The Government Started These Culture Wars

Yesterday, I asked what problem are the government trying to solve by introducing this Rainbow Libraries Toolkit ostensibly to provide more inclusive spaces for the LGBTIQA+ community in taxpayer-funded libraries. A viewer pointed out that the Government introduced this toolkit in response to growing dissatisfaction and protests at these drag queen story time events. This is the original media release from the Premier’s office. “The Allan Labor Government is supporting libraries across the state to provide more inclusive spaces for LGBT communities with a new toolkit.” The reason for this they state, “The toolkit was established in response to… a rise in the vilification of LGBTIQA+ communities and targeting of LGBTIQA+ inclusive events, including drag story time events for rainbow young people held at libraries.”

So the viewer succinctly pointed out that the problem was the protesting at drag queen story hour. The symptom was that gay or “rainbow” people didn’t feel welcome at public libraries. The solution (in the Government’s eyes), is to train staff how to make people feel welcome. But I would argue that was never the original problem. I would argue that gay people were always welcome at libraries (obviously, nobody would be able to judge somebody’s sexuality on appearance), but what the protesters did take issue with is the overtly sexualised drag queens that for some reason had been invited to read to children. That’s obviously controversial and guaranteed to spark a backlash. The organisers must have known this. To say otherwise is naive.

So I think the correct order of events is:
The original status quo was that everyone was welcome to the library.
The problem was that drag queens were invited to read to children, which is obviously an inflammatory action.
The reaction was that people started protesting at drag queen story events. I don’t think these protests had anything to do with people being gay or not. It was the overtly sexual nature of drag queens.
The Government’s solution was to push drag queen story hour even harder (not to mention rainbow books and other events), inflaming tensions even more.
The result is societal division.

I would argue that originally, the library was a safe place for gay people, and everyone else. I don’t see how anyone can say otherwise. But the Government have created a situation that has turned the library into an ideological battlefield, which actually hurts everyone, even the people they claim to be helping.

Look, if these events were being held at say a private library where people pay an entrance fee, or a membership fee or whatever, so be it. (I’d be interested how many people would actually pay for this.) But this Rainbow Toolkit applies to public libraries funded by taxpayers. The Government knew this would inflame tensions, but they did it anyway. It means they don’t care about societal cohesion. They just care about pushing their own ideology, people be damned.

RAINBOW LIBRARIES TOOLKIT PRESS RELEASE
https://www.premier.vic.gov.au/rainbow-libraries-toolkit-launches-wear-it-purple-day

MUSIC
Allégro by Emmit Fenn