The ban on same-sex parenting books at libraries in a western Sydney council area could be rescinded after widespread backlash and a warning from the premier, Chris Minns, that LGBTQ+ people were being used as a “political football”.
Four Labor councillors on Cumberland city council have lodged a rescission motion to overturn the ban, which they expect will be debated at the next council meeting on 15 May. The vote is expected to be tight.
Announcing the rescission motion on social media, councillor Kun Huang said the ban amounted to discrimination and “this kind of censorship by politicians should have no place in Australia”.
The ban was enacted at a meeting last week when the council voted on a new strategy for its eight council-run libraries.
Councillor and former mayor Steve Christou successfully passed an amendment that the council take “immediate action” to “rid” the libraries of same-sex parent books and materials.
Six councillors voted in favour of the ban and five voted against, one councillor abstained from voting and three councillors were absent.
The ban prompted outrage from residents, distress in the LGBTQ+ community and a warning from the government that the council had breached the Libraries Act and risked having its libraries’ funding revoked.
A petition to rescind the ban, started by local resident Caroline Staples, had amassed nearly 27,000 signatures by Thursday evening. The petition, hosted by Equality Australia, will be presented to council next week.
The premier on Thursday labelled the ban “ridiculous”.
“It seems to me to be engineered by one of these councillors because there’s an election coming up, but what a joke,” Minns said.
Three councillors from the Our Local Community party supported the ban – Christou, Paul Garrard and Helen Hughes – alongside independents Greg Cummings and Michael Zaiter with Labor’s Mohamad Hussein.
Hussein, who broke ranks with his party to vote in favour of the ban, on Wednesday said he had made the decision in line with his religious beliefs and he stood by it.
Another Labor councillor, the deputy mayor, Ola Hamed, abstained from the vote. She told Guardian Australia she was a longstanding advocate for social justice but she alleged she had received death threats after an earlier council debate over drag queen storytime events.
Cumberland’s other Labor councillors – Huang, Diane Colman, Glenn Elmore, Kun Suman Saha and the mayor, Lisa Lake – all voted against the ban.
after newsletter promotion
Colman told Guardian Australia she believed the ban could be overturned because the “unintended consequences”, including community backlash and condemnation from the government, were making some councillors “rethink their stance”.
Of the three councillors who missed the meeting, Labor’s Sabrin Farooqui backed the rescission motion but said she didn’t know whether it would pass.
Independent councillor Joseph Rahme said he hadn’t given the issue much thought but he “wouldn’t be divulging” which way he would vote even if he did know.
Our Local Community councillor Eddy Sarkis, who also missed the vote, was contacted for comment.
During the meeting, Christou brandished the book, Same-Sex Parents by Holly Duhig – which he alleged had received “really disturbing” constituent complaints – saying parents were “distraught” to see it displayed on a shelf in the children’s section of the library.
The 23-page book explores the experience of having two mothers or two fathers in a way that is designed to be understood by young children. Its contents include quotes such as “having same-sex parents is no different to having opposite-sex parents”.
The book notes that “people might make assumptions” and “people might be unkind” and contains advice such as: “All loving families are good. Remember, as long as you are happy, it doesn’t matter what other people think.”
“Treating someone unfairly because of who they love is a type of discrimination and it is never OK,” the book says.
Christou this week publicly confirmed he had not read the book.
Once a Labor party member, Christou defected to Our Local Community in 2019. He ran as an independent for the federal seat of Parramatta at the 2022 election, garnering 2,982 votes.
In 2021, while he was the Cumberland mayor, Christou used his casting vote to defeat a motion that would have installed street signs in the area that said “Racism Not Welcome”.
Christou is known for his outspoken views and has previously advocated passionately for the right to free speech.
On 28 April, just four days before he put forward the amendment to enact the book ban, Christou posted a video on his X account railing against Australia’s eSafety commissioner as a form of “censorship” and an “attack on people’s free speech”.
“Freedom of speech is very important, but this country is being run down the toilet by this government and their communist regime. It’s not on,” he said.
New South Wales’ next council elections will be held in September.