War of words: Public libraries have far fewer gender-critical books than trans-activist titles on their shelves… prompting ‘censorship’ accusation

• Libraries less likely to have gender-critical books versus trans-activist titles
• 446 copies of five trans-activist books were held across 49 public libraries
• This was 62 per cent more than the 274 copies than five gender-critical titles

Public libraries were yesterday accused of ‘censorship’ after a report revealed they have far fewer gender-critical books than trans-activist titles on their shelves.

Councils are disproportionately displaying books favourable to trans-activist opinions, with some offering no gender-critical alternative, according to campaigners.

That is despite the gender-critical books being twice as likely to be out on loan than titles supporting trans rights, suggesting the stocks do not match demand from borrowers.

The results of the first examination of how the trans debate is being played out in public libraries sparked allegations that the institutions had been ‘captured by woke activists’.

The survey of 49 local authorities with online library catalogues was carried out by the Free Speech Union.

Titles including The Transgender Issue, by Shon Faye, are among those more likely to be stocked by libraries

Material Girls, by Kathleen Stock, was among a set of gender-critical books that were less likely to appear on the shelves of public libraries across the UK

Its researchers asked each how many copies they had of five best-selling trans-activist books, and five of the most popular gender-critical books.

The former were books arguing that trans women are women and gender can be self-identified.

Titles included The Transgender Issue, by Shon Faye, and Trans Britain: Our Journey from the Shadows, by Christine Burns.

The latter supported the view that women must be born female and binary sex cannot be changed.

Among them were Material Girls, by Kathleen Stock, and Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality, by Helen Joyce.

A total of 446 copies of the trans-activist books were held by the public libraries, an average of 9.1 per council.

That was 62 per cent more than the 274 copies they held of gender-critical books, equating to 5.6 per council.

Yet the data – collected in September and October – showed that 43 per cent of the gender-critical books were on loan, compared to just 20 per cent of the trans-activist titles.

In addition, readers had reserved 29 gender-critical books which were currently out on loan with the nine councils which supplied this data, with no bookings made for trans-activist titles.

Toby Young, of the Free Speech Union, said that ‘too many libraries have been captured by woke activists behaving like bespectacled zealots in the culture war’

Two-thirds of the councils had more trans-activist than gender-critical books.

The five councils with the fewest gender-critical books were all Labour-run – Enfield, Bolton, Wigan, Brent and Ealing.

Just one in five of the authorities surveyed listed more gender-critical than trans-activist books at their libraries.

Toby Young, general secretary of the Free Speech Union, told the Sunday Telegraph ‘too many libraries have been captured by woke activists behaving like bespectacled zealots in the culture war’.

Ms Joyce, whose gender-critical work was among those surveyed, told the paper: ‘Public libraries should understand how important it is not to censor books.’

A Local Government Association spokesman said: ‘Libraries can and do stock a broad range of books and other resources which are available to all members of the community.’

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