A book featuring same-sex parenting will return to library shelves after a Sydney council rescinded its ban on the text over concerns it betrayed the community’s “conservative values”. Cumberland City Council, which covers a population of about 240,000 people living near Parramatta, narrowly voted earlier in May to “take immediate action to rid same-sex books materials in the council’s library service”.
“I’m only echoing the views of my community,” he told the meeting, while asserting it was “not an attack on gay or same-sex couples”. “We cannot have toddlers just asking parents questions about genders and non-binaries,” he added. But local leaders and community members disagreed. “You can ban a book on same-sex parents but this won’t stop me, my friends, my family from picking up our kids from school or playing in the local park,” one woman said.