LGBTQ+ book classification to be reviewed after complaint by right-wing activist
Stack of frequently-banned books in the US including Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe (Mark Mulligan/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images)
The Australian Classifications Review Board has been ordered to look again at its assessment of LGBTQ+ graphic novel Gender Queer after complaints by a right-wing activist.
Last year, Gender Queer: A Memoir, by Maia Kobabe, which topped the 2023 list of most-complained-about books in US libraries, was ruled appropriate for a teen audience in Australia, with the review board refusing to restrict access to it despite more than 500 complaints.
The book recounts Kobabe’s journey from adolescence to adulthood, and the author’s exploration of gender identity and sexuality. Marketed to teenagers and young adults, it covers topics such as “masturbation, sex toys and sexual health”, as well as gender and sexuality.
Right-wing activist Bernard Gaynor, who described the book as “pornographic”, had asked the board to review its classification.
After the review, during which the public was asked for comments, the board kept the classification as unrestricted, with the consumer advice of “M”, which meant it was not recommended for readers under the age of 15.
But now, the federal court has ordered the review board to reassess the book’s classification, after finding that there had been a “broad-brush dismissal” of the complaints by labelling them “anti-LGBTQ+”, The Guardian reported.
Gaynor’s lawyer, Bret Walker, argued that not all the complaints were anti-LGBTQ+, and referred to an image that appeared to depict paedophilia: Kobabe’s illustration of a sexual fantasy “based on Plato’s [dialogue], Symposium“.
Justice Ian Jackman agreed with Walker, finding that only 66 of the 576 complaints could be “rationally treated” as anti-LGBTQ+. The court ordered the decision about the book to be scrapped, and told the review board to reclassify it.
“The fundamental flaw in that submission is that the review board’s description of the public submissions overwhelmingly being ‘broadly anti-LGBTQIA+’ demonstrates that the board ignored, overlooked or misunderstood those submissions,” Jackman said.
Kobabe has previously spoken about efforts to ban books, claiming it was “dangerous and unfair” to restrict access to young people looking for information about LGBTQ+ issues and sex.
The author told Time magazine that the topics covered in the book, first published in 2019, were “part of life”, and “things that pretty much everyone will encounter in some form or other in their life”.
It was unfair for right-wingers to claim it was inappropriate for young people because reading about a “difficult subject” was “just about the safest way that you can encounter something that you might find challenging”, Kobabe insisted, adding that the ongoing efforts to ban or restrict LGBTQ+ books in schools and libraries was part of an organised effort to erase trans and non-binary voices from the public sphere.
“I see it as linked to the rise in bills trying to limit access to trans healthcare and limit the rights of trans athletes and trans students to access various activities and sports in school. I see it as a very dangerous and upsetting effort to make it harder for trans people and non-binary and queer people to live,” Kobabe said.
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