dolorosa_12 | Some good political news for once

A couple of weeks back, an undergrad university friend of mine from Australia (who is also a librarian) shared details on social media of a petition to reverse a horrible (and horrifying) decision by one of the local councils in Sydney to ban children's library books featuring same-sex couples. This was all the more shocking because US-style culture wars (particularly around sexuality and gender identity) tend not to gain traction in Australia (there were attempts in the last federal election to fearmonger about trans people, and it was a resounding failure — though appalling that it even happened), and there have not, to my knowledge, been any coordinated attacks on public libraries with book bannings in Australia to this point.

In any case, I signed the petition (although I'm pretty skeptical about petitions as a vehicle for activism and political change in general) without much hope, only to discover that over 50,000 people signed in less than a week, and the council reversed their decision in a 12-2 vote. This was an extremely quick — and reassuring — reversal, and a huge relief to me as an Australian, a Sydneysider (although not from that local government area), and a librarian!

I think in general local government (and non-political contexts, like calling for a cancelled TV show to be renewed) is possibly the only area in which petitions are effective (and even then only in certain contexts); for national and international politics they're a pointless exercise to make the people signing feel better. (I once saw — I wish I could say I was joking — a petition calling on the Taliban to 'protect the rights of women and girls,' being shared around with apparent sincerity.) But at local level: go wild, and sign all the things! I hope you're able to make as immediate and as heartwarming a difference as we did this week.

(In other political news, I discovered — it's taken me long enough — that it's possible to mute either an Instagram account's stories, posts, or both without unfollowing the account, which has had a profoundly positive effect on my heart rate, blood pressure, and jaw and shoulder tension, that's for sure!)

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chestnut_pod

That is, as you say, a huge shock and also a huge relief that it was so quickly reversed.

dolorosa_12

I think Australians do have a certain complacency when it comes to stuff like this ('but at least we're not as bad as they are in the United States' tends to be the response to any social injustice), so it was good that the response was so immediate and strong, and the reversal was so swift. I suspect this attempt at book banning was a testing of the waters, to see how receptive residents were (or how aggressive the reaction would be), and I'm hoping the appropriate message was sent, and received.