“I already saw this movie, and if we don’t stop it in time, it ends ugly,” says Bruno Bimbi, author of The end of the closet one of the 32 LGTBI-themed books delivered by the Castellón city council to 11 public institutes and a socio-educational center in the city, and that the Contentious-Administrative Court number 1 has agreed to withdraw very cautiously at the request of Christian Lawyers. This association sees in the municipal initiative a “violation of several fundamental rights, such as that of parents to decide the education of their children, ideological and religious freedom and the obligation of the administration to be objective and neutral.”
“Ten years ago, in Brazil, I saw Bolsonaro defending the parental pin and the same arguments now used by Christian Lawyers; some time later, the mayor of Rio de Janeiro sent the police to invade the Book Biennial to seize publications for the cover of a gay kiss: they were books, although it seemed that they were looking for explosives, ”lamented Bimbi, one of the voices that heard this Monday at the act in defense of tolerance and diversity convened at the Castellón book fair, after meeting the aforementioned car last Friday.
Complicity was breathed in the meeting and the unity of the affected authors, bookstores and booksellers, publishers, educational centers, LGTBI groups, third sector entities, citizens, the general direction of Equality in Diversity … present the Vice President of the Generalitat and Minister for Equality and Inclusive Policies, Mónica Oltra, and the Councilor for Culture of Castellón, Verònica Ruiz, both from Compromís. For Oltra, what happened in Castellón “is not only an attack on thirty books or the LGTBI group: it is a general assault.” “It is an attack on freedom of expression and the society we are building,” added the booksellers.
Other censored titles are: What if it were us?, Pride, Free yourself, Transfeminism or barbarism, Leia, Rihann & Trump, LGBTi Claus Bàsiques … At the moment, all are still available in the municipal and regional libraries. The consistory of the capital of Castellón has three days to file allegations against the order to withdraw them from the institutes.
“This moment is a test, a test ”, has warned Bimbi. Cristian Carrer, co-author of LGBTi Claus BàsiquesHe added: “I appreciate the support of the public. We have to be firm and give a message of unity. This act is a cry for freedom of expression. This kidnapping of education and culture is unacceptable ”. The author has regretted that the ruling prevents the educational centers that have been the object of the veto from having “a tool to address gender-based bullying, which is one of the aspects addressed in the book.” It also deprives “a gay boy who suffers homophobia at school” of the empowerment to tell his reality.
From the LGTBI collective Lambda, its general coordinator, Fran Fernández, has assured that the damage generated “is that it has given wings to the extreme right and homophobia, to those who believe that sexual diversity is something to combat; We have spent decades advising schools on these issues, it is something present in the classrooms, so this car does not make sense ”.
“Fascisms always start the same. They do not do it in death camps or gas chambers, but in stories like this one ”, Oltra had an impact. The counselor has pointed out that the position of Christian Lawyers it is “an attack on democracy and the law” and recalls that this endorses the presence in the public libraries of the Valencian Community of collections of books that defend sexual, family and gender diversity “for the promotion of an inclusive society”.
The Consistory delivered the books last Wednesday to the libraries of the educational centers, divided by ages between 12 and 17 years, but most of them had not yet been placed and, therefore, they were kept in the boxes in which they had been transported. They will remain there as long as the judge does not revoke the measure.
The councilor, Verónica Ruiz, has endorsed the selection criteria made by the technical staff of Culture when acquiring the lots. The director of the Municipal Library, Joan Carles Usó, has put them back on the table today: “The purchase was chosen based on novelty criteria, following library reports and literary criticisms.” Criticisms that, Usó has said, described, among other issues, Bruno Bimbi’s book as “necessary”, for example.
The president of the Generalitat, Ximo Puig, has also come out of the controversy after the first reaction last Sunday from the mayor of Castellón, the also socialist Amparo Marco, who governs with Compromís. The first mayor answered the journalists that she would ask the councilor for explanations of what happened to collect all the information in a conversation that took place this Monday, as explained by Ruiz. Puig, for his part, has regretted the judge’s decision because “there can be no freedom or equality if diversity is not attended to” and in that sense he has pointed out that “society in school must also express itself with diversity.” Puig has stressed, from “respect” to judicial decisions that “diversity is part of freedom in an absolutely radical way.”
The Associació d’Editorials del País Valencià (AEPV) has also expressed its “absolute rejection” of the very precautionary measure requested by the Christian Lawyers Association and the decision to withdraw the books.
#authors #LGTBI #books #censored #Castellón #warn #moment #test