{"id":397699,"date":"2025-09-04T16:32:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-04T16:32:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/397699\/"},"modified":"2025-09-04T16:32:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T16:32:11","slug":"national-library-readmits-gender-critical-book-to-centenary-exhibition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/397699\/","title":{"rendered":"National Library readmits gender-critical book to centenary exhibition"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n It charts a five-year campaign opposing\u00a0Nicola Sturgeon<\/a>\u2019s bid to reform Scotland’s gender recognition laws to allow so-called\u00a0self-ID law.\n<\/p>\n

\n The book received four public nominations for the National Library of Scotland\u2019s Dear Library exhibition, twice the number usually needed to guarantee inclusion in the 200-title display, which opened in June to mark the library\u2019s centenary.\n<\/p>\n

\n However, it was removed\u00a0from the Library’s\u00a0centenary exhibition\u00a0following staff complaints.\n<\/p>\n

\n READ MORE:<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n

\n Documents released under\u00a0Freedom of Information<\/a>\u00a0revealed the library\u2019s LGBT+ staff network raised concerns at a meeting with managers on May 7, later warning that the book carried \u201csignificant risks\u201d to relationships with authors and stakeholders and could cause \u201csevere harm\u201d to staff.\n<\/p>\n

\n They claimed\u00a0it promoted \u201chate speech\u201d comparable to racism.\n<\/p>\n

\n Following the\u00a0decision to remove the book\u00a0from its centenary exhibition,\u00a0the Library was warned it could face thousands of legal claims, potentially costing millions.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n Human-rights charity Sex Matters accused the Library of unlawful discrimination and harassment under the Equality Act 2010 for excluding The Women Who Wouldn\u2019t Wheesht from its Dear Library display.\n<\/p>\n

\n The charity said the decision \u201ccreates a hostile environment for gender-critical staff\u201d and \u201cdiscriminates against members of the public who share those beliefs\u201d.\n<\/p>\n

\n \"NLSNLS is celebrating its 100th year (Image: National Library of Scotland) Now, The National Library of Scotland has confirmed that it will\u00a0add \u2018The Women Who Wouldn\u2019t Wheesht\u2019 to its \u2018Dear Library\u2019 exhibition in Edinburgh<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

\n The Library said it “has spent the past few weeks exploring options to address the matter”.\n<\/p>\n

\n It confirmed that a meeting was held between the National Librarian, the Chair of the Board, and the book\u2019s editors\u00a0on Wednesday.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n “At yesterday\u2019s meeting, the National Librarian and Chair of the Board heard the editors\u2019 concerns and apologised for not consulting them in the decision making. The Library also had further conversations with staff and other exhibition stakeholders”, the library said.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n National Librarian Amina Shah said: \u201cThe Library\u2019s collections span centuries, and we can use these to explore some of the most pressing issues of our time.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe aspire to bring people together, and encourage respectful and constructive conversation. We will always be inclusive, and we will always welcome everyone to the Library.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n The Library also confirmed that it will work with the book\u2019s editors and other exhibition stakeholders \u00a3to ensure that the book\u2019s placement in the exhibition is constructive and inclusive”.\n<\/p>\n

\n “The Library will place the book on the exhibition shelves by the end of the week”, it added.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It charts a five-year campaign opposing\u00a0Nicola Sturgeon\u2019s bid to reform Scotland’s gender recognition laws to allow so-called\u00a0self-ID law.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":341116,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8816],"tags":[748,1102,4884,712,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-397699","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edinburgh","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-edinburgh","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-scotland","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115146990757852568","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=397699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397699\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/341116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=397699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=397699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=397699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}