Nottingham City Council has confirmed that they will not be removing author Julie Bindel's books from libraries across the city following the decision to cancel her talk on Saturday, June 25. Author Julie Bindel was due to speak at the library in Aspley.
The council released a statement after the talk was cancelled stating that the author's views were not aligned with its Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy. Ms Bindel then travelled to the library to give the talk outside where she was met by protestors holding the transgender flags in support of the community.
Some of the libraries in Nottinghamshire have copies of the author's books which focused on feminism and women's rights. Lowdham library currently holds a copy of 'Straight Expectations: what it means to be gay today' while Arnold and Hyson Green libraries hold copies of 'Feminism for Women: the real route to Liberation' which was published in 2021.
There are books available by several other authors who hold similar views to Ms Bindel that have caused controversy. This includes books by authors J K Rowling and Kathleen Stock. Nottingham City Council has confirmed they will not remove any of the books.
West Bridgford, Worksop and Hucknall libraries hold a copy of Stock's 'Material Girls: Why reality matters for feminism'. The philosophy professor recently quit her position at Sussex University over what she called “a medieval experience” of campus ostracism and protests.
Ms Bindel has announced her intention to sue the city council in a column for the newspaper, The Daily Mail. She stated that her talk was cancelled on 'ludicrous' grounds and she felt she was being silenced. She also claims that Nottingham City Council did not meet with her to discuss the content of the talk and that was banned from entering the library.
The council released a statement that has been shared online. They stated that they were unaware of Ms Bindel's views on transgender people and it was brought to their attention.
Nottingham City Council Deputy Leader Cllr Adele Williams and Portfolio Holder for Neighbourhoods, Safety & Inclusion Cllr Neghat Khan said: “This was a private booking at Aspley Library by the ‘Nottingham Women for Change’ group and all ticket sales and marketing of the event had been undertaken independently with no input from the council. While it was known that the event was going to be from a feminist perspective, no information around the speaker’s views on transgender rights was brought to the Library Service’s attention.
They added: “Once we became aware of this, we took the decision to cancel the booking. Nottingham is an inclusive city and as a council we support our LGBT community and have committed to supporting trans rights as human rights through Stonewall. We did not want the use of one of our library buildings for this event, taking place during Pride month, to be seen as implicit support for views held by the speaker which fly in the face of our position on transgender rights.”
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