Dear Cr McMahon, 

I'm writing in response to your post on Facebook regarding two books, Antiracist Baby and ABC of Gender Identity, which have encouraged you to seek a review of books in Toowoomba Region’s libraries. I can understand why you could be personally concerned about books that are written for people whose values differ from your own. As an elected councillor, however, I hope you will consider the principles of good decision making that you are required to be guided by, including having "a responsibility to make sure [councillors] are well informed and make considered an informed decisions", and that "councillors must be impartial, objective, free from bias and act in the public interest" (State Development, Infrastructure, Local Government and Planning, 2021, para 1).  

In aide of these principles, I would like to share recommendations to benefit the public interest based on recent research into the health and wellbeing of  LGBTIQ+ Australians. LGBTIQ+ Health Australia (2021) calls on governments to positively contribute to suicide prevention and improvements in mental health of Australian citizens through a whole of government approach to crisis intervention, which includes "education campaigns to reduce stigma and discrimination" (p. 6). Relevant to one of the books you mentioned in your post, the organisation makes specific mention of education that promotes "inclusion of LGBTIQ+ people in society more broadly, and further embrace diversity and to ensure full inclusivity of all groups, particularly LGBTIQ people with disabilities, LGBTIQ people from multifaith and culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and LGBTIQ people from Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander backgrounds, Brotherboys and Sistergirls". 

As I'm sure you would agree, steps that we as community members can take to help reduce suicides in our community and improve mental health of young people should be priorities. I strongly encourage you to scan the results of the 2021 Snapshot of Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Statistics for LGBTIQ+ People and consider the opening statement as you read the statistics: 

"Although many lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer people and other sexuality and gender diverse (LGBTIQ+) people live healthy and happy lives, research has demonstrated that a disproportionate number experience poorer mental health outcomes and have higher risk of suicidal behaviours than their peers. These health outcomes are directly related to experiences of stigma, prejudice, discrimination and abuse on the basis of being LGBTIQ+. This document aims to provide a snapshot of what is known of the current mental health and wellbeing outcomes of LGBTIQ+ people in Australia."

As the author of the book Antiracist Baby asserts, "Babies are taught to be racist or antiracist, there's no neutrality". The idea that anyone can be neutral on racism has been discredited by researchers, and it's important for young people and their families to understand how we can move away from racist aspects of our cultures. Reconciliation Australia's 2020 Australian Reconciliation Barometer study highlights an increasing understanding of the prevalence of racism in Australia and an increase in experiences of racial prejudice faced by First Nations people: “This year’s Barometer shows more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people reporting an incident of racial prejudice than the 2018 barometer,” said Reconciliation Australia CEO, Karen Mundine. “Just over half of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander respondents reported to have experienced at least one form of racial prejudice in the last six months. More Australians now agree with the statement that ‘Australia is a racist country’, a rise across the board in understanding how racism operates. In 2020 we have seen increasing political and social polarisation due to uncertainty and disruption from COVID-19." 

Here's an article about interviews with "27 highly skilled professional African migrants from eight different Sub-Saharan African countries about their experiences of employment, belonging and parenting in Australia. Parents of Black African children told us they had to consider how race affected the identity, perception, opportunities and well-being of their children". 

Some books in our libraries are intended to tell exciting tales of fictional or historical characters, others are written to make kids laugh, some are written to share insight into religious stories that may guide children as they grow, and some are written to let children know that there a lots of different people in our communities and that they don't need to feel bad about themselves or make other people feel bad for being who they are.  

I hope you can see the purpose of books like ABC of Gender Identity and Antiracist Baby in public libraries and that you can respect the right of young people and families to make decisions about the literature children read. Please reconsider your plan to seek a review of books in the library and make efforts toward understanding the need for diverse representation in books in our region's libraries.