Brough and Craig McKinley supported the motion. While councilors Robert Sutton, Malcolm Traill, Paul Terry, Stephen Grimmer and Lynn MacLaren spoke against the proposals.
“Where does it start and where does it finish?,” Councilor Sutton asked. “We ban these books then where are we going to go? Are we going to burn books in the streets?”
The council has however moved the book Welcome to Sex by Dr Melissa Kang and Yumi Styles from the junior section of the Library to the Young Adult area.
Keep Children Safe Albany had called for the book to be kept behind the counter until a section of the library was built that people under the age of 16 could not access.
The other contentious book Sex: A Book for Teens by Nicol Hasler will not be replaced as it is quite old. Neither book has been available in the library for many months. It is understood that members of the activist group have booked them out and not returned them.
Keeping Children Safe Albany say local, state and federal elections are in their sights
Following the meeting Michelle Kinsella, the spokesperson for Keeping Children Safe Albany, posted a video online declaring that her group “was not going anywhere.”
“We not going anywhere, we are going to keep pushing for children to be safe, to stop the sexualisation of children in society and education.”
“We’re really just actually getting warmed up.” Kinsella said flagging the group would be focusing on next year’s local, state and federal elections.
Albany Pride welcomes the council decision
Albany Pride said they welcomed the decision to dismiss motions from the recent Special Electors meeting as per recommendation by the City’s administration staff.
“Protecting children and young people is important. Vilifying entire marginalised communities in the name of protecting children is a misdirection that is unacceptable. Queer and trans children matter too.
“There are many credible, substantive ways to prevent harming children, carried out by highly informed organisations such as Brave Hearts Protect Kids and Grace Tame Foundation.” the group said.
“Using local government processes to stir up concerns in particular parts of the population without any real impact on child safety is frankly bizarre and appears to be politically motivated.
“We hope to progress compassionate and reasonable public discourse, and call on state and local governments to join us in making WA more equitable for LGBTIQA+ people for the benefit of us all.”
