3 days ago
Scotland's national library removes gender-critical book after staff complaints
The National Library of Scotland (NLS) has removed a gender-critical book from an exhibition after staff complained.
The library removed The Women Who Wouldn't Wheesht, a collection of essays by feminists including JK Rowling about their fight against Nicola Sturgeon's gender self-ID laws.
The book was selected to be included in a major exhibition celebrating the library's centenary.
But Amina Shah, Scotland's national librarian and the NLS chief executive, decided to remove the book from the exhibition after coming under pressure from the library's LGBT+ staff network, who called it 'hate speech'.
The network warned its inclusion would cause 'severe harm to staff' and said it would have 'no choice but to notify LGBT+ partners of the library's endorsement of the book', according to documents released under freedom of information (FoI).
An equality impact assessment produced by the library warned the book could be 'perceived as harmful' and 'asserted increases in hate crime'.
'Anti-trans ideology'
Concerns were also expressed that the NLS would be seen to endorse 'anti-trans ideology', despite the exhibition containing several other pro-trans titles, and that there would be a 'backlash from external partners'.
In a statement, the NLS said the book would still be available to read in the library and the exhibition included 'a full list' of publications not selected for display.
But the two women who edited the book wrote to Ms Shah accusing her of censorship and 'cowardice' for having 'capitulated to what we can only describe as threats from within the library to disrupt the centenary exhibition'.
Lucy Hunter Blackburn, a policy analyst, and Susan Dalgety, a newspaper columnist, said the documents showed that 'you, and some of your senior colleagues, allowed activists on your staff to characterise the very existence of the book as harmful, hateful and akin to racism and homophobia'.
'By conceding to this internal lobbying, not only have you allowed this defamatory misrepresentation to go unchallenged, but you have in effect endorsed it. Surely, the role of the National Librarian is to ensure the library is a place where ideas, debate and discussion take place,' the pair said.
'Yet rather than treat this book as a book, you have allowed it to be treated as a dangerous object, not safe for public display in Scotland's national library.'
Campaigners 'smeared'
They noted that the women who contributed essays to the book included campaigners who won April's landmark Supreme Court ruling that trans women are not women under the Equality Act.
'These are women who have changed the course of politics not just in Scotland but in the UK, and who spoke up for many who felt less able to do so,' Ms Hunter Blackburn and Ms Dalgety said.
'All these women have been smeared and their words excluded from the exhibition by your decision.'
They said the equality impact assessment was a 'fig leaf', meaning to conceal an embarrassment, and the FoI documents showed that the library 'has discriminated against this book purely for the position it takes on questions of sex and gender identity'.
The library received 523 title nominations for the Dear Library exhibition, of which 200 were to go on public display. The Women Who Wouldn't Wheesht received four nominations, with two normally enough to guarantee selection.
An email sent on May 14 this year confirmed that the book 'will feature in the exhibition' and 'will be displayed alongside 200 other publicly-selected books'.
Library chiefs said its inclusion was not an endorsement of its contents and reflected its ethos of 'welcoming people of all identities and beliefs'.
But on the same day, a reply was sent stating that the staff LGBT+ network was 'disappointed' by the decision and accusing the book's authors of being 'explicitly exclusionary in nature'.
'Attack on women's rights'
Another reply questioned what would have happened if the exhibition selection had included 'a non-fiction work advocating for racist, homophobic, or other discriminatory and exclusionary viewpoints'.
The equality impact assessment was produced on May 21, warning that its inclusion 'could be seen as an endorsement of anti-trans ideology' and result in 'severe damage' to the library's reputation.
However, it acknowledged that excluding the book 'could be regarded as an attack on women's rights and censorship of gender-critical ideology '.
It also noted that the book 'is the only inclusion of pro-gender-critical content within the exhibition, whereas there is a large amount of content within the exhibition which platforms LGBT+ communities'.
A report produced for the library's management team on May 27 said the staff network had threatened to inform the library's LGBT+ partners and the following day Ms Shah published a paper recommending the book be excluded.
She said: 'This is not due to the content of the book itself or the views expressed, but to the potential impact on key stakeholders and the reputation of the library. There is a risk that they will withdraw their support for the exhibition and the centenary.
On May 29, a staff member emailed a colleague stating that the book 'promotes hate speech to a particular group'. The same day Ms Shah met Sir Drummond Bone, the library's chairman, to discuss the matter. The following day she emailed colleagues stating: 'Drummond has agreed with my recommendation.'
An NLS spokesman said: 'Anyone can visit our reading rooms and access this book as well as the 200 other titles that were not selected for display. A full list of those publications is available as part of the exhibition.
'Libraries are vital places where people can access all kinds of publications for free, and form their own opinions.'
